Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice

David Teems. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012. 303 pp. (Paperback).

We are all familiar with Shakespeare, and most of us are probably aware of the impact his writing had on the English language. But did you know that some literary critics believe William Tyndale rivals Shakespeare for adding to the richness of our language? 

Did you know, for instance, that the phrases “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” “Behold the Lamb of God,” and “Let not your hearts be troubled” appeared first not in the King James translation but in Tyndale’s work? 

How can it be that we remain so abysmally unaware of the debt we owe to Tyndale? This biography answers that question in a tale of jealousy, heresy, ambition and atrocity that permeated the world, and particularly the church, in Tyndale’s day — forces that caused the translator to work largely in exile, moving constantly to keep from being martyred for attempting to provide the English-speaking world with the gift of the Bible in their own language.