Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | So I turned me, and considered all the violent wronge that is done vnder the Sonne: and beholde, the teares of soch as were oppressed, and there was no man to comforte them, or that wolde delyuer and defende them from the violence of their oppressours. |
| 4:2 | Wherfore I iudged those that are deed, to be more happie then soch as be alyue: |
| 4:3 | yee him that is yet vnborne to be better at ease the they both, because he seith not the miserable workes that are done vnder the Sonne. |
| 4:4 | Agayne, I sawe that all trauayle and diligence of laboure was hated of euery man. This is also a vaine thinge, and a vexacion of mynde. |
| 4:5 | The foole foldeth his handes together, & eateth vp his owne flesh. |
| 4:6 | One handfull (saieth he) is better wt rest, the both ye handes full with labor and trauayle. |
| 4:7 | Morouer, I turned me, and beholde yet another vanite vnder the Sonne. |
| 4:8 | There is one man, no mo but himself alone, hauynge nether childe ner brother: yet is there no ende of his carefull trauayle, his eyes can not be satisfied with riches, (yet doth he not remembre himself, & saye:) For whom do I take soch trauayle? For whose pleasure do I thus consume awaye my lyfe? This is also a vayne and miserable thinge. |
| 4:9 | Therfore two are better then one, for they maye well enioye the profit of their laboure. |
| 4:10 | Yf one of them fall, his companyon helpeth him vp againe: But wo is him that is alone, for yf he fall, he hath not another to helpe him vp. |
| 4:11 | Agayne, when two slepe together, they are warme: but how can a body be warme alone? |
| 4:12 | One maye be ouercome, but two maye make resistauce: A thre folde cable is not lightly broken. |
| 4:13 | A poore childe beynge wyse, is better then an olde kinge, that doteth, and can not bewarre in tyme to come. |
| 4:14 | Some one commeth out of preson, & is made a kynge: & another which is borne in the kyngdome, commeth vnto pouerte. |
| 4:15 | And I perceaued, yt all men lyuynge vnder the Sonne, go wt the seconde childe, that commeth vp in the steade of the other. |
| 4:16 | As for the people that haue bene before him, and that come after him, they are innumerable: yet is not their ioye the greater thorow him. This is also a vayne thinge and a vexacion 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.