Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 9:1 | He cried also with a loude voyce in myne eares, sayenge: Come here ye rulers of the cite, euery man with his weapened honde to the slaughter. |
| 9:2 | Then came there sixe men out of the strete of the vpper porte towarde the north, and euery man a weapen in his honde to the slaughter. There was one amongst them, that had on him a lynninge rayment, and a wryters ynckhorne by his syde. These wente in, and stode beside the brasen aulter: |
| 9:3 | for the glory of the LORDE was gone awaye from the Cherub, and was come downe to the thresholde of the house, & he called the ma, that had the lynnynge rayment vpon him, and the writers ynckhorne by his syde, |
| 9:4 | and the LORDE sayde vnto him: Go thy waye thorow the cite of Ierusalem, and set this marck Hebrew: t Thau vpo the foreheades of them, that mourne, and are sory for all the abhominacions, that be done therin. |
| 9:5 | And to the other, he sayde that I might heare: Go ye after him thorow the cite, slaye, ouersee none, spare none: |
| 9:6 | Kyll, & destroye both olde men and yonge, maydens, children, and wyues. But as for those, that haue this marck Hebrew: t Thau vpo them: se that ye touch them not, and begynne at my Sanctuary. Then they begane at the elders, which were in the Temple, |
| 9:7 | for he had sayde vnto them: When ye haue defyled the Temple, and fylled the courte with the slayne, then go youre waye forth. So they wete out and slewe downe thorow ye cite. |
| 9:8 | Now when they had done ye slaughter, & I yet escaped: I fell downe vpon my face, & cried, sayenge: O LORDE, wilt thou then destroye all the resydue of Israel, in thy sore displeasure, that thou hast poured vpo Ierusalem? |
| 9:9 | Then sayde he vnto me: The wickednesse of the house of Israel and Iuda is very greate: so that the lode is full of bloude, and ye cite full of vnfaithfulnesse: For they saye: Tush, ye LORDE regardeth not the earth, he seyth vs not. |
| 9:10 | Therfore will I vpon them, myne eye shall not ouersee them, nether will I spare them, but will recompence their wickednesse vpon their heades. |
| 9:11 | And beholde, the ma that had the lynnynge rayment vpon him, and the writers, ynckhorne by his syde: tolde all the matter how it happened, and sayde: LORDE, as thou hast commaunded me, so haue I done. |
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.