Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | It chaused, in the xxx. yeare the fifth daye off the fourth Moneth, that I was amonge the presoners by the ryuer off Cobar: where the heauens opened, & I sawe a vision of God. |
| 1:2 | Now the fifth daye off the Moneth made out the fyfth yeare off kynge Ioachims captiuyte. |
| 1:3 | At the same tyme came ye worde off the LORDE vnto Ezechiel the sonne off Buzi prest, in the londe off the Caldees by the water of Cobar, where the honde off the LORDE came vpo him. |
| 1:4 | And I loked: & beholde, a stormy wynde came out off the north with a greate cloude full of fyre, which wt his glistre lightened all rounde aboute. And in ye myddest off the fyre it was all cleare, |
| 1:5 | and as it were the licknesse of foure beastes, which were fashioned like a man: sauynge, |
| 1:6 | that euery one had foure faces and foure wynges. |
| 1:7 | Their legges were straight, but their fete were like bullockes fete, and they glistred, as it had bene fayre scoured metall. |
| 1:8 | Vnder their wynges vpon all the foure corners, they had mens hondes. Their faces and their wynges were towarde the foure corners: |
| 1:9 | yet were the wynges so, that one euer touched another. When they wente, they turned them not aboute: but ech one wente straight forwarde. |
| 1:10 | Vpon the rightside off these foure, their faces were like the face off a man and the fa off a Lyon: But vpon the leftside, they had the face off an oxe and the face off an Aegle. |
| 1:11 | Their faces also and their wynges were spred out aboue: so that two wynges off one touched euer two wynges off another, and with the other two they couered their bodie. |
| 1:12 | Euery one when it wente, it wente straight forwarde. Where as the sprete led them, thither they wente, and turned not aboute in their goynge. |
| 1:13 | The fashion and countenauce of the beestes was like hote coales off fyre, euen as though burnynge cresshettes had bene amonge the beestes: and the fyre gaue a glistre, and out off the fyre there wente lighteninge. |
| 1:14 | Whe ye beestes wete forwarde & backwarde, one wolde haue thought it had lightened. |
| 1:15 | Now whe I had well considered the beestes, I sawe a worke off wheles vpon the earth with foure faces also like the beestes. |
| 1:16 | The fashion & worke of the wheles was like the see. The foure wheles were ioyned and made (to loke vpon) as it had bene one whele in another. |
| 1:17 | When one wente forwarde, they wente all foure, and turned the not aboute i their goinge. |
| 1:18 | They were large, greate and horrible to loke vpon. Their bodies were full off eyes rounde aboute them all foure. Whe the beestes wete, the wheles wente also with them: |
| 1:19 | And when the beestes lift them selues vp from ye earth, the wheles were lift vp also. |
| 1:20 | Whyther so euer the sprete wente, thither wente they also, & ye wheles were lift vp & folowed the. for ye sprete of life was in the wheles. |
| 1:21 | When ye beestes wete forth, stode still, or lift themselues vp from the earth: then the wheles also wente, stode still, & were lift vp, for ye breth off life was in the wheles. |
| 1:22 | Aboue ouer ye heades of the beestes there was a firmament, which was fashioned as it had bene off the most pure Christall, & that was spred out aboue vpon their heades: |
| 1:23 | vnder the same firmament were their wynges layed abrode, one towarde another, and two wynges couered the body of euery beest. |
| 1:24 | And when thy wente forth, I herde the noyse off their wynges, like the noyse of greate waters, as it had bene the voyce off the greate God, and a russhinge together as it were off an hoost off men. And when they stode still, they let downe their |
| 1:25 | Now when they stode still, and had letten downe their wynges, it thondred in the firmament, that was aboue their heades. |
| 1:26 | Aboue the firmament that was ouer their heades, there was the fashion off a seate, as it had bene made off Saphir. Apon the seate there sat one like a ma. |
| 1:27 | I behelde him, and he was like a cleare light, as it had bene all of fyre with in from his loynes vpwarde. And beneth when I loked vpon him vnder ye loynes, me thought he was like a shyninge fyre, that geueth light on euery syde. Yee the shyne and glistre yt lightened rounde aboute, |
| 1:28 | was like a raynbowe, which in a raynie daye apeareth in the cloudes. Eue so was the similitude, wherin the glory off the LORDE apeared. Whe I sawe it, I fell vpon my face, and herkened vnto the voyce off him, that spake. |
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.