by Josh Liu
Imagine you are a farmer who only spoke English, living in 16th century England—a time where the laity was largely scripturally inept and to read the Holy Scriptures in any language other than Latin was a crime. Imagine that you could only listen to God’s Word in another language. How far would you go to be able to read and understand God’s Word for yourself? How much do you treasure God’s Word?
William Tyndale may be considered, as one author put it, the man who gave God an English voice (David Teems). Tyndale’s life is perhaps the historical event that is foundational to the proliferation of modern English Bible translations. He was vehemently committed to bring the Bible into the English language from the original Hebrew and Greek languages, so that the common person can come to know God. To understand Tyndale’s impact on your English Bible, let us consider his life.
William Tyndale was born in 1494 in Gloucestershire in western England. He was sent to Oxford University at the age of 12 where he began studying a variety of subjects. Since he was young, he demonstrated great aptitude for languages. Before leaving Oxford, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1512, a master’s degree in 1515, and was ordained as a priest. After leaving Oxford, Tyndale went on to Cambridge, where Erasmus and other scholars were stirring interest in the Greek New Testament. It is suggested that while at Cambridge, Tyndale first encountered the works of Martin Luther and Protestantism. Around 1521, Tyndale returned to Gloucestershire to serve as a tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh. During this time, he encountered many travelers with whom he would debate. On one occasion, while engaging a Catholic priest who said that “we are better to be without God’s law than the pope’s,” Tyndale responded by saying, “‘I defy the Pope and all his laws,’ and said that ‘if God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, shall know more of the scripture than thou dost’” (Foxe cited in William Tyndale: A Biography, 79).
To say the least, Tyndale was discontent with the Latin Vulgate. He concluded, “it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue” (Robert Demaus, William Tindale, 1886, 710). In his desire to translate the Bible into English, Tyndale went to London in 1523 hoping to gain support and permission from Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London and friend of Thomas More and Erasmus. Tunstall, opposed to Reformation ideas, did not support Tyndale. Realizing that he would not be able to translate the Bible in London, Tyndale traveled to Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany in 1524. There he began translating the Greek New Testament into English.
In August 1525, Tyndale traveled to Cologne to print his first edition of the New Testament in English. Before it completed printing, Tyndale fled after being warned of a raid arranged by an opponent of the Reformation, John Cochlaeus. Tyndale fled down the Rhine River to Worms. In Worms, he was able to print several editions of the New Testament. In the spring of 1526, Tyndale began smuggling his English New Testament into England through bales of cotton. Upon learning about this, the archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London sought to destroy all copies and prohibited the selling, buying, or handling of Tyndale’s New Testament translation. The English authorities, including King Henry VII (king of England), considered Tyndale’s translation as heresy and sought to arrest him.
In 1527, Tyndale fled to Marburg for safety. While in Marburg, he began studying the Hebrew language and translated the Hebrew Pentateuch into English. In 1529, he moved from Marburg to Antwerp, looking to print his translation of the Pentateuch. However, he felt that it was too dangerous to print in Antwerp. From Antwerp, Tyndale boarded a boat to travel to Hamburg. During this voyage, he experienced a shipwreck and the loss of his translations. Eventually arriving in Hamburg, Tyndale began retranslating the Hebrew Pentateuch. In 1530, the Pentateuch was published in Marburg (and the Book of Jonah in Antwerp). These translations were eventually smuggled into England.
While living as an exile from England and a fugitive, Tyndale was always careful. There were numerous attempts at his capture. In November 1530, Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII’s chief minister, sent Stephen Vaughan, an English merchant known to be a proponent of the Reformation, to persuade Tyndale to return to England. Vaughan offered Tyndale a salary and safe passage to England. After an exchange of letters, Tyndale agreed to return to England on the condition that the king have the Bible translated into English. In 1534, after moving to Antwerp and residing with Thomas Poyntz, Tyndale began revising his New Testament translation and translated the next part of the Hebrew Old Testament: Joshua to 2 Chronicles. In the early summer of 1535, Harry Phillips arrived in Antwerp seeking to capture Tyndale. Phillips found Tyndale and shrewdly won his trust. In May 1535, Phillips lured Tyndale into a narrow passage where he was arrested by soldiers. After Tyndale’s capture, Poyntz’s home was raided. Miraculously, Tyndale’s translation work of Joshua to 2 Chronicles remained safe, and eventually contributed to the Matthew’s Bible of 1537.
Tyndale was imprisoned in Vilvorde Castle near Brussels. Though he suffered greatly while awaiting trial, Tyndale’s faithful devotion to bring the Word of God into the English common language never waned. Tyndale sent a request to someone in authority saying,
Wherefore I beg your lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here through the winter, you will request the commissary to have the kindness to send me, from the goods of mine which he has, a warmer cap; for I suffer greatly from cold in the heat, and am afflicted by a perpetual catarrh, which is much increased in this cell; a warmer coat also, for this which I have is very thin; a piece of cloth too to patch my leggings. My overcoat is worn out; my shirts are also worn out…. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening; it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark. But most of all I beg and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the commissary, that he will kindly permit me to have the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary, that I may pass the time in that study. (Mozley as cited in William Tyndale: A Biography, 379)
Tyndale stood trial in August 1536. He was condemned as a heretic, excommunicated from the priesthood, and sentenced to death. On October 6, 1536, he was strangled, then burned. His last words are remembered as “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes” (Daniell, William Tyndale, 1994, 383).
Tyndale lived to bring God’s Word to the English people, as far as giving up his life. His devotion and martyrdom for God’s Word should remind us of not only the necessity of God’s Word but also its surpassing value. May you be impassioned to know God more, and for others to know God more—through His everlasting Word.
Note: See Pastor James’ recent College Life Retreat sermon on the life of William Tyndale.