Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 9:1 | For all these thinges purposed I in my mynde to seke out. The righteus and wyse yee and their workes also are in the hande of God: and there is no man that knoweth ether the loue or hate of the thinge that he hath before him. |
| 9:2 | It happeneth vnto one as vnto another: It goeth with the rightuous as with the vngodly: with the good & cleane as with the vncleane: with him that offereth as with him that offereth not: like as it goeth with the vertuous, so goeth it also with the synner: As it happeneth vnto the periured, so happeneth it also vnto him that is afrayed to be man sworne. |
| 9:3 | Amonge all thinges yt come to passe vnder the Sonne, this is a misery, that it happeneth vnto all alyke. This is the cause also that the hertes of men are full of wickednesse, & madd foolishnesse is in their hertes as longe as they lyue, vntill they dye. |
| 9:4 | And why? As longe as a man lyueth, he is careles: for a quyck dogg (saye they) is better the a deed lion: |
| 9:5 | for they that be lyuynge, knowe yt they shall dye: but they yt be deed, knowe nothinge, nether deserue they eny more. For their memoriall is forgotte, |
| 9:6 | so yt they be nether loued, hated ner envyed: nether haue they eny more parte in ye worlde, in all yt is done vnder the Sonne. |
| 9:7 | Go thou yi waye then, eate thy bred with ioye, & drynke yi wyne wt gladnesse, for thy workes please God. |
| 9:8 | Let thy garmetes be all waye whyte, & let yi heade want no oyntmet. |
| 9:9 | Vse thy self to lyue ioyfully wt thy wife whom thou louest, all ye daies of thy life (which is but vayne) yt God hath geue the vnder the Sonne, all ye dayes of thy vanite: for yt is thy porcion in this life, of all thy labor & trauayle yt thou takest vnder the Sonne. |
| 9:10 | What so euer thou takest in hande to do, that do with all thy power: for amoge the deed (where as thou goest vnto) there is nether worke, councell, knowlege ner wy?dome. |
| 9:11 | So I turned me vnto other thinges vnder ye Sonne, and I sawe, that in runnynge, it helpeth not to be swift: in batayll, it helpeth not to be stronge: to fedynge, it helpeth not to be wyse: to riches, it helpeth not to be sutyll: to be had in fauoure, it helpeth not to be connynge: but that all lyeth in tyme & fortune. |
| 9:12 | For a man knoweth not his tyme, but like as the fyshe are take with the angle, and as the byrdes are catched wt the snare: Eue so are men taken in the perilous tyme, when it commeth sodenly vpon them. |
| 9:13 | This wi?dome haue I sene also vnder ye Sone, & me thought it a greate thinge. |
| 9:14 | There was a litle cite, & a few me within it: so there came a greate kynge & beseged it, & made greate bulworkes agaynst it. |
| 9:15 | And in the cite there was founde a poore man (but he was wyse) which wt his wy?dome delyuered the cite: yet was there no body, yt had eny respecte vnto soch a symple man. |
| 9:16 | Then sayde I: wy?dome is better then strength. Neuertheles, a symple mans wy?dome is despysed, & his wordes are not herde. |
| 9:17 | A wise mans councell that is folowed in sylence, is farre aboue the crienge of a captaine amoge fooles. |
| 9:18 | For wy?dome is better then harnesse: but one vnthrift alone destroyeth moch good. |
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.