Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | For this cause I Paul am a presoner of Iesus Christ for you Heythen, |
| 3:2 | acordinge as ye haue herde of ye office of the grace of God which is geuen me to you warde. |
| 3:3 | For by reuelacion was this mystery shewed vnto me, as I wrote aboue in fewe wordes: |
| 3:4 | wherby whan ye rede it, ye maye perceaue myne vnderstondynge in ye mystery of Christ, |
| 3:5 | which (mystery) in tymes past was not opened vnto the childre of me as it is now declared to his holy Apostles and prophetes by the sprete: namely, |
| 3:6 | that the Heythen shulde be inheritours also, and of the same body, and partakers of his promes in Christ by the Gospell, |
| 3:7 | wherof I am made a mynister acordynge to the gifte of the grace of God, which is geue me acordinge to the workynge of his power. |
| 3:8 | Vnto me the leest of all sayntes is this grace geuen, that I shulde preach amonge the Heythe ye vnsearcheable riches of Christ, |
| 3:9 | and to make all men se, what is the fellishippe of the mystery, which fro the begynnynge of the worlde hath bene hyd in God, which made all thiges thorow Iesus Christ: |
| 3:10 | to the intent that now vnto the rulers and powers in heaue mighte be knowne by the congregacion the manifolde wyssdome off God, |
| 3:11 | acordinge to ye eternall purpose, which he hath shewed in Christ Iesu oure LORDE |
| 3:12 | by whom we haue boldnesse and intraunce in all confidece thorow faith on him. |
| 3:13 | Wherfore I desyre that ye faynte not because of my tribulacions, yt I suffre for you, which is youre prayse. |
| 3:14 | For this cause I bowe my knees vnto the father of oure LORDE Iesus Christ, |
| 3:15 | which is the true father, ouer all that is called father in heauen and in earth, |
| 3:16 | that he graunte you (acordinge to ye riches of his glory) to be strengthed with power by his sprete in ye inwarde ma, |
| 3:17 | that Christ maye dwell in youre hertes by faith, that ye beynge roted and grounded in loue, |
| 3:18 | maye be able to coprehende with all sayntes, what is the bredth, and the length, and the deepth, and the heyth: |
| 3:19 | and to knowe the loue of Christ, which loue yet passeth all knowlege: that ye maye be fylled with all maner of fulnesse of God. |
| 3:20 | Vnto him that is able to do exceadinge abundauntly, aboue all that we axe or vnderstonde (acordinge to ye power that worketh in vs) |
| 3:21 | be prayse in the congregacion, which is in Christ Iesu, at all tymes for euer and euer, Amen. |
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.