Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 2:1 | And I brethre, wha I came vnto you came not wt hye wordes or hye wyssdome, to shewe vnto you the preachinge of Christ. |
| 2:2 | For I shewed not forth my selfe amonge you that I knewe eny thinge, saue onely Iesus Christ, euen the sam thate was crucified. |
| 2:3 | And I was amonge you in weaknes, and in feare, and in moch tremblinge: |
| 2:4 | and my worde and my preachinge was not with entysinge wordes of mans wyssdome, but in shewinge of the sprete and of power: |
| 2:5 | that youre faith shulde not stonde in the wyssdome of men, but in the power of God. |
| 2:6 | That we speake of, is wyssdome amonge the yt are perfecte: not ye wyssdome of this worlde, nether of the rulers of this worlde which go to naughte: |
| 2:7 | but we speake of the wyssdome of God, which is in secrete and lyeth hyd: which God ordeyned before the worlde vnto oure glorye: |
| 2:8 | which none of ye rulers of this worlde knewe. For yf they had knowne it, they had not crucified the LORDE of glorye, |
| 2:9 | but as it is wrytten: The eye hath not sene, and the eare hath not herde, nether hath it entred in to the hert of man that God hath prepared for them that loue him. |
| 2:10 | But God hath opened it vnto vs by his sprete. For the sprete searcheth out all thinges, yee euen the depenesses of the God heade. |
| 2:11 | For what ma knoweth what is in man, saue the sprete of ma which is in him? Euen so no man knoweth what is in God, saue ye sprete of God. |
| 2:12 | As for vs, we haue not receaued the sprete of this worlde, but the sprete which cometh of God, so that we ca knowe what is geue vs of God: |
| 2:13 | which we also speake, not with connynge wordes of mas wyssdome, but with the conynge wordes of the holy goost, and iudge spirituall matters spiritually. |
| 2:14 | Howbeit the naturall man perceaueth nothinge of ye sprete of God. It is foolishnes vnto him, and he can not perceaue it: for it must be spiritually discerned. |
| 2:15 | But he that is spirituall, discusseth all thinges, and he is iudged of no man. |
| 2:16 | For who hath knowne ye mynde of the LORDE? Or who shal enfourme him? But we haue the mynde of Christ. |
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.