Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | The heuy burthen which the LORDE sheweth agaynst Israel by Malachy. |
| 1:2 | I haue loued you, sayeth ye LORDE: ad yet ye saye: wherin hast thou loued vs? Was not Esau Iacobs brother, sayeth the LORDE? yet haue I loued Iacob, |
| 1:3 | and hated Esau: Yee I haue made his hilles waist, and his heretage a wyldernesse for dragos. |
| 1:4 | And though Edom sayde: well, we are destroyed, we wil go buylde vp agayne the places that be waisted: yet (sayeth ye LORDE of hoostes) what they buylded, that brake I downe: so that it was called a cursed londe, and a people, whom the LORDE hath euer bene angrie withall. |
| 1:5 | Youre eyes haue sene it, ad ye youre selues must confesse, that ye LORDE hath brought the londe of Israel to greate honoure. |
| 1:6 | Shulde not a sonne honoure his father, and a seruaut his master? Yf I be now a father, where is myne honoure? Yf I be the LORDE, where am I feared? sayeth the LORDE of hoostes. Now to you prestes, that despise my name. And yf ye saye: wherin haue we despised thy name? |
| 1:7 | In this, that ye offre vnclene bred vpo myne aulter. And yf ye wil saye: wherin haue we offred eny vnclene thynge vnto the? In this that ye saye: the aulter of the LORDE is not to be regarded. |
| 1:8 | Yf ye offre ye blynde, is not yt euell? And yf ye offre the lame and sick, is not that euell? Yee offre it vnto thy prynce, shal he be cotent with the, or accepte thy personne, sayeth the LORDE of hoostes? |
| 1:9 | And now make youre prayer before God, that he maye haue mercy vpon vs: for soch thinges haue ye done. Shal he regarde youre personnes (thynke ye) sayeth the LORDE of hoostes? |
| 1:10 | Yee what is he amonge you, that wil do so moch as to shut ye dores, or to kyndle ye fyre vpo myne aulter for naught? I haue no pleasure in you, sayeth the LORDE off hoostes: and as for the meatofferinge, I wil not accepte it at youre honde. |
| 1:11 | For from the rysinge vp of ye sonne vnto ye goinge downe of the same, my name is greate amonge the Gentiles: Yee in euery place shal there sacrifice be done, and a clene meatofferinge offred vp vnto my name: for my name is greate amonge the Heithe, sayeth the LORDE of hoostes. |
| 1:12 | But ye haue vnhalowed it, in that ye saye, the aulter of ye LORDE is not to be regarded, and the thinge that is set thervpon, not worthy to be eaten. |
| 1:13 | Now saye ye: It is but laboure and trauayle, and thus haue ye thought scorne at it, (sayeth the LORDE off hoostes) offerynge robbery, yee the lame and the sicke. Ye haue brought me in a meatofferynge, shulde I accepte it of youre honde, sayeth the LORDE? |
| 1:14 | Cursed be the dyssembler, which hath in his flocke one that is male, and when he maketh a vowe, offereth a spotted one vnto the LORDE. For I am a greate kynge (sayeth the LORDE of hoostes) and my name is fearfull amonge the Heithen. |
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.