Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
| 28:1 | It fortuned at ye same tyme, that the Philistynes gathered their hoost together to the battayll, to go agaynst Israel. And Achis sayde vnto Dauid: Thou shalt knowe, that thou and thy men shal go forth with me in the hoost. |
| 28:2 | Dauid sayde vnto Achis: Well, thou shalt se what thy seruaut shal do. Achis saide vnto Dauid: Therfore wyll I ordene the to be the keper of my heade as longe as I lyue. |
| 28:3 | As for Samuel, he was deed, and all ye people had mourned for him, & buried him in his cite Ramath. So Saul had dryuen the soythsayers and expounders of tokens out of ye londe. |
| 28:4 | Now whan the Philistynes gathered them selues together, and came and pitched their tentes at Sunem, Saul gathered all the people together, & they pitched at Gilboa. |
| 28:5 | But whan Saul sawe the hoost of the Philistynes, he was afrayed, and his hert was discoraged, |
| 28:6 | and he axed councell at the LORDE. But ye LORDE gaue him no answere, nether by dreames, ner by the lighte, ner by prophetes. |
| 28:7 | The sayde Saul vnto his seruauntes: Seke me a woma which hath a sprete of soythsayege, that I maye go vnto her, and axe at her. His seruauntes sayde vnto him: Beholde, at Endor is there a woman, which hath a sprete of soythsayenge. |
| 28:8 | And Saul chaunged his clothes, and put on other, and wente his waye and two men with him, and came by nighte vnto the woman, and sayde: Prophecye vnto me (I pray the) thorow the sprete of soythsayenge, and brynge me him vp whom I shal name vnto the. |
| 28:9 | The woma saide vnto him: Beholde, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath roted out the soythsayers & witches from the londe, wherfore wilt thou brynge my soule then in to ye nett, that I maye be slayne? |
| 28:10 | But Saul sware vnto her by ye LORDE, and sayde: As truly as the LORDE lyueth, there shall no harme happen vnto the for this. |
| 28:11 | Then sayde ye woman: Whom shal I brynge vp vnto the? He sayde: Brynge me vp Samuel. |
| 28:12 | Now whan ye woman sawe Samuel, she cryed loude, and sayde vnto Saul: Wherfore hast thou begyled me? Thou art Saul. |
| 28:13 | And the kynge sayde vnto her: Feare not, what seist thou? The woman sayde vnto Saul: I se goddes comynge vp out of ye earth? |
| 28:14 | He sayde: How is he shapened? She sayde: There commeth vp an olde man, and is clothed with a longe garment. Then perceaued Saul that it was Samuel, & bowed him selfe downe wt his face to the grounde, and worshiped him. |
| 28:15 | Samuel saide vnto Saul: Why hast thou disquyeted me, to cause me be broughte vp? Saul sayde: I am sore troubled, the Philistynes fighte against me, & God is departed frome, & geueth me no answere, nether by prophetes ner by dreames: therfore haue I called the, yt thou mightest shewe me, what I shal do. |
| 28:16 | Samuel sayde: What wilt thou axe at me, seynge the LORDE is departed from the, and is become thine enemye? |
| 28:17 | The LORDE shal do vnto the euen as he spake by me, and shall plucke the kyngdome out of thy hande, and geue it vnto Dauid thy neghboure, |
| 28:18 | because thou hast not herkened vnto the voyce of the LORDE, ner perfourmed the displeasure of his wrath agaynst Amalek. Therfore hath the LORDE done this now vnto the. |
| 28:19 | Morouer the LORDE shal delyuer Israel with the also in to the handes of the Philistynes: tomorow shalt thou and thy sonnes be with me. And the hoost of Israel shal the LORDE delyuer in to the handes of the Philistynes. |
| 28:20 | Then fell Saul immediatly vnto the earth, for he coulde not stonde, and was sore afrayed at these wordes of Samuel, so that there was nomore strength in him: for he had eaten no bred all that daye and all that night. |
| 28:21 | And the woman wente into Saul, & sawe that he was sore vexed, and sayde vnto him: Beholde, thy handmayde hath herkened vnto thy voyce, and I haue put my soule in my hande, so that I haue herkened vnto yi wordes which thou spakest vnto me. |
| 28:22 | Therfore folowe thou also the voyce of thy handmayde. I wil set a morsell of bred before the to eate, that thou mayest come to thy strength, & go yi waye. |
| 28:23 | But he refused, and sayde, I wil not eate. Then his seruauntes & the woman copelled him, so that he herkened vnto their voyce. And he rose vp from ye grounde, and sat vpon the bed. |
| 28:24 | The woman had a fat calfe at home, so she made haist, and kylled it, and toke meell and dyd kneet it, and baked swete cakes, |
| 28:25 | & broughte them forth before Saul, & before his seruauntes. And whan they had eaten, they stode vp, and wete their waye yt nighte. |
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.