William Tyndale

William Tyndale

Educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and possibly later at Cambridge. He became tutor to the family of Sir John Walsh. While living in Walsh’s household, Tyndale saw at first hand the ignorance of the local clergy. The bishops had banned the English Bible since 1408 because they feared the Lollards, who had their own translation (the Wycliffe Bible). Because this translation had been made only from the Latin Vulgate and was inaccurate, Tyndale set out to make a translation from the Hebrew and the Greek. He hoped to win the support of the learned bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall. But the bishops were more concerned with preventing the spread of Lutheran ideas than promoting the study of Scripture. In due course Tyndale obtained financial support from a number of London merchants, especially Humphrey Monmouth.

Because England was no safe place to translate the Bible, Tyndale left for the Continent, never to return. By early 1525, his New Testament was ready for the press. Tyndale narrowly escaped arrest at Cologne, but managed to see the book published later the same year at Worms. It could almost be said that every English New Testament until this century was simply a revision of Tyndale’s. He translated the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament including the Pentateuch. He was unable to complete the Old Testament because he was betrayed and arrested near Brussels in 1535. In October, 1536, after seventeen months in prison, he was strangled and burnt. It is reported that his last words were: "Lord, open the king of England’s eyes ".

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, English-Bible, history, Lollards, Wycliffe, William-Tyndale, Tyndale[/tags]

 

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