Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 3:1 | My brethre, be not euery man a master, remebrynge how that we shall receaue the more damnacion: |
| 3:2 | for in many thinges we synne all. Yf a man synne not in worde, the same is a parfecte man, & able to tame all the body. |
| 3:3 | Beholde, we put bittes into the horses mouthes yt they shulde obeye vs, and we turne aboute all the body. |
| 3:4 | Beholde also ye shyppes, which though they be so gret, and are dryuen of fearce windes, yet are they turned about with a very smale helme, whither soeuer the violence of the gouerner wyll. |
| 3:5 | Euen so the toge is a lyttell member, and bosteth great thinges. Beholde how gret a thinge a lyttell fyre kyndleth, |
| 3:6 | and the tonge is fyre, and a worlde of wyckednes. So is the tonge set amonge oure membres, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth a fyre all that we haue of nature, and is it selfe set a fyre euen of hell. |
| 3:7 | All the natures of beastes, and of byrdes, and of serpentes, and thinges of the see, are meked and tamed of the nature of ma. |
| 3:8 | But the toge can no man tame. Yt is an vnruely euell full of deedly poysou. |
| 3:9 | Therwith blesse we God the father, and therwith cursse we men which are made after the similitude of God. |
| 3:10 | Out of one mouth proceadeth blessynge and cursynge. My brethre these thinges ought not so to be. |
| 3:11 | Doth a fountayne sende forth at one place swete water and bytter also? |
| 3:12 | Can the fygge tree, my Brethren, beare oliue beries: ether a vyne beare fygges? |
| 3:13 | So can no fountayne geue bothe salt water and fresshe also. If eny man be wyse and endued with learnynge amonge you, let him shewe the workes of his good couersacion in meknes that is coupled with wissdome. |
| 3:14 | But yf ye haue bitter enuyenge and stryfe in yor hertes, reioyce not: nether be lyars agaynst the trueth. |
| 3:15 | This wissdome descendeth not from aboue: but is erthy, and naturall, and dyuelishe. |
| 3:16 | For where enuyenge and stryfe is, there is vnstablenes and all maner of euell workes. |
| 3:17 | But the wissdom that is fro aboue, is fyrst pure, the peasable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good frutes, without iudgynge, and without simulacion: |
| 3:18 | yee, and the frute of rightewesnes is sowen in peace, of the that mayntene peace. |
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.