Coverdale
Also in 1535, an Englishman named Miles Coverdale published the first English
translation of the entire Bible in the city of Zurich. This edition had the
support of King Henry VIII because Coverdale was an ordained priest and translated
the Bible in a way that supported Anglican Catholic doctrine and therefore
favored over the Latin Vulgate. In 1539 He incorporated the best of Tyndale and
other translators and prepared a huge (9 in. x 15 in.) book which earned the name
"the Great Bible." The British government ordered that the book be displayed
prominently in every church throughout England.
In 1553, Queen Mary (Tudor) banned the use of all English Bibles by the
people. Coverdale and most of the Bible translators fled to Geneva, Switzerland,
where John Calvin structured a Protestant stronghold. William Whittingham of Geneva
encouraged many of these scholars to begin work on a new English Bible, which
was published in 1560. This was the first Bible that was divided into verses by
a printer named Robert Estienne. It was called the Geneva Bible. This
translation was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, who had taken the throne of England in
1558. This translation became the most popular at the time.