Gn 314 inter omnia animantia; vor allem viech; of all catell. (Tindale’s of is nearer to the original ‘out of,’ ‘from among ’—see RVm—than the others).
Gn 421 pater canentium cithara et organo; die mit harpffen vnd pfeyffen vmbgiengen ; all that excercyse them selves on the harpe and on the organs. (Here it would have been paar to render ‘pipe’ instead of ‘organ,’ with the Ger- man). :
Gn 2123 et posteris meis stirpique mez; meine kinder... meyne naffen; my childern nor my childern’s childern. (Tindale, alone of the three, appears to aim at keeping the alliterative cast of the Hebrew).
Gn 3041 Dixit: Feliciter, et idcirco yocavit nomen ejus Gad ; da sprach Lea, Rustig, vii hiess in (ihn) Gad ; Then sayde Lea: good lucke ; and called his name Gad. (Compare the rendering in AV).
Gn 3519 hee est Bethlehem ; die nti heist BethLehem; which now is called Bethlehem. (The words are now held to be agloss. Tindale plainly followed Luther).
Gn 37° fecitque ei tunicam polymitam; vnd machet im einen bundten rock; and he made him a coote of many coloures.
(The rendering ‘ of many colours’ is retained even in the RY, though in the margin ‘a long garment with sleeves’ is given. The LXX supports the former, having ze:ziAoy ; and probably the same meaning was meant to be con- veyed by ‘polymitam’ (zoAdmiroy), ‘of many threads,’ in the sense of damasked).
Ex 314 Ego sum qui sum ; Ich werde seyn der ich seyn werde ; I wilbe what I wilbe. (See RVm).
Ex 126 ad vesperam ; zwischen abents; aboute euene. (The German is the most literal).
Ex 1514. 1 (Tindale has the past tense, along with the Vulgate and Luther ; the AV has the future)
Ex 165 Dixerunt ad invicem, Manhu? quod significat, Quid est hoc? Das ist Man, denn sie wysten nicht... They said one to another: What is this? for they wist not...
Ex 39! Fecit vestes, quibus indueretur Aaron; amptkleider zu dienen in Heyligthum ; the vestimentes of ministracion to do seruyce in. (‘Vestments of ministration’ is as literal as the AV ‘cloths of service,’ and more dignified).
Ly 1920. . . vapulabunt ambo; das sol gestrafft werden : there shalbe a payne vpon it (RV ‘they shall be punished % lit. ‘there shall be an inquisition.’ Tindale gives the sense, though not pointedly. AV ‘she shall be scourged ’ conveys a wrong impression).
Tindale’s last words were a prayer that the Lord would open the king of England’s eyes. It is remarkable that the English version of the Bible made by the next translator we have to treat of, bore, in one of its forms, that king’s imprimatur,
Miles Coverdale was born in 1488, probably in Richmondshire, in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
* The texts used are, besides a modern Vulgate, the Ba edition of Luther's Pentateuch, 1523, and the “1530 eaieen, ct Tindale’s, printed by Hans Luft.
He studied at Cambridge, where he entered the convent of Augustinian Friars. In 1514 he took priest’s orders. Though senior to George Stafford and Bilney, he probably fell under the same influ- ences as they. When Barnes, who became prior of the Augustinians in 1523, was arrested and con- veyed to London, Coverdale attended him, and helped him to prepare his defence. About this time he laid aside his conventual habit. In 1529 he is said by Foxe to have assisted Tindale in his work at Hamburg. In 1551 he was conse- crated bishop of Exeter, but deprived in 1553, on the accession of Mary, and imprisoned. His de- liverance is said to have been due to the inter- cession of the king of Denmark, whose chaplain, Dr. John Macbee, was his wife’s brother-in-law. After living abroad in Denmark and Geneva, he returned to England in 1558, and died in Feb. 1569, at the age of 81.*
What first turned Coverdale’s thoughts to the translation of the Bible is uncertain. It seems to have been, at least in part, the encouragement to undertake the task given by Thomas Cromwell, with the knowledge, if not the express approval, of Sir Thomas More.t The earliest document of Coverdale’s we possess is a letter addressed by him to Cromwell, undated, but probably written in 1527, in which he reminds him of the ‘ godly com- munication’ that Cromwell had held-with him in the house of Master More.t As he goes on to speak of now beginning to ‘taste of holy scrip- tures,’ of being ‘set to the most sweet smell of holy letters,’ and of needing books for his work, the natural inference is that he was then engaged in the task of Bible translation. At any rate there appeared, as the result of his labours, two issues in 1535, followed by later ones, of the first com- plete translation of the Bible into English. The titles present an interesting, but perplexing, variety—
‘ Biblia | The Bible, that | is, the holy Scripture of the | Olde and New Testament, faith fully and truly translated out | of Douche and Latyn | in to Englishe. | M.D.xxxv.’ (followed by texts).
‘Biblia | The Byble: that | is, the holy Scryp- ture of the | Olde and New Testament, | fayth- fully translated in | to Englyshe. | M.D.XxXXvV.’ (texts). The title of an edition of 1536 varies from this last only in the spelling of one word. That of an edition of 1537 is: ‘Biblia | The Byble, that | is the holy Serypture of the | Olde and New Testament, fayth|fully translated in Englysh, and | newly ouerseene & corrected. | M.D.XXXVII.’ (texts). ‘Imprynted in Sowthwarke for James Nycolson.’ The word ‘ Biblia’ in all is in Roman capitals, the rest in black letter, occupying the central compartment of a page within a border of figures.§