Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | The sprete speaketh euydently, that in ye latter tymes some shal departe from the faith, and shal geue hede vnto spretes of erroure, and deuelish doctrynes, of them |
| 4:2 | which speake false thorow ypocrysie, and haue their coscience marked with an whote yron, |
| 4:3 | forbyddinge to mary, and comaundynge to abstayne fro the meates, which God hath created to be receaued wt geuynge thankes of them which beleue and knowe the trueth. |
| 4:4 | For euery creature off God is good, and nothinge to be refused, yt is receaued with thankesgeuynge: |
| 4:5 | for it is sanctifyed by the worde of God and prayer. |
| 4:6 | Yf thou shalt put the brethren in remembraunce of these thinges, thou shalt be a good mynister of Iesu Christ, which hast bene norished vp in the wordes of faith and of good doctryne, which thou hast folowed hither to. |
| 4:7 | As for vngoostly and olde wyuesh fables, cast them awaye, but exercyse thy selfe vnto godlynes. |
| 4:8 | For bodely exercyse profyteth litle, but godlynes is profytable vnto all thinges, as a thinge which hath promyses of the life that is now, and of the life for to come. |
| 4:9 | This is a sure sayenge, & of all partes worthy to be receaued. |
| 4:10 | For therfore we laboure and suffre rebuke, because we hope in the lyuynge God, which is the Sauioure of all men, but specially of those that beleue. |
| 4:11 | Soch thinges commaunde thou and teach. |
| 4:12 | Let no man despyse yi youth, but be thou vnto them that beleue, an ensample, in worde, in couersacion, in loue, in ye sprete, in faith, in purenesse. |
| 4:13 | Geue attendaunce to readynge, to exhortacion, to doctryne, vntyll I come. |
| 4:14 | Be not necligent in the gifte that is geuen the thorow prophecye, with layege on of the handes of the Elders. |
| 4:15 | These thinges exercyse, and geue thy selfe vnto them, that thine increase maye be manifest vnto euery man. |
| 4:16 | Take hede vnto thy selfe, and to learnynge, cotynue in these thinges. For yf thou so do, thou shalt saue thy selfe, and them that heare the. |
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.