Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 14:1 | Samson wente downe vnto Thimnath, & there he sawe a woman amoge the doughters of ye Philistynes. |
| 14:2 | And whan he came vp, he tolde his father & his mother, & sayde: I haue sene a woman amoge the doughters of the Philistynes, I praye you geue me the same to wife. |
| 14:3 | His father & his mother sayde vnto him: Is there not a woman amonge the doughters of yi brethren, & in all yi people, but thou must go & take a wife amoge the Philistynes, which are vncircumcised? Samson sayde vnto his father: Geue me this woma, for she pleaseth myne eyes. |
| 14:4 | But his father & his mother knewe not yt it came of the LORDE, & that he soughte an occasion agaynst the Philistynes. For the Philistynes reigned ouer Israel at ye same tyme. |
| 14:5 | So Samson wente downe with his father and with his mother vnto Thimnath. And whan they came to the vynyardes of Thimnath, beholde, there came a yonge rearinge lyon against him. |
| 14:6 | And the sprete of the LORDE came vpon him, and he rente him in peces, euen as a kydd is parted a sunder, and yet had he nothinge at all in his hade, and he tolde it not vnto his father & his mother. |
| 14:7 | Now whan he came downe, he spake wt the woman, and she pleased Samsons eyes. |
| 14:8 | And after certayne dayes he came agayne, to receaue her, & wente out of ye waye, that he mighte se ye deed carcas of the lyon: and beholde, in ye lyons carcas there was a swarme of beyes, and hony: |
| 14:9 | and he toke of it in his hande, and ate therof by the waye: and wete vnto his father and to his mother, and gaue them to eate also. But he tolde them not, that he had taken the hony out of the lyons carcas. |
| 14:10 | And whan his father came downe to the woman, Samson made a feast there, as the yonge men vsed to do. |
| 14:11 | And whan they sawe him, they gaue him thirtie companyons to be with him. |
| 14:12 | Samson sayde vnto them: I wil expresse a darke sentence vnto you, yf ye expounde me the same with in these seuen dayes of the feast, I wyll geue you thirtye shertes, and thirtie chaunge of raymente. |
| 14:13 | But yf ye can not expounde it, then shall ye geue me thirtie shertes, & thirtie chaunge of rayment. And they sayde vnto him: Shewe forth thy ryddle, let vs heare it. |
| 14:14 | He sayde vnto them: Meate wente out from the deuourer, and swetenesse from the mightie. And in thre dayes they coulde not expounde the ryddle. |
| 14:15 | Vpon the seuenth daye they sayde vnto Samsons wife: Persuade thy husbade, that he tell vs what the ryddle meaneth, or els we shal burne the and thy fathers house with fyre. Haue ye called vs hither, to brynge vs to pouerte? |
| 14:16 | Then wepte Samsons wife before him, and sayde: Thou art displeased at me, and louest me not: thou hast expressed a darke sentence vnto the children of my people, and hast not tolde it me. But he sayde vnto her: Beholde, I haue not tolde it vnto my father and mother, and shulde I tell it the? |
| 14:17 | And she wepte before him those seuen dayes, whyle they had ye feast. But on the seueth daye he tolde it her, for she was so importune vpon him. And she expounded the darke sentence vnto the children of her people. |
| 14:18 | Then sayde the men of the cite vnto him vpon the seuenth daye oreuer the Sonne wente downe: What is sweter then hony? What is strouger then the lyon? But he sayde vnto the: Yf ye had not plowed wt my calfe, ye shulde not haue founde out my ryddle. |
| 14:19 | And the sprete of ye LORDE came vpon him, and he wente downe vnto Ascalon, and slewe thirtie men of them, & toke their spoyles, and gaue chaunge of rayment vnto the, yt had expounded the ryddle. And he was wrothfully displeased, & wente vp vnto his fathers house. |
| 14:20 | As for Samsons wife, she was geuen vnto one of his companyons, which belonged vnto him. |
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.