Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | Dearly beleued, beleue not ye euery sprete, but proue the spretes, whether they be of God. For many false prophetes are gone out in to the worlde. |
| 4:2 | Hereby shal ye knowe the sprete of God: Euery sprete which confesseth, that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God: |
| 4:3 | And euery sprete which confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not off God. And this is that sprete of Antechrist, off whom ye haue herde, how that he shal come, and euen now allready is he in the worlde. |
| 4:4 | Litle children, ye are off God, and haue ouercome them: for greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the worlde. |
| 4:5 | They are off the worlde, therfore speake they off the worlde, and the worlde herkeneth vnto them. |
| 4:6 | We are of God, and he that knoweth God, herkeneth vnto vs: he that is not of God, heareth vs not. Here by knowe we the sprete of trueth, and ye sprete of erroure. |
| 4:7 | Dearly beloued, let vs loue one another, for loue commeth of God. And euery one yt loueth, is borne of God, and knoweth God. |
| 4:8 | He that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue. |
| 4:9 | By this appeared the loue of God to vs warde, because that God sent his onely begotten sonne in to this worlde, that we mighte lyue thorow him. |
| 4:10 | Herein is loue, not that we loued God, but that he loued vs, and sent his sonne to make agremet for oure synnes. |
| 4:11 | Dearly beloued, yf God so loued vs, we oughte also to loue one another. |
| 4:12 | No man hath sene God at eny tyme. Yf we loue one another, God dwelleth in vs, and his loue is perfecte in vs. |
| 4:13 | Hereby knowe we that we dwell in him, and he in vs, because he hath geuen vs of his sprete. |
| 4:14 | And we haue sene, & testifye that the father sent the sonne to be the Sauioure of the worlde. |
| 4:15 | Whosoeuer now confesseth yt Iesus is the sonne of God in him dwelleth God, and he in God: |
| 4:16 | and we haue knowne and beleued the loue that God hath to vs. God is loue, and he that dwelleth in loue dwelleth in God, and God in him. |
| 4:17 | Here in is the loue perfecte with vs, that we shulde haue a fre boldnesse in the daye of iudgment: for as he is, eue so are we in this worlde. |
| 4:18 | Feare is not in loue, but perfecte loue casteth out feare: for feare hath paynefulnes. He that feareth, is not perfecte in loue. |
| 4:19 | Let vs loue him, for he loued vs first. |
| 4:20 | Yf eny man saye: I loue God, & yet hateth his brother, he is a lyar. For he that loueth not his brother whom he seyth, how can he loue God, whom he seyth not? |
| 4:21 | And this comaundement haue we of him, that he which loueth God, shulde loue his brother also. |
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.