Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 1:1 | Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ acordinge to the commaundement of God oure Sauioure, and of the LORDE Iesus Christ, which is oure hope. |
| 1:2 | Vnto Timothy my naturall sonne in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God oure father, and oure LORDE Iesus Christ. |
| 1:3 | As I besoughte ye to abyde still at Ephesus ( whan I departed in to Macedonia) eue so do, that thou commaunde some, that they teach none other wyse, |
| 1:4 | nether geue hede to fables and genealogies, which are endlesse, and brede doutes more then godly edifyenge, which is by faith. |
| 1:5 | For ye chefe summe of the commaundement is loue of a pure hert, and of a good coscience, and of faith vnfayned. |
| 1:6 | From the which some haue erred, & haue turned vnto vayne iangelynge, |
| 1:7 | wyllinge to be doctours of the scripture, and vnderstonde not what they speake, nether wherof they affirme. |
| 1:8 | But we knowe that the lawe is good, yf a man vse it laufully, |
| 1:9 | vnderstodinge this, that the lawe is not geuen vnto the righteous, but to the vnrighteous & dishobedient, to the vngodly & to synners, to the vnholy & vncleane, to murthurers of fathers and murthurers of mothers, to manslayers, |
| 1:10 | to whoremongers, to the that defyle them selues with mankynde, to menstealers, to lyars, to periured, & so forth yf there be eny other thinge yt is cotrary to ye wholsome doctryne, |
| 1:11 | acordinge to ye Gospell of ye glory of the blessed God, which (Gospell) is comytted vnto me. |
| 1:12 | And I thanke Christ Iesus or LORDE, which hath made me stroge, for he counted me faithfull, & put me in office, |
| 1:13 | wha before I was a blasphemer, & a persecuter, & a tyraunt: but I optayned mercy, because I dyd it ignorauntly in vnbeleue. |
| 1:14 | Neuertheles the grace of or LORDE was more abudaunt thorow ye faith & loue which is in Christ Iesu. |
| 1:15 | For this is a true sayenge, and by all meanes worthy to be receaued, that Christ Iesus came in to ye worlde to saue synners, of whom I am chefe. |
| 1:16 | Notwithstondynge for this cause optayned I mercy, that Iesus Christ mighte pryncipally shewe in me all longe pacience, to the ensample of them which shulde beleue in him vnto eternall life. |
| 1:17 | So then vnto God kynge euerlastinge, immortall and invisible, and wyse onely, be honoure and prayse for euer and euer Amen. |
| 1:18 | This commaundement commytte I vnto the (my sonne Timotheus) acordinge to ye prophecies which in tyme past were prophecied of the, that thou in them shuldest fighte a good fighte, |
| 1:19 | hauynge faith & good conscience, which some haue put awaye fro them, and as concernynge faith haue made shypwrake: |
| 1:20 | of whose nombre is Hymeneos and Alexander, whom I haue delyuered vnto Sathan, that they might be taught, nomore to blaspheme. |
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.