Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 46:1 | Neuertheles Bel shal fall, & Nabo shalbe broken: whose ymages are a burthe for the beastes and catell, to ouerlade the, and to make them weery. |
| 46:2 | They shal syncke downe, and fall together: for they maye not ease them of their burthen, therfore must they go in to captiuyte. |
| 46:3 | Herken vnto me, o house of Iacob, and all ye that remayne yet of the housholde of Israel: whom I haue borne from youre mothers wombe, and brought you vp from yor byrth, till ye were growen: |
| 46:4 | I I which shall beare you vnto youre last age: I haue made you, I will also norish you, beare you and saue you. |
| 46:5 | Whom will ye make me like, in fashion or ymage, that I maye be like him? |
| 46:6 | Ye fooles (no doute) wil take out syluer and golde out of youre purses, and weye it, and hyre a goldsmyth to make a god of it, that men maye knele downe and worshipe it. |
| 46:7 | Yet must he be taken on mens shulders and borne, and set in his place, that he maye stonde and not moue. Alas that men shulde crie vnto him, which geueth no answere: and delyuereth not the man that calleth vpon him, from his trouble. |
| 46:8 | Considre this well, and be ashamed, Go in to youre owne selues (O ye runnagates). |
| 46:9 | Remembre the thinges which are past, sence the begynnynge of the worlde: that I am God, and that there is els no God, yee and yt there is nothinge like vnto me. |
| 46:10 | In the begynnynge of a thinge, I shewe the ende therof: and I tel before, thinges that are not yet come to passe. With one worde is my deuyce accomplished, & fulfilleth all my pleasure. |
| 46:11 | I call a byrde out of the east, and all that I take in honde, out of farre countrees. As soone as I commaunde, I bringe it hither: as soone as I thinke to deuyse a thinge, I do it. |
| 46:12 | Heare me, o ye that are of an hie stomack, but farre from rightuousnesse. |
| 46:13 | I shal bringe forth my rightuousnesse, It is not farre, and my health shal not tarie longe awaye. I wil laye health in Sio, and geue Israel my glory. |
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.