Articles
God's Use of William Tyndale
William Tyndale was a man whose efforts to produce the Bible in the common English are easily forgotten. Historically, he is credited with creating the first English translation that worked directly from the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Tyndale’s version utilized Martin Luther’s German NT and Erasmus’ Greek rendering of NT manuscripts from Jerome (4th-5th c. AD) as sources.
Tyndale’s attempt at creating an English version was seen as a challenge to the Roman Catholic Church for two reasons. First, clergy prevented laity from handling the Scriptures in order to maintain the institutional hierarchy. Second, the Latin Vulgate was considered the only acceptable translation to the Roman Catholics. Despite unrelenting persecution, Tyndale nearly completed an English version of the entire Bible over the course of several years.
Tyndale obtained the full wrath of the Roman Catholic Church on October 6, 1536 when, betrayed by friends, he was exposed to public humiliation in an elaborate ceremony, strangled by an executioner, and after dying, was burned at the stake. His last words are recorded to have been, “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England!” This request would be fulfilled two years later when the King announced the acceptance of “The Great Bible” as the standard version of the Church of England that was largely the work of Tyndale. Tyndale’s better translation later became the basis for the Geneva Bible and the KJV and his reformative ideas inspired faith to continue in the struggle to return to the biblical standard.
As I write this, I cannot help but to think of God’s providence. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church seemed to have stamped out the Gospel message. The Bible was not shared with the common people and was replaced with human innovation including an ordained priesthood and forced submission to that priesthood. Yet, God ensured that His Word would last forever (1Pet. 1:23-25) and has kept that promise to us. We are all able to understand in our own languages because of the guiding hand of God. He provided the Scriptures by using men like Wycliffe, Luther, and Tyndale.
