Tyndale was first person to translate New Testament into English
By Joanne Sloan
William Tyndale (1494–1536), a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation, was the first person to translate the New Testament into English. He was martyred for his faith.
This year is the 525th anniversary of his birth.
He was born to Richard and Tebota Tyndale in 1494 in Gloucestershire, England. His father was a landowner and merchant.
In 1515 he received his master’s degree from Oxford University. When he studied theology he was horrified that reading the Bible was not included.
He returned to Gloucestershire and became a tutor and a popular preacher who taught from the Bible. For doing so he was accused of heresy. No action was taken.
Once a Catholic told Tyndale: “We were better without God’s laws than the Pope’s.” Tyndale answered, “I defy the Pope,” and added, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that drive the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you.”
He knew Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew. He wanted to translate the New Testament from Greek into English. To obtain permission he went to London in 1523. Unable to receive permission he knew he had to leave England.
In 1524 he moved to Germany. He probably translated the New Testament into English in Wittenberg. The printing of the New Testament was started at Cologne and finished at Worms in 1526. Copies were smuggled into England. In 1526 the bishop of London burned copies of the New Testament but it continued to circulate.
In 1528, Tyndale began his translation of the Old Testament from Genesis through First Chronicles and Jonah from Hebrew into English. He also authored other works which were all written in secure places that neither King Henry VIII nor church officials could pursue him. The places he hid are still unknown.
In May 1535 Henry Phillips, an Englishman and a supposed friend, betrayed him. Tyndale was arrested and imprisoned in the castle of Vilvoorden, Belgium, for more than 500 days under inhumane conditions.
Unfair trial
In an unfair trial he was tried for heresy and treason and was convicted. On Oct. 6, 1536, he was strangled and then burned at the stake in the prison yard. His last words were “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”
His prayer was answered the next year when Tyndale’s New Testament was printed in England with the king’s permission.
His work constitutes much of the translation of the King James Version of 1611 and of the English Revised Version of 1885.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Joanne Sloan, a member of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, has been a published writer of articles and books for 30 years. She has a bachelor’s degree double majoring in history and English from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M–Commerce) and a master’s degree specializing in English from the University of Arkansas (1978).
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