The title page of the Apocrypha and the translator’s preface — The Coverdale Bible (1535)

Coverdale set the books outside the Hebrew canon in a section of their own, the first English Bible to do so; this page gives the woodcut title page of that section and his preface “The transzlatoure vnto the reader.”

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APOCRIPHA The bokes and treatises which amonge the fathers of olde are not rekened to be of like authorite with the other bokes of the byble, nether are they foūde in the Canon of the Hebrue.

• The thirde boke of Eszdras.
• The fourth boke of Eszdras.
• The boke of Tobias.
• The boke of Iudith.
• Certayne chapters of Hester.
• The boke of Wyszdome.
• Ecclesiasticus.
• The Storye of Susanna.
• The Storye of Bell.
• The first boke of the Machabees.
• The seconde boke of the Machabees.

Vnto these also belongeth Baruc, whom we haue set amōge the prophetes next vnto Ieremy, because he was his scrybe, and in his tyme.

The transzlatoure vnto the reader.

THese bokes (good reader) which be called Apocrypha, are not iudged amonge the doctours to be of like reputacion with the other scripture, as thou mayest perceaue by S. Ierome in epistola ad Paulinum. And the chefe cause therof is this: there be many places in them, that seme to be repugnaunt vnto the open and manyfest trueth in the other bokes of the byble. Neuertheles I haue not gathered them together to the intent that I wolde haue them despysed, or litle sett by, or that I shulde thinke them false, for I am not able to proue it: Yee I doute not verely, yf they were equally conferred with the other open scripture (tyme, place, and circumstaunce in all thinges considered) they shulde nether seme contrary, ner be vntruly & peruersly aledged. Treuth it is: A mās face can not be sene so wel in a water, as in a fayre glasse: nether cā it be shewed so clearly in a water that is stered or moued, as in a styll water. These & many other darck places of scripture haue bene sore stered and myxte with blynde and cuvetous opynions of men, which haue cast soch a myst afore the eyes of yᵉ symple, that as longe as they be not cōferred with the other places of scripture, they shall not seme other wyse to be vnderstonde, then as cuvetousnes expoundeth them. But who so euer thou be that readest scripture, let the holy goost be thy teacher, and let one text expounde another vnto the: As for soch dreames, visions and darck sentences as be hyd from thy vnderstondinge, commytte them vnto God, and make no articles of them: But let the playne text be thy gyde, and the sprete of God (which is the author therof) shal lede the in all trueth.

As for the prayer of Salomō (which thou findest not herin) yᵉ prayer of Azarias, and the swete songe that he and his two felowes songe in the fyre: the first (namely the prayer of Salomon) readest thou in the eight chapter of the thirde boke of the kynges, so that it appeareth not to be Apocryphum: The other prayer and songe (namely of the thre children) haue I not founde amonge eny of the interpreters, but onely in the olde latyn texte, which reporteth it to be of Theodotios translacion. Neuertheles, both because of those yᵗ be weake and scrupulous, and for their sakes also that loue soch swete songes of thankesgeuinge: I haue not left them out: to the intent that the one shulde haue no cause to complayne, and that the other also might haue the more occasion to geue thankes vnto God in aduersite, as the thre children dyd in the fyre. Grace be with the. Amen.

Colophon

This page is an archival transcription of the printed text, not a Good Works Translation. Source: Biblia the Byble, that is, the holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully translated in to Englyshe (M.D.XXXV; STC 2063.3), translated by Myles Coverdale, the copy in Cambridge University Library, keyed and encoded by the Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP Phase I, text A10349, 2005) and released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 public-domain dedication.

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