Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 25:1 | Now whan Festus was come in to the countre, ouer thre dayes he wente vp from Cesarea to Ierusalem. |
| 25:2 | Then appeared the hye prestes and the chefe of the Iewes before him agaynst Paul, and intreated him, |
| 25:3 | and desyred fauoure agaynst him, that he wolde sende for him to Ierusalem, and layed wayte for him, that they might slaye him by the waye. |
| 25:4 | Then answered Festus, that Paul shulde be kepte at Cesarea, but that he himselfe wolde shortly go thither agayne. |
| 25:5 | Let them therfore (sayde he) which are able amonge you, come downe with vs to accuse the man, yf there be ought in him. |
| 25:6 | Whan he had taried amonge them more then ten dayes, he wente downe to Cesarea. And on the nexte daye he sat downe on the iudgment seate, and commaunded Paul to be broughte. |
| 25:7 | Whan he was come, ye Iewes which were come downe from Ierusalem, stode rounde aboute him, and broughte vp many and greuous quarels agaynst Paul, which they coulde not proue, |
| 25:8 | whyle he answered for himselfe: I haue nether offended ought agaynst the lawe of the Iewes, ner agaynst the teple, ner agaynst the Emperoure. |
| 25:9 | But Festus wyllinge to shewe the Iewes a pleasure, answered Paul, and sayde: Wilt thou go vp to Ierusalem, and there be iudged off these thinges before me? |
| 25:10 | But Paul sayde: I stonde at the Emperours iudgmet seate, where I ought to be iudged: to the Iewes haue I done no harme, as thou also knowest very well. |
| 25:11 | Yf I haue hurte eny man, or committed eny thinge worthy off death, I refuse not to dye. But yf there are no soch thinges as they accuse me off, then maye no man delyuer me vnto them. I appeale vnto the Emperoure. |
| 25:12 | Then spake Festus with the Councell, and answered: Thou hast appealed vnto the Emperoure, to the Emperoure shalt thou go. |
| 25:13 | After certayne dayes came kynge Agrippa and Bernice to Cesarea to welcome Festus. |
| 25:14 | And whan they had taried there many dayes, Festus rehearsed Pauls cause vnto the kynge, and sayde: There is a man left bounde of Felix, |
| 25:15 | for whose cause the hye prestes and Elders of the Iewes appeared before me whan I was at Ierusalem, and desyred a sentence agaynst him. |
| 25:16 | Vnto whom I answered: It is not the maner off the Romaynes to delyuer eny man that he shulde perishe, before that he which is accused, haue his accusers presente, and receaue libertye to answere for him selfe to the accusacion. |
| 25:17 | Wha they were come hither together, I made no delaye, but sat the nexte daye in iudgment, and commaunded the man to be broughte forth. |
| 25:18 | Of whom, whan the accusers stode vp, they broughte no accusacion of soch thinges as I supposed: |
| 25:19 | But had certayne questions agaynst him of their awne supersticions, and of one Iesus deed, whom Paul affirmed to be alyue. |
| 25:20 | Howbeit because I vnderstode not the question, I axed hi, whether he wolde go to Ierusale, and there be iudged of these matters. |
| 25:21 | But wha Paul had appealed, that he might be kepte vnto the knowlege of the Emperoure, I comaunded him to be kepte, tyll I mighte sende him to the Emperoure. |
| 25:22 | Agrippa sayde vnto Festus: I wolde fayne heare the man also. He sayde: Tomorow shalt thou heare him. |
| 25:23 | And on the nexte daye came Agrippa & Bernice with greate pompe, and wete in to the comon hall with the captaynes & chefe me of the cite. And at Festus comaundement, Paul was brought forth. |
| 25:24 | And Festus sayde: Kynge Agrippa, and all ye men which are here with vs, ye se this man, aboute whom all the multitude of the Iewes haue entreated me, both at Ierusale and here also, and cried, that he ought not to lyue eny lenger. |
| 25:25 | But whan I perceaued that he had done nothinge worthy off death, and that he himselfe also had appealed vnto the Emperoure, I determyned to sende him, |
| 25:26 | of who I haue no certayne thinge to wryte vnto my lorde. Therfore haue I caused hi to be broughte forth before you, specially before the (O kynge Agrippa) that after examinacion had, I might haue somwhat to wryte. |
| 25:27 | For me thynke it an vnreasonable thinge to sende a presoner, and not to shewe the causes which are layed agaynst 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.