William Tyndale

A great but little known hero of our civilization is William Tyndale, first translator of the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek, and indeed the first man to translate anything into English from Hebrew, a language that was unknown in the England of his time. When he was still in his twenties, he became convinced that the way to God was through his word, and that scripture should be available even to “a boy that driveth the plough.” After his idea of a vernacular translation was rejected by the Church authorities, he spent the rest of his life as a fugitive on the Continent, translating first the New Testament and then 14 books of the Old Testament. In looking for adequate English renditions, he coined hundreds of new English words and composed many phrases that have become a part of our language, including: “Let there be light,” “Eat, drink, and be merry,” “The powers that be,” “A prophet has no honor in his own country,” “Ye of little faith,” “Fight the good fight,” “Am I my brother’s keeper,” “The spirit is willing,” “The salt of the earth,” “A law unto themselves,” “Filthy lucre,” “A man after his own heart,” “Signs of the times.”

Tyndale was arrested in 1535, then killed by strangulation (a relatively merciful death) and burned at the stake in 1536, at about the age of 42. In the King James version of the Bible, published 75 years after Tyndale’s death, over 85 percent of the New Testament and of the first half of the Old Testament were taken from Tyndale, though this was not acknowledged. In fact, only one year after Tyndale’s death, the “Matthew Bible,” which was essentially Tyndale’s work under another man’s name to spare the government embarrassment, was published in England with royal permission and read publicly in churches.

As the Times of London has put it, Tyndale’s Bible remains “the basis of all English language Bibles until the recent fiascos. Its phrases and cadences, both homely and pungent, are so woven into the language as to be rarely recognised as the work of an individual author.” The William Tyndale website, from which I’ve taken most of the above information, says:

It is surprising that the name of William Tyndale is not more familiar, for there is no man who did more to enrich the English language. Tyndale is the man who taught England how to read and showed Shakespeare how to write. No English writer—not even Shakespeare—has reached so many.

Finally, as an indication of the price Tyndale paid for his unequalled achievement, here is a letter he wrote from prison, translated from the original Latin:

I believe, right worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me [by the Council of Brabant]; therefore I entreat your Lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here [in Vilvoorde] during the winter, you will request the Procurer to be kind enough to send me from my goods, which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh, which is considerably increased in the cell.

A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin; also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings: my overcoat has been worn out; my shirts are also worn out. He has a woolen shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have also with him leggings of thicker cloth for the putting on above; he also has warmer caps for wearing at night. I wish also his permission to have a candle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark.

But above all, I entreat and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the Procurer that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study. And in return, may you obtain your dearest wish, provided always it be consistent with the salvation of your soul. But if any other resolutions have been come to concerning me, before the conclusion of the winter, I shall be patient, abiding the will of God to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart. Amen.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 08, 2006 12:36 AM | Send