Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 4:1 | After this I loked, and beholde, a dore was open in heaue, and the fyrste voyce which I harde, was as it were of a trompet talkinge with me, which sayde: come vp hydder, and I wil shewe the thinges which must be fulfylled her after. |
| 4:2 | And immediatly I was in the sprete: & beholde, a seate was set in heauen, and one sat on the seate. |
| 4:3 | And he that sat, was to loke vpon like vnto a iaspar stone, and a sardyne stone: And there was a rayne bowe aboute the seate, in syght like to a Smaragde. |
| 4:4 | And aboute the seate were xxiiij. seates. And vpon the seates xxiiij. elders syttinge clothed in whyte rayment, and had on their heades crownes of golde. |
| 4:5 | And out of ye seate proceded lightnynges, and thundrynges, & voyces, and there wer seuen lapes of fyre, burninge before the seate, which are the seuen spretes of God. |
| 4:6 | And before the seate there was a see of glasse like vnto crystall, and in the mydes off the seate, and rounde aboute the seate, were foure beastes full of eyes before and behynde. |
| 4:7 | And the first beest was like a lion, the seconde beest like a calfe, and the thyrde beest had a face as a man and the fourth beest was like a flyenge egle. |
| 4:8 | And the foure beestes had eche one off them vj. wynges aboute him, and they were full of eyes with in. And they had no rest daye nether night, sayenge: holy, holy, holy, is the LORDE God almyghty, which was, and is, and is to come. |
| 4:9 | And when those beestes gaue glory and honour and thankes to him that sat on the seate, which lyueth for euer and euer: |
| 4:10 | ye xxiiij. elders fell downe before him that sat on the trone, and worshipped him yt lyueth for euer, and cast their crounes before ye trone, sayenge: |
| 4:11 | thou art worthy LORDE to receaue glory, and honor, and power, for thou hast created all thinges, and for thy willes sake they are, and were created. |
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.