On this day in 1536, the grim gates of Belgium’s Vilvoorde Castle opened as William Tyndale was led from the dungeons to the courtyard. Weeks earlier he had been marched onto the same grounds, admonished by local clerics, and stripped of his priesthood in ritual humiliation. Now formally expelled from the bosom of the church, he was free to be seized and dealt with by the secular authorities.
Finally, after a 16-month imprisonment, he would suffer the death of a heretic. Ignoring the priest’s appeals to recant and regain his freedom, Tyndale stood resolute as he was chained to a beam atop the waiting pyre. Just before he was strangled, he managed one last prayer. John Foxe reports that Tyndale cried out in a fervent and clear voice, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes!” As the pyre was lit and Tyndale consumed, his executioners could hardly have imagined the way his legacy, now seemingly snuffed out, was already shaking the church and would continue to shape and influence the English speaking world beyond.
Today, on Tyndale’s Commemoration Day, we remember his sacrifice, his courageous example, and the debt owed to him by all who read the Bible in English. Tyndale’s “heresy” was twofold. He was the Father of the English Bible—a master linguist who spent most of his adult life laboring over the pages of Scripture, painstakingly translating each line of Greek or Hebrew into his home county’s native tongue. It’s for this that he should rightly be most remembered.
Often overlooked, however, is Tyndale’s deeply Reformational theology. Profoundly influenced by Luther, Tyndale published a number of pamphlets between 1528 and 1531 that establish him as an early expression of English Protestantism. His belief in Justification by Faith and insistence on the authority of Scripture, are heavily present throughout his theological writings, as well as the introduction to his New Testament. To only regard him as a talented linguist, without grasping the Reformation convictions that buttressed his work, is to miss the spirit of his mission.
Born in Gloucestershire in 1494, Tyndale was reared in a family on the make. Upper middle class, with a thriving business built on the island’s booming wool trade, Tyndale’s family had the means to afford him a first rate education. It was money well spent. He received his B.A. from Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1512 and completed an M.A. in 1515. After graduation he was ordained to the priesthood. It’s a fact worth noting that Tyndale never renounced his clerical office, but to his dying day considered himself a faithful son of the church.
After Oxford, Tyndale likely studied at Cambridge, perhaps drawn by the recent and influential professorship of Erasmus. As it happens, Cambridge was in the throes of an underground awakening, driven by the writings of Martin Luther. A number of distinguished students and faculty began meeting at a tavern called the White Horse Inn to discuss Luther’s ideas and ponder how the reforms happening on the continent might be implemented in England. There’s no evidence Tyndale had direct contact with this impressive circle of friends, but several noted members, like Myles Coverdale and John Rogers, would prove lifelong friends and trusted co- laborers.
In 1521, Tyndale took a position as tutor and chaplain for the Walsh family at Little Sudbury Manor in Gloucestershire. It’s here that one of the storied moments of Tyndale’s biography took place. Mr. Walsh was known for entertaining leading and influential members of society, some of whom were official members of the church. On one such occasion, while dining with a local priest, Tyndale found himself at odds with the cleric. In a dispute over whether the laity should have access to Scripture, the visiting priest announced, “I would rather have the Pope’s laws than God’s laws.” Taken aback, a furious Tyndale is reported to have replied,” I defy the Pope and all his laws. And if God spare my life ere long years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” If this anecdote is true, it reveals a great deal about the man. And if it isn’t, the undisputed facts of his life betray the same kind of conviction and purpose.
By now, but probably many years sooner, Tyndale had been seized with a single-minded vision: to free the Scriptures from the confines of Latin, and produce an English Bible for the English people. His project would not be easy. Neither would it be safe. Since 1408, the translation of any part of Scripture without explicit permission from the church had been illegal. Because of this, in 1523 Tyndale traveled to London to seek the permission and patronage of Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall. A friend of Erasmus and self-styled scholar, Tyndale hoped Tunstall would share his vision and grasp the urgency of the project. Unfortunately, Tunstall made clear he had no intention of funding the translation or offering the troublesome priest any assistance. Disappointed but undeterred, Tyndale sought patronage elsewhere and secured help from families involved in London’s bustling wool trade—families with whom he’d had lifelong connections.
With a network of support in place, Tyndale began translating the New Testament. He made remarkable progress, but the hurdle remained of finding a printer he could trust. And with so much ecclesiastical and royal oversight in England, Tyndale decided he should move elsewhere to complete the work. In 1524 he left England for Germany.
There are some reports that Tyndale made for Wittenberg, the city from which Martin Luther had launched the Reformation. The possibility of a direct connection with Luther is tantalizing, but only supposed. In any case, his translation of the New Testament was completed in Cologne, though he was forced to relocate to Worms after the print shop was raided and a number of his manuscripts seized.
In Worms, Tyndale successfully printed around 3,000 copies of the New Testament. These quarto-sized Bibles began to flood into England, smuggled up the Thames on merchant ships and sold in back alleys throughout London. The church was quick to respond, burning whatever copies they could find at St. Paul’s Cross. While many were confiscated and destroyed, hundreds, if not thousands of Bibles, made their way into the hands of merchants, butchers, farmers, housewives, blacksmiths, seamstresses, and sailors—men and women who had never read a syllable of the Bible in their own language. Suddenly, the Word of God spoke wonderfully clear.
Now turning his attention to the Old Testament, Tyndale completed Jonah (a favorite of the Reformers) and worked his way from Genesis to 2 Chronicles. In the midst of this he somehow managed to publish his 1534 edition of the New Testament, a heavily revised translation and, by any measure, one of the landmark literary achievements of the 16th century. Tragically, before he could make further progress he was betrayed and delivered into the custody of the Holy Roman Emperor, who chose to have him imprisoned at Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels. The Emperor, Charles V, a staunch Catholic, arrested Tyndale on the grounds of his Lutheran sympathies. It was ultimately because of these Protestant convictions and his illegal work of translation work that Tyndale was condemned and executed.
Remarkably, by 1539—only three years after Tyndale’s death—Henry VIII had authorized an English translation of the Bible. The king’s eyes had finally been opened, and consequently, the people were free to encounter the Scriptures like never before. The Matthew’s Bible, also called the Great Bible, was placed in every parish church throughout England. A stream of other English translations followed, culminating in the 1611 King James Version, which (in various incarnations) would remain influential for another 350 years.
Tyndale’s talent as a linguist and translator has been grievously overlooked. Much of our most recognizable Biblical phrases and allusions derive from his pen. “The kingdom of heaven is athand,” “the salt of the earth,” “consider the lilies of the field,” “meek and lowly in heart,” “only begotten son,” “in my father’s house are many mansions,” “in whom we live and move and have our being,” “behold, I stand at the door and knock,” are all the immediate work of Tyndale. It has been estimated that 90% of the New Testament in the King James Version is borrowed directly from Tyndale, as well as 80% of the Old Testament books he was able to complete. It’s no exaggeration to say that when we read the Bible in English, whether we realize it or not, we are reading the fruit of Tyndale’s labor.
My fascination with Tyndale stems from the way his life demonstrates the remarkable impact one person’s obedience can have. Tyndale not only shaped the form of Reformation in England, he stimulated the development of modern English, and helped secure the emergence of English as the lingua franca of the west. At the very least, he is a world-historical figure deserving of far more attention. But more importantly, he was a passionate follower of Jesus who had been gripped by the power of God’s inspired Word, and in an all-too-short life completed his extraordinary mission and delivered the Bible into the hands of a long-deprived people.
Collect (Prayer) of the Day
Almighty God, you gave your servant William Tyndale boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (taken from the Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Bible Reading
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (ESV)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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