Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | Every thinge hath a tyme, yee all that is vnder the heauen, hath is conuenient season. |
| 3:2 | There is a tyme to be borne, and a tyme to dye. There is a tyme to plate, and a tyme to plucke vp the thinge, yt is planted: |
| 3:3 | A tyme to slaye, and a tyme to make whole: A tyme to breake downe, and a tyme to buylde vp: |
| 3:4 | A tyme to wepe, and a tyme to laugh: A tyme to mourne, and a tyme to daunse: |
| 3:5 | A tyme to cast awaye stones, and a tyme to gather stones together: A tyme to enbrace, & a tyme to refrayne from enbracynge: |
| 3:6 | A tyme to wynne, and a tyme to lese: A tyme to spare, and a tyme to spende: |
| 3:7 | A tyme to cutt in peces, and a tyme to sowe together: A tyme to kepe sylece, and a tyme to speake: |
| 3:8 | A tyme to loue, & a tyme to hate: A tyme of warre, and a tyme of peace. |
| 3:9 | What hath a ma els (that doth eny thinge) but weerynesse and laboure? |
| 3:10 | For as touchinge the trauayle and carefulnesse which God hath geuen vnto me, I se that he hath geuen it them, to be exercised in it. |
| 3:11 | All this hath he ordened maruelous goodly, to euery thinge his due tyme. He hath plated ignoraunce also in the hertes of men, yt they shulde not fynde out ye grounde of his workes, which he doth from ye beginninge to ye ende. |
| 3:12 | So I perceaued, yt in these thinges there is nothinge better for a man, the to be mery & to do well so longe as he lyueth. |
| 3:13 | For all yt a man eateth & drynketh, yee what so euer a ma enioyeth of all his labor, ye same is a gift of God. |
| 3:14 | I cosidered also yt what so euer God doth, it cotinueth for euer, & yt nothinge can be put vnto it ner take from it: & yt God doth it to ye intent, yt men shulde feare him. |
| 3:15 | The thinge yt hath bene, is now: & the thinge yt is for to come, hath bene afore tyme, for God restoreth agayne the thinge that was past. |
| 3:16 | Morouer, I sawe vnder ye Sonne, vngodlynesse in the steade of iudgment, & iniquite in steade of rightuousnesse. |
| 3:17 | Then thought I in my mynde: God shal separate the rightuous from the vngodly, & then shal be the tyme & iudgmet of all councels & workes. |
| 3:18 | I comoned wt myne owne herte also cocernynge the childre of men: how God hath chosen them, and yet letteth the apeare, as though they were beastes: |
| 3:19 | for it happeneth vnto men as it doth vnto beastes, & as the one dyeth, so dyeth ye other: yee they haue both one maner of breth, so yt (in this) a man hath no preemynence aboue a beest, but all are subdued vnto vanite. |
| 3:20 | They go all vnto one place, for as they be all of dust, so shal they all turne vnto dust againe. |
| 3:21 | Who knoweth the sprete of man yt goeth vpwarde, and the breth of the beest yt goeth downe in to the earth? |
| 3:22 | Wherfore I perceaue, yt there is nothyinge better for a man, then to be ioyfull in his laboure, for that is his porcion. But who wil brynge him to se the thinge, that shal come after him? |
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.