1535 - Coverdale's Bible

Myles Coverdale (1488 - 1569) produced the first complete printed English Bible in 1535. the preface to this Bible states that the text was translated from Latin and German sources. He also credits five other interpreters, one of which was certainly William Tyndale and a second, no doubt Martin Luther.

Coverdale was the first translator to include chapter summaries into the text. He was also the first to separate the Apocrypha from the other Old Testament books and include them as an appendix to the Old Testament.

In 1534, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, petitioned the King to translate the Bible into English. The petition received little support from the Bishops and when Coverdale's translation appeared, the effort died. Coverdale's Bible was the favourite translation of Anne Bolyn. After her death, it lost popularity and never regained official acceptance, even though it was reprinted in 1537 and a second edition in 1550 and 1553. Coverdale had greater influence on the development of the English Bible than any other translator. He edited the Great Bible of 1539 and had a part in the preparation of the Geneva Bible of 1560.

The first edition of Coverdale's Bible had to be printed on the Continent.

However, a royal license was obtained to print the second edition in England in 1537. Even so, Coverdale's Bibles were collected and burnt due to Henry VIII's proclamation in 1546. His translation of the Psalms, which he revised for the Great Bible of 1539, has been used in The Church of England prayer book until very recently.

With the ebb and flow of politics during his lifetime, Myles Coverdale had to leave England for the continent three times. He narrowly missed being burnt at the stake in Mary Tudor's reign. When many biblical scholars were executed for their beliefs, he survived because of his family connections to complete his work.

Source: F. F. Bruce. The English Bible, A History of Translations. Oxford University Press 1961, 234 pp