William Tyndale, the “Father of the English Bible”

William Tyndale (ca. 1494–1536) studied Scripture and language at Oxford and Cambridge, where he lectured and became convinced of the need for the Scriptures to be read and learned by everyone, including the common man. He studied the work of Erasmus, and was impressed with his new 1516 edition of the Greek New Testament. In the preface to this work, Erasmus expressed his desire that the Scriptures be translated into the common tongue and read by the unlearned. “I wish that the farm worker might sing parts of them at the plough, that the weaver might hum them at the shuttle, and that the traveler might beguile the weariness of the way by reciting them.”[1] Tyndale came to share the same desire. His concern for the widespread ignorance of the Scripture included not only the common man, but many learned clerics as well. He is reported in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs to have said to one learned clergyman, “If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!”[2]

Most of Tyndale’s work occurred during the early part of the reign of Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547), before Henry’s break from the Roman Catholic Church. Tyndale faced much opposition in England that forced him to continue his work on the continent of Europe, but finally published the New Testament in 1526. This was the first Bible to be printed in English. Tyndale was also the first to translate the Bible into English directly from the original language. In this he set a new high level of scholarship in English translations that would be continued by his successors. Tyndale for these reasons has been called the “father of the English Bible.”

Tyndale's Bible was banned in England. Thousands were seized and burned. Sir Thomas More wrote in 1529, “To study to find errors in Tyndale's book were like studying to find water in the seas.”[3] In spite of opposition from church and state authorities in England, Tyndale's Bible continued to be circulated, smuggled from place to place, and eagerly read.

Tyndale managed to publish parts of the Old Testament translated from the Hebrew, and a revision of his English New Testament before his death. He was found guilty of heresy and executed on 6 October 1536 by being strangled then burned at the stake. His dying words were “Lord, open the King of England's eyes!”

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[1] Qtd. in F. F. Bruce, History of the English Bible, Third Edition (Oxford, 1978), 29.

[2] Qtd. in Bruce, History, 29.

[3] Qtd. in F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments, Revised Edition (Revell, 1963), 223.

A PERSPECTIVE FOR PERSEVERANCE

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9).

We all experience troubles in this life. Paul experienced much that might have disheartened him. But he courageously pressed on. What enabled the apostle not only to endure the sufferings of today, but also to be sustained for the opportunities of tomorrow?

His answer is, “We do not lose heart…we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen” (2 Cor. 4:16-18). It’s a matter of perspective—how we view our lives.

Our inner man is being renewed day by day (v. 16). We are made in God’s image. The outer man is the physical. And it is decaying. It is returning to the dust from which it came. From the moment of birth, our days are numbered and they are short. If we think the outer man is all there is, the realization of the destruction of the body can be hard to accept.

There is something other than the outward, physical, flesh-and-bones body that we inhabit. Paul knew that while the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed and reinvigorated daily. The prime concern for each one of us should be the soul and not the body. “What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

Our afflictions are momentary and light (v. 17). How could a man who had endured all that Paul did, look at his troubles and call them light? He was not trying to minimize them or deceive other disciples to keep them from being discouraged or fearful. He did not mean they were few (see 2 Cor. 11:23-28). He knew persecution both as persecutor and persecuted. From the time he was converted to Christ, opposition began quickly and followed him constantly.

Rather, he viewed all his afflictions in view of eternity. They were light in comparison to the weight of glory to come. His sufferings were severe and long lasting, but they were nothing compared to an eternity with God. It was a matter of perspective.

The unseen things are eternal (v. 18). It all depends on where we look. If we fail to be ever looking unto Jesus, we will inevitably go astray. Don’t take your eyes off the goal.

Paradoxically, we cannot see the things of eternity, and yet those are the things at which we must look. Paul is not unmindful of the physical world and the material things around him. His point is that he is doing what he pleaded with other brethren to do: “set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).

This was Paul’s worldview. Rather than using the problems of this life as justification to reject God, let them be reminders of the inadequacies of the temporal and to live in view of the eternal. This world, even at its best, is inadequate for the soul.

Dan Petty