Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 8:1 | Of the thinges which we haue spoken, this is the pyth: We haue soch an hye prest, that is set on ye righte hande of the seate of maiestie in heaue: |
| 8:2 | and is a mynister of holy thinges, and of the true Tabernacle, which God pitched, & not man. |
| 8:3 | For euery hye prest is ordened to offre giftes and sacrifices: Wherfore it is of necessite, yt this man haue somwhat also to offer. |
| 8:4 | For he were not a prest, yf he were vpon earth, where are prestes yt acordynge to the lawe |
| 8:5 | offer giftes (which prestes serue vnto the ensample and shadowe of heauely thinges, euen as the answere of God was geuen vnto Moses, whan he was aboute to fynish the Tabernacle: Take hede (sayde he) that thou make all thinges acordinge to the patrone sh |
| 8:6 | But now hath he optayned a more excellent office, in as moch as he is the mediatour of a better Testament, which was made for better promyses. |
| 8:7 | For yf that first (Testament) had bene fautles, then shulde no place haue bene soughte for the secode. |
| 8:8 | For in rebukynge the he sayeth: Beholde, the dayes wyll come (sayeth the LORDE) that I wyl fynish vpo the house of Israel, and vpon the house off Iuda, |
| 8:9 | a new Testament: not as the Testament which I made with their fathers, in that daye whan I toke them by the handes, to lede them out of the londe of Egipte: for they contynued not in my Testament, and I regarded them not, sayeth the LORDE. |
| 8:10 | For this is the Testament, that I wil make wt the house of Israell after those dayes, sayeth the LORDE. I wyl geue my lawes in their mynde, and in their hertes wyl I wryte them: And I wil be their God, and they shal be my people: |
| 8:11 | and they shal not teach euery ma his neghboure, and euery man his brother, sayenge: knowe ye LORDE, for they shal knowe me from the leest to the most of them: |
| 8:12 | for I wil be mercifull ouer their vnrighteousnesses: And on their synnes & on their iniquyties wyl I not thynke enymore. |
| 8:13 | In that he sayeth: A new, he weereth out ye olde. Now yt which is worne out and waxed olde, is ready to vanish awaye |
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.