Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | Paul an Apostle of Iesu Christ by the will of God, and brother Timotheus. |
| 1:2 | To ye sayntes which are at Colossa and brethren that beleue in Christ. Grace be with you and peace from God oure father & fro the LORDE Iesus Christ. |
| 1:3 | We geue thankes vnto God and the father of oure LORDE Iesus Christ, prayenge allwayes for you |
| 1:4 | (sence we herde of youre faith in Christ Iesu, and of youre loue to all sayntes) |
| 1:5 | for ye hopes sake which is layed vp in stoare for you in heauen: of the which ye haue herde before by the worde of trueth in the Gospell, |
| 1:6 | which is come vnto you, eue as it is into all the worlde: and is frutefull, as it is in you, sence ye daye yt ye herde and knewe the grace of God in ye trueth, |
| 1:7 | as ye learned of Epaphras oure deare felowe seruaunt, which is a faithfull mynister of Christ for you, |
| 1:8 | which also declared vnto vs youre loue in the sprete. |
| 1:9 | For this cause we also, sence the daye yt we herde of it, ceasse not to praye for you, & desyre that ye mighte be fulfylled with the knowlege of his will, in all wyssdome and spirituall vnderstondinge, |
| 1:10 | that ye mighte walke worthy off the LORDE, to please him in all thinges, and to be frutefull in all good workes, and growe in the knowlege of God: |
| 1:11 | & to be strengthed wt all power acordinge to the mighte of his glory, to all pacience and longsufferynge with ioyfulnes, |
| 1:12 | and geue thankes vnto the father, which hath made vs mete for the enheritaunce of sayntes in lighte. |
| 1:13 | Which hath delyuered vs fro the power of darknesse, & translated vs in to the kyngdome of his deare sonne |
| 1:14 | ( in whom we haue redempcion thorow his bloude, namely, the forgeuenes of synnes.) |
| 1:15 | Which is the ymage of the inuisyble God, first begotte before all creatures. |
| 1:16 | For by him were all thinges created, that are in heauen and earth, thinges vysible and thinges inuysible, whether they be maiesties or lordshippes, ether rules or powers: All thinges are created by him and in him, |
| 1:17 | and he is before all thinges, and in him all thinges haue their beynge. |
| 1:18 | And he is the heade of the body, namely, of the cogregacion: he is the begynnynge and first begotten from the deed, that in all thinges he mighte haue the preemynence. |
| 1:19 | For it pleased the father, that in him shulde dwell all fulnesse, |
| 1:20 | and that by him all thinges shulde be reconciled vnto himselfe, whether they be thinges vpon earth or in heauen, that thorow the bloude on his crosse he mighte make peace euen thorow his owne selfe. |
| 1:21 | And you (which were in tymes past straungers and enemies, because youre myndes were set in euell workes) hath he now reconcyled |
| 1:22 | in the body of his flesh thorow death, to make you holy, and vnblameable & with out faute in his awne sighte, |
| 1:23 | yf ye contynue grounded and stablished in the faith, and be not moued awaye from ye hope of the Gospell, wherof ye haue herde: which is preached amonge all creatures yt are vnder heauen, wherof I Paul am made a mynister. |
| 1:24 | Now ioye I in my sufferynges, which I suffre for you, and fulfill that which is behynde of the passions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodyes sake, which is the congregacion, |
| 1:25 | wherof I am made a mynister, acordinge to ye Godly office of preachinge, which is geuen vnto me amonge you, that I shulde richely preach the worde of God, |
| 1:26 | namely, that mystery which hath bene hyd sence the worlde beganne, and sence the begynnynge of tymes: but now is opened vnto his sayntes, |
| 1:27 | to whom God wolde make knowne the glorious riches of this mistery amoge ye Heythen: which (riches) is Christ in you, eue he that is the hope of glory, |
| 1:28 | who we preach, and warne all men, and teach all men in all wyssdome, to make euery man parfecte in Christ Iesu: |
| 1:29 | Wherin I also laboure, and stryue acordinge to the workynge of him which worketh mightely in me. |
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.