Myles Coverdale

What’s in Your Bible: Myles Coverdale

In 1535 Myles Coverdale was the second person to publish a Bible from the Reformation line.

The Coverdale Bible was the first complete Bible in English containing the Old and New Testaments

He was a friend and contemporary with William Tyndale and included Tyndale’s prison updates into his translation.

It was Coverdale that was mainly responsible for writing scripture with a poetic cadence and rhythm.

Coverdale published his own translation, help John Rogers complete his Thomas Matthews Bible, assisted in completing the Great Bible as ordered by King Henry the VIII, and was instrumental in assisting with the Geneva Bible.

With the persecution of the Roman Catholic Church against protestants, and everything outside of the Catholic Church,

Coverdale had to leave England and go to Switzerland depending on if the King or Queen was Roman Catholic or not.

While overseeing the printing of the Great-Chain Bible, the Pope issued an edict to burn the Bible pages and stop the printing.

The Catholic prelates got ahold of a few pages, but Coverdale was able to escape with the rest as well as the type and finish the printing elsewhere.

Coverdale carried on Tyndale’s vow to see to it that the ignorant plowboy could understand the Bible.

Coverdale’s poetic form of Scanning the scripture crossed over to hymns and spiritual songs.

Coverdale incorporated scripture into hymns which are still sung today.

His hymnbook also ended up on the list of forbidden books in 1539.

Imagine writing Biblical hymns that were banned from being sung in church.

Biblical references in Handel’s Messiah, are from Myles Coverdale.

Coverdale’s impact was so influential throughout the reformation that much of the Bible you read today is because of his efforts.

Dr. Steven A. Hite