Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | The sayde I thus in my hert: Now go to, I wil take myne ease & haue good dayes. But lo, that was vanite also: |
| 2:2 | in so moch that I sayde vnto laughter: thou art madd, and to myrth: what doest thou? |
| 2:3 | So I thought in my herte, to withdrawe my flesh from wyne, to applye my mynde vnto wy?dome, and to comprehede foolishnes vntill the tyme that (amonge all ye thinges which are vnder ye Sonne) I might se what were best for men to do, so longe as they lyue vnder heauen. |
| 2:4 | I made gorgious fayre workes, I buylded me houses, and planted vynyardes: |
| 2:5 | I made me ortchardes and gardens of pleasure, and planted trees in them of all maner frutes. |
| 2:6 | I made poles of water, to water ye grene and frutefull trees withall. |
| 2:7 | I bought seruauntes and maydes, and had a greate housholde. As for catell and shepe, I had more substaunce of them, then all they yt were before me in Ierusalem. |
| 2:8 | I gathered syluer & golde together, euen a treasure of kynges & londes. I prouided me syngers and wome which coude playe of instrumentes, to make men myrth and pastime. I gat me drynkynge cuppes also and glasses. |
| 2:9 | (Shortly) I was greater & in more worshipe, then all my predecessours in Ierusale. For wy?dome remayned with me: |
| 2:10 | & loke what so euer myne eyes desyred, I let them haue it: & wherin so euer my herte delyted or had eny pleasure, I with helde it not fro it. Thus my hert reioysed in all yt I dyd, and this I toke for the porcion of all my trauayle. |
| 2:11 | But whan I considered all the workes yt my handes had wrought, and all the labours that I had taken therin: lo, all was but vanite and vexacion of mynde, & nothinge of eny value vnder ye Sonne. |
| 2:12 | Then turned I me to considre wy?dome, erroure and foolishnesse (for what is he amonge men, that might be compared to me ye kynge in soch workes?) |
| 2:13 | and I sawe, that wy?dome excelleth foolishnesse, as farre as light doth darknesse. |
| 2:14 | For a wyse man beareth his eyes aboute in his heade, but the foole goeth in the darknesse. I perceaued also that they both had one ende. |
| 2:15 | Then thought I in my mynde: Yf it happen vnto the foole as it doth vnto me, what nedeth me then to laboure eny more for wy?dome? So I confessed within my harte, that this also was but vanite. |
| 2:16 | For the wyse are euer as litle in remembraunce as the foolish, and all the dayes for to come shalbe forgotten, yee the wyse man dyeth as well as ye foole. |
| 2:17 | Thus begane I to be weery of my life, in so moch that I coude awaye with nothinge that is done vnder the Sonne, for all was but vanite & vexacion of mynde: |
| 2:18 | Yee I was weery of all my laboure, which I had taken vnder the Sonne, because I shulde be fayne to leaue them vnto another man, that cometh after me: |
| 2:19 | for who knoweth, whether he shalbe a wyse ma or a foole? And yet shal he be lorde of all my labours, which I with soch wy?dome haue taken vnder the Sonne. Is not this a vayne thinge? |
| 2:20 | So I turned me to refrayne my mynde from all soch trauayle, as I toke vnder the Sonne: |
| 2:21 | for so moch as a man shulde weery him self with wy?dome, with vnderstondinge and opportunite, and yet be fayne to leaue his labours vnto another, yt neuer swett for them. This is also a vayne thinge and a greate misery. |
| 2:22 | For what getteth a ma of all ye labor & trauayle of his mynde, yt he taketh vnder the Sonne, |
| 2:23 | but heuynesse, sorowe & disquyetnes all ye dayes of his life? In so moch that his herte can not rest in the night. Is not this also a vayne thinge? |
| 2:24 | Is it not better then for a ma to eate and drynke, and his soule to be mery in his laboure? Yee I sawe that this also was a gifte of God: |
| 2:25 | For who maye eate, drynke, or brynge eny thige to passe without him? And why? |
| 2:26 | he geueth vnto ma, what it pleaseth him: whether it be wy?dome. vnderstondinge, or gladnesse. But vnto the synner he geueth weerynes and sorow, that he maye gather and heape together ye thinge, yt afterwarde shalbe geuen vnto him whom it pleaseth God. This is now a vayne thinge, yee a very disquietnesse and vexacio of mynde. |
Coverdale Bible 1535
The Coverdale Bible, compiled by Myles Coverdale and published in 1535, was the first complete English translation of the Bible to contain both the Old and New Testament and translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. The later editions (folio and quarto) published in 1539 were the first complete Bibles printed in England. The 1539 folio edition carried the royal license and was, therefore, the first officially approved Bible translation in English.
Tyndale never had the satisfaction of completing his English Bible; but during his imprisonment, he may have learned that a complete translation, based largely upon his own, had actually been produced. The credit for this achievement, the first complete printed English Bible, is due to Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), afterward bishop of Exeter (1551-1553).
The details of its production are obscure. Coverdale met Tyndale in Hamburg, Germany in 1529, and is said to have assisted him in the translation of the Pentateuch. His own work was done under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell, who was anxious for the publication of an English Bible; and it was no doubt forwarded by the action of Convocation, which, under Archbishop Cranmer's leading, had petitioned in 1534 for the undertaking of such a work.
Coverdale's Bible was probably printed by Froschover in Zurich, Switzerland and was published at the end of 1535, with a dedication to Henry VIII. By this time, the conditions were more favorable to a Protestant Bible than they had been in 1525. Henry had finally broken with the Pope and had committed himself to the principle of an English Bible. Coverdale's work was accordingly tolerated by authority, and when the second edition of it appeared in 1537 (printed by an English printer, Nycolson of Southwark), it bore on its title-page the words, "Set forth with the King's most gracious license." In licensing Coverdale's translation, King Henry probably did not know how far he was sanctioning the work of Tyndale, which he had previously condemned.
In the New Testament, in particular, Tyndale's version is the basis of Coverdale's, and to a somewhat less extent this is also the case in the Pentateuch and Jonah; but Coverdale revised the work of his predecessor with the help of the Zurich German Bible of Zwingli and others (1524-1529), a Latin version by Pagninus, the Vulgate, and Luther. In his preface, he explicitly disclaims originality as a translator, and there is no sign that he made any noticeable use of the Greek and Hebrew; but he used the available Latin, German, and English versions with judgment. In the parts of the Old Testament which Tyndale had not published he appears to have translated mainly from the Zurich Bible. [Coverdale's Bible of 1535 was reprinted by Bagster, 1838.]
In one respect Coverdale's Bible was groundbreaking, namely, in the arrangement of the books of the. It is to Tyndale's example, no doubt, that the action of Coverdale is due. His Bible is divided into six parts -- (1) Pentateuch; (2) Joshua -- Esther; (3) Job -- "Solomon's Balettes" (i.e. Canticles); (4) Prophets; (5) "Apocrypha, the books and treatises which among the fathers of old are not reckoned to be of like authority with the other books of the Bible, neither are they found in the canon of the Hebrew"; (6) the New Testament. This represents the view generally taken by the Reformers, both in Germany and in England, and so far as concerns the English Bible, Coverdale's example was decisive.