William Tyndale, Priest & Scholar, 1536

 

William Tyndale

Priest & Scholar

William Tyndale was born around 1495 at Slymbridge, near the Welsh border. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he earned both his B.A. and M.A. degrees, and later spent time studying at Cambridge. After his ordination, around 1521, he entered the household of Sir John Walsh at Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire, serving as chaplain and tutor. In 1523, Tyndale moved to London, where he found support in the home of Humphrey Monmouth, a wealthy cloth merchant.

By this time, Tyndale had become convinced that the Scriptures should be available to ordinary English-speaking Christians in their own language. He was determined to translate the Bible into English, but when it became clear that he would receive no official support for such a work in England, he left for Germany in 1524.

From that point forward, Tyndale’s life became one of constant danger. His translations were condemned, copies of his New Testament were confiscated and burned, and powerful men—including King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey—sought to stop his work and bring him to trial. Yet Tyndale continued translating, revising, writing, and arranging for copies of the Scriptures to be printed and carried secretly into England.

Tyndale’s passion can perhaps best be summed up in the words he reportedly spoke during an argument with a learned churchman: “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more scripture than thou dost.”

That was the heart of William Tyndale’s calling. He wanted the Word of God placed into the hands of ordinary people—the farmer, the laborer, the merchant, and the family gathered around the table. Scripture, he believed, should not belong only to clergy and scholars.

Before his death, Tyndale had completed and revised his translation of the New Testament. He also translated the Pentateuch, the Book of Jonah, and much of the Old Testament historical books from Joshua through 2 Chronicles. Although he did not live to see all of this work published, his influence on the English Bible was enormous. Much of his language survived in later translations, especially the Authorized, or King James, Version of 1611. His English was so powerful and enduring that his work has been described as “a well of English undefiled.”

Tyndale was also a man of his age. Like many religious writers of the Reformation period, he could be sharp and even bitter in controversy, and some of his translation choices reflected the theological struggles of his time. Yet behind the controversy was a man who lived simply, gave generously, and remained devoted to the work he believed God had called him to do.

For years he lived as a hunted man, moving from place to place while continuing his translation work. In the end, he was betrayed by someone he had befriended. He was arrested near Brussels, imprisoned, and eventually condemned as a heretic.

On October 6, 1536, William Tyndale was taken to the place of execution. He was strangled at the stake, and his body was then burned.

His final prayer has echoed through the centuries:

“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”

That prayer proved remarkably prophetic. Within only a few years, English Bibles—drawing heavily upon Tyndale’s own translation—were being placed in churches throughout England.

William Tyndale did not live to see the full fruit of his labor, but generations of English-speaking Christians have read the Scriptures through words that first came from his pen. His life reminds us of the tremendous price paid by those who believed that every Christian should be able to hear and read the Word of God in a language they could understand.