Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | There was a man of the Pharises, named Nicodemus a ruler amoge the Iewes. |
| 3:2 | The same came vnto Iesus by night, & sayde vnto hi: Master, we knowe yt thou art come a teacher fro God: for no ma can do these tokes yt thou doest, excepte God be with him. |
| 3:3 | Iesus answered, and sayde vnto him: Verely verely I saye vnto the: Excepte a man be borne a new, he can not se the kyngdome of God. |
| 3:4 | Nicodemus sayde vnto him: How can a man be borne, whan he is olde? Can he entre into his mothers wombe, and be borne agayne? |
| 3:5 | Iesus answered: Verely verely I saye vnto the: Excepte a ma be borne of water and of the sprete, he can not come in to ye kyngdome of God. |
| 3:6 | That which is borne of flesh, is flesh: & that which is borne of the sprete, is sprete. |
| 3:7 | Maruell not, that I sayde vnto ye: Ye must be borne of new. |
| 3:8 | The wynde bloweth where he wyl, and thou hearest his sounde: but thou canst not tell whece he commeth, and whither he goeth. So is euery one, that is borne of the sprete. |
| 3:9 | Nicodemus answered, and sayde vnto him: How maye these be? |
| 3:10 | Iesus answered, & sayde vnto hi: Art thou a Master in Israel, & knowest not these? |
| 3:11 | Verely I saye vnto ye: We speake that we knowe, and testifie that we haue sene, and ye receaue not oure wytnesse. |
| 3:12 | Yf ye beleue not whan I tell you of earthly thinges, how shulde ye beleue, wha I speake vnto you of heauenly thinges? |
| 3:13 | And no man ascendeth vp in to heauen, but he that is come downe from heaue, (namely) the sonne of man which is in heauen. |
| 3:14 | And like as Moses lift vp the serpent in the wyldernes, euen so must the sonne of man be lift vp, |
| 3:15 | that who so euer beleueth in him, shulde not perish, but haue euerlastinge life. |
| 3:16 | For God so loued the worlde, that he gaue his onely sonne, that who so euer beleueth in hi, shulde not perishe, but haue euerlastinge life. |
| 3:17 | For God sent not his sonne in to ye worlde to condempne the worlde, but that the worlde might be saued by him. |
| 3:18 | He that beleueth on him, shal not be codemned. But he that beleueth not, is codemned allready: because he beleueth not on the name of the onely sonne of God. |
| 3:19 | But this is ye codempnacion, that the light is come in to the worlde, and men loued the darknesse more the ye light: for their workes were euell. |
| 3:20 | Whosoeuer doth euell, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his dedes shulde not be reproued. |
| 3:21 | But he that doth the trueth, commeth to the light, that his workes maye be knowne: for they are done in God. |
| 3:22 | Afterwarde came Iesus & his disciples in to the lode of Iewry, and had his beynge there with them, and baptysed |
| 3:23 | Ihon baptysed also in Enon besyde Salem: for there was moch water there. And they came thither, and were baptysed: |
| 3:24 | for Iohn was not yet put in preson. |
| 3:25 | Then arose there a question amonge the disciples of Ihon with the Iewes aboute the purifienge, |
| 3:26 | and they came vnto Ihon, and sayde vnto him: Master, he yt was with the beyonde Iordan, of whom thou barest wytnesse, beholde, he baptyseth, and euery man cometh vnto him. |
| 3:27 | Ihon answered and sayde: A man can receaue nothinge, excepte it be geuen him from heaue. |
| 3:28 | Ye youreselues are my witnesses, how that I sayde, I am not Christ, but am sent before him. |
| 3:29 | He that hath the bryde, is the brydegrome: but the frende of the brydegrome stondeth, and herkeneth vnto him, and reioyseth greatly ouer the voyce of the brydegrome, this same ioye of myne is now fulfilled. |
| 3:30 | He must increace, but I must decreace. |
| 3:31 | He that commeth from an hye, is aboue all. He that is of the earth, is earthly, and speaketh of the earth. He that commeth fro heauen, is aboue all, |
| 3:32 | and testifieth what he hath sene & herde, and no man receaueth his wytnesse. |
| 3:33 | But he that receaueth it, hath set to his seale, that God is true. |
| 3:34 | For he who God hath sent, speaketh ye wordes of God: for God geueth not the sprete (vnto him) by measure. |
| 3:35 | The father loueth the sonne, and hath geuen him all thinges in to his hande. |
| 3:36 | He that beleueth on the sonne, hath euerlastinge life: he that beleueth not the sonne, shal not se the life, but ye wrath of God abydeth vpon him. |
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.