Textus Receptus Bibles
Coverdale Bible 1535
8:1 | As touchinge thinges offred vnto Idols we are sure yt we all haue knowlege. Knowlege puffeth a ma vp, but loue edifyeth. |
8:2 | Neuertheles yf eny ma thinke yt he knoweth eny thinge, he knoweth not yet how he oughte to knowe. |
8:3 | But yf eny man loue God, the same is knowne of him. |
8:4 | So are we sure now cocernynge the meates offred vnto Idols, that an Idoll is nothinge in the worlde, and that there is none other God but one. |
8:5 | And though there be that are called goddes, whether in heauen or in earth (as there be goddes many and lordes many) |
8:6 | yet haue we but one God, euen the father, of who are all thinges, and we in him & one LORDE Iesus Christ, by who are all thinges, and we by him. |
8:7 | But euery man hath not knowlege: for some make yet consciece ouer the Idoll, and eate it as a thinge offred vnto Idols: and so their conscience beynge weake, is defyled. |
8:8 | Neuertheles meate furthureth not vs vnto God. Yf we eate, we shal not therfore be the better: yf we eate not, we shal not therfore be the lesse. |
8:9 | But take hede that this youre liberty be not an occasion of fallynge vnto ye weake. |
8:10 | For yf eny man se the (which hast knowlege) syt at the table in the Idols house, shal not his conscience whyle it is weake, be occasioned to eate of the Idoll offeringes? |
8:11 | And so thorow thy knowlege shal the weake brother perishe, for who Christ dyed. |
8:12 | But whan ye synne so agaynst the brethren, and wounde their weake coscience, ye synne agaynst Christ. |
8:13 | Wherfore yf meate offende my brother, I wyl neuer eate flesh, lest I offende my brother. |
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.