Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | Pavl and Siluanus and Timotheus. To the congregacion of ye Tessalonias in God oure father and in the LORDE Iesus Christ. |
| 1:2 | Grace be with you, and peace from God oure father, and from the LORDE Iesus Christ. |
| 1:3 | We are bounde to thanke God allwayes for you brethren, as it is mete: because that youre faith groweth exceadingly, and the loue of euery one of you increaseth towarde another amoge youre selues, |
| 1:4 | so that we oure selues make oure boast of you (in the congregacions of God) of youre paciece and faith in all youre persecucions and troubles that ye suffre, |
| 1:5 | which is a token of the righteous iudgment of God, that ye are counted worthy of the kyngdome of God, for the which ye also suffre. |
| 1:6 | For it is a righteous thinge with God, to recopence tribulacion vnto the yt trouble you: |
| 1:7 | but vnto you which are troubled, rest with vs, wha the LORDE Iesus shal shewe himselfe from heauen, with the angels of his power, |
| 1:8 | and with flammynge fyre, to geue vengeauce vnto them that knowe not God, and to them that obeye not the Gospell of oure LORDE Iesus Christ. |
| 1:9 | Which shalbe punyshed with euerlastinge damnacion, from ye presence of the LORDE, and from the glory of his power, |
| 1:10 | whan he shal come to be glorified in his sayntes, and to become maruelous in all them that beleue: because ye haue beleued oure testimony vnto you of the same daye. |
| 1:11 | Wherfore we praye allwayes for you, that oure God make you worthy of ye callynge, and fulfill all delectacion of goodnes, and the worke of faith in power, |
| 1:12 | that ye name of oure LORDE Iesus Christ maye be praysed in you, and ye in him, acordinge to the grace of oure God, and of the LORDE Iesus 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.