S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The Coverdale Bible, named after its compiler, Myles Coverdale, was published on October 4, 1535, in Europe. It was the first English translation of the Bible to be printed (not handwritten), conta...

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Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

What is the Coverdale Bible?

The Bible has survived despite opposition. In 1535, for instance, the English translation of the Bible by Miles Coverdale appeared. Coverdale used Tyndale's rendition of the "New Testament" and of the "Old Testament" from Genesis through Chronicles. He translated other parts of the Scriptures from Latin and from Martin Luther's Bible into German.

The first complete Bible printed in English did not indicate the name of the publisher. Its translator was Miles Coverdale, and his translation appeared in 1535. At the time, his friend William Tyndale was in prison for some of the scholarly work he had done in connection with translating the Bible. Tyndale was executed the following year.

A portion of Coverdale's translation was based on Tyndale's work. In Hamburg, Germany, Coverdale stayed with William Tyndale. The two worked together in their shared desire to produce a Bible that the people could read. During this time, Coverdale learned much from Tyndale about the art of Bible translating.

Coverdale was a master of English expression but lacked the linguistic skills of his friend and mentor, Tyndale, who was fluent in both Hebrew and Greek. Coverdale revised Tyndale's translation, working from Latin and German versions.

Coverdale's Bible was printed in Continental Europe in 1535, the year before Tyndale's execution. It included a gracious, somewhat flattering dedication to King Henry. Coverdale assured Henry that the Bible excluded Tyndale's footnotes, which were considered contentious because, among other things, they drew attention to unscriptural teachings of the Catholic Church. So Henry gave his consent for the publishing of the Bible. The tide had begun to turn.

In 1537, Coverdale's Bible reappeared in two English editions. In the same year, a version called Matthew's Bible, printed in Antwerp, combining the work of Tyndale and Coverdale, was approved by King Henry.

Coverdale's Bible was the earliest English Bible to feature the Tetragrammaton​—the four Hebrew letters that make up the divine name—​at the head of its title page. Significantly, this was the first Bible to group all the Apocryphal books into an appendix rather than have them scattered among the books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

In the seventy-five years after Tyndale's death, six important English Bibles appeared. These were the Coverdale, Matthew, Great Bible, Geneva, Bishops', and Rheims-Douay Bibles. The Douay Bible was translated from the Latin Bible, but the others were basically revisions of Tyndale's work.

The impact that the Bible has had on learning and literature staggers the imagination.... Writes John R. Green, in A Short History of the English People: "The whole prose literature of England, save the forgotten tracts of Wyclif, has grown up since the translation of the Scriptures by Tyndale and Coverdale.

Luther's translation of the Bible into German was significant, as was William Tyndale's and Miles Coverdale's translation into English.

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