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William Tyndale ,
Father of the English Bible.
Nearly 500 years ago, this week, William Tyndale, called ‘Father of the English Bible’ was strangled and burned at the stake at the young age of 42, after being tried and convicted of heresy and treason.
His offense :
Tyndale had translated the Greek Bible into English.
Many of the phrases you read in the Bible even today, retain the flavour of his understanding of Greek and Hebrew.
A graduate of Oxford and Cambridge, Tyndale had a powerful desire to make the Bible available even to the common people in England, in order to correct the ‘Biblical ignorance of the priests.’
At one point Tyndale told a priest, “If God spares my life, are many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.”
Today, 90% of the King James Version of the Holy Bible, and 75% of the Revised Standard Version, are from the translation made by Tyndale.
He went to London to ask Bishop Tunstall if he could be authorised to make an English translation of the Bible. But the Bishop would not grant his approval, as translating the Bible into English was illegal at the time.
However, Tyndale would not let the disapproval of men stop him from carrying out what seemed so obviously God’s will. With the encouragement and support of some British merchants, he decided to go to Europe to complete his translation, and have it printed and smuggled back into England.
In 1524 Tyndale sailed for Germany. In Hamburg, he worked on the New Testament, and in Cologne, he found a printer who would print the work. However, news of Tyndale’s activity reached an opponent of the Reformation who had the press raided.
Tyndale himself managed to escape with the pages already printed, and made his way to the German city Worms, where the New Testament was soon published.
Six thousand copies were printed and smuggled into England.
The Bishops did everything they could to destroy the copies. Bishop Tunstall had copies ceremoniously burned at St. Paul’s; the Archbishop of Canterbury bought up copies to destroy them. And Tyndale used the money to print improved editions!
Tyndale continued hiding among the merchants in Antwerp, and began translating the Old Testament, while the King’s agents searched all over England and Europe for him.
A copy of Tyndale’s “The Obedience of a Christian Man”, fell into the hands of Henry VIII, providing the king with a reason to break away the Church in England, from the Roman Catholic Church, in 1534.
In 1535, Tyndale was arrested and jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) outside Brussels for over a year.
Tyndale’s work was denounced by authorities of the Roman Catholic Church and Tyndale himself was accused of heresy.
Tyndale, 42, was finally found out by an Englishman who pretended to be his friend, but then turned him over to the authorities. After a year and a half in prison, he was brought to trial for heresy
– “For BELIEVING, among other things, In the FORGIVENESS OF SINS and that the MERCY offered in the GOSPEL was enough for SALVATION.
He was condemned and was executed (burned alive at the stake) publicly on October 6, 1536, in a small town in Belgium.
As he burnt to death, Tyndale reportedly said “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
The prayer was answered, when three years later, in 1539, Henry VIII required every parish church in England, to make a copy of the English Bible available to it’s parishioners.
* In 1611, the 54 scholars who produced the King James Bible drew significantly from Tyndale, as well as from translations that descended from his own .
* In 2002, Tyndale was placed at number 26 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Today Tyndale is known as the Father of the English Bible, since the later, epochal work of the King James Version of the Bible, largely consisted of Tyndale’s scholarly and accessible translations.
– Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
(adapted)
– Joy Kallivayalil
