Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 6:1 | Morouer I turned me, liftynge vp myne eyes, & loked: & beholde, there came iiij. charettes out fro betwixte two hilles, which hilles were of brasse: |
| 6:2 | In the first charet were reade horse, In the secode charet were blacke horse, |
| 6:3 | In ye thirde charet were whyte horse, In ye fourth charet were horses of dyuerse colours, & stronge. |
| 6:4 | Then spake I, and sayde vnto the angel that talked with me: O lorde, what are these? |
| 6:5 | The angel answered, & sayde vnto me: These are the iiij. wyndes of the heauen, which be come forth to stode before the ruler of all ye earth. |
| 6:6 | That with the blacke horse wente in to the londe of the north, & the whyte folowed the, and the sprekled horses wente forth towarde the south. |
| 6:7 | These horses were very stronge, & wente out: and sought to go and take their iourney ouer the whole earth. And he sayde: get you hence, and go thorow the worlde. So they wete thorow out the worlde. |
| 6:8 | Then cried he vpon me, and spake vnto me, sayenge: Beholde, these that go towarde ye north, shal still my wrath in the north countre. |
| 6:9 | And the worde of the LORDE came vnto me, sayenge: |
| 6:10 | Take of the presoners that are come from Babilon: namely, Heldai, Tobias and Idaia: & come thou the same daye, and go into the house of Iosias the sonne of Sophony. |
| 6:11 | Then take golde and syluer, and make crownes therof, and set them vpon the heade of Iesua the sonne of Iosedec, the hie prest, |
| 6:12 | and speake vnto him: Thus saieth the LORDE of hoostes: Beholde, the man whose name is the braunch: & he that shall springe vp after him, shal buylde vp the temple of the LORDE: |
| 6:13 | yee euen he shall buylde vp the temple of the LORDE. He shal beare the prayse, he shall syt vpon the LORDES trone, and haue the dominaciou. A prest shall he be also vpon his trone, & a peaceable councell shalbe betwixte them both. |
| 6:14 | And the crownes shal be in the temple of the LORDE, for a remembraunce vnto Helem, Tobias, Idaia and Hen the sonne of Sophony. And soch as be farre of, shal come and buylde the temple of the LORDE: |
| 6:15 | that ye maye knowe, how that the LORDE of hoostes hath sent me vnto you. And this shal come to passe, yf ye wil herken diligently vnto the voyce of the LORDE youre God. |
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.