Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 5:1 | Whan thou commest in to the house of God, kepe thy fote, and drawe nye, that thou mayest heare: that is better then the offeringes of fooles, for they knowe not what euell they do. |
| 5:2 | Be not hastie with thy mouth, & let not thine hert speake eny thige rashly before God. For God is in heauen, & thou vpon earth, therfore let thy wordes be fewe. |
| 5:3 | For where moch carefulnesse is, there are many dreames: & where many wordes are, there men maye heare fooles. |
| 5:4 | Yf thou make a vowe vnto God, be not slacke to perfourme it. As for foolish vowes, he hath no pleasure in them. |
| 5:5 | Yf thou promyse eny thinge, paye it: for better it is that thou make no vowe, then that thou shuldest promise, and not paye. |
| 5:6 | Vse not thy mouth to cause yi flesh for to synne, yt thou saye not before the angell: my foolishnesse is in ye faute. For the God wil be angrie at thy voyce, and destroye all ye workes of thine handes. |
| 5:7 | And why? where as are many dreames & many wordes, there are also dyuerse vanities: but loke yt thou feare God. |
| 5:8 | Yf thou seyst the poore to be oppressed and wrongeously dealt withall, so yt equite & the right of the lawe is wraisted in the londe: maruell not thou at soch iudgmet, for one greate ma kepeth touch with another, and the mightie helpe the selues together. |
| 5:9 | The whole londe also with the feldes and all that is therin, is in subieccion and bondage vnto ye kinge. |
| 5:10 | He that loueth money, wil neuer be satisfied with money: and who so delyteth in riches, shal haue no profit therof. Is not this also a vayne thinge? |
| 5:11 | Where as many riches are, there are many also that spende them awaye. And what pleasure more hath he that possesseth them, sauynge that he maye loke vpon them with his eyes? |
| 5:12 | A labouringe man slepeth swetely, whether it be litle or moch that he eateth: but the abundaunce of the riche wil not suffre him to slepe. |
| 5:13 | Yet is there a sore plage, which I haue sene vnder the Sonne (namely) riches kepte to the hurte of him yt hath them in possession. |
| 5:14 | For oft times they perishe with his greate misery and trouble: and yf he haue a childe, it getteth nothinge. |
| 5:15 | Like as he came naked out of his mothers wombe, so goeth he thither agayne, and carieth nothinge awaye with him of all his laboure. |
| 5:16 | This is a miserable plage, yt he shal go awaye euen as he came. What helpeth it him then, yt he hath labored in the wynde? |
| 5:17 | All the daies of his life also must he eate in the darcke, with greate carefulnesse, sicknesse & sorow. |
| 5:18 | Therfore me thinke it a better and a fayrer thinge, a man to eate and drynke, and to be refreshed of all his laboure, yt he taketh vnder the Sonne all the dayes of his life which God geueth him, for this is his porcion. |
| 5:19 | For vnto whom so euer God geueth riches, goodes and power, he geueth it him to enioye it, to take it for his porcion, and to be refreshed of his laboure: this is now the gifte of God. |
| 5:20 | For he thinketh not moch how longe he shal lyue, for so moch as God fylleth his hert with gladnesse. |
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.