‘I perceived by experience how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order and meaning of the text.’
(Preface to Pentateuch 1530).

The work of William Tyndale remains, and is likely long to remain, loved and reverenced by English speaking people throughout the world, as their noblest inheritance, but the man to whose patient labour and heroic self-sacrifice we are mainly indebted for the English Bible has been allowed almost to drop out of memory. Foxe records that Tyndale was ‘brought up from a child in the University of Oxford’, and that at an early age he had already exhibited unusual ability in learning languages, and embarked upon his studies at Magdalen Hall. A portrait at Hertford College bears a Latin inscription describing him as ‘a learned, pious and good man, not undeservedly called the Apostle of England’.

Not long before Tyndale entered the University the revival of learning which had awakened Italy to intellectual life began to make itself felt in Oxford. Grocyn, Linacre, and William Latimer had returned from Italy with enough knowledge of Greek to be able to instruct their fellow countrymen, and even to attract Erasmus as to a pure fountain of classical learning. What was needed was someone to guide men to the pure river of the Water of Life, and God raised up John Colet to supply this need. He began to lecture on the Epistles of Paul in 1496, and under his exposition the words of the Epistles again became full of life and were again felt to be the Word of God, oracles of Divine wisdom, delivered with all the warmth of the great Apostle to the Gentiles.

The Influence of John Colet

It is probable that when Colet studied Greek in Italy he came under the influence of the scholar, reformer and martyr, Jerome Savonarola at Florence; the commencement of the movement towards reformation in the English Universities may be traced to the date of Colet’s return to Oxford. He had ‘a happy art of expressing with ease what others could hardly express with the greatest labour’. His influence spread far beyond England, and although neither Colet nor Erasmus became fully identified with the popular desire for reformation, which would involve complete severance from Rome, they gave the first impulses to the movement which Tyndale, Hugh Latimer, and Cranmer carried forward to its accomplishment. Tyndale’s studies at Oxford began a few years after Colet was made Dean of St. Paul’s, but his influence was still felt there, and although Tyndale tells us little of this period of his life, it seems that the seed of God’s Word then took deep root in his mind. He began to subject all his beliefs to a searching examination in the light of Holy Scripture, and readily and completely abandoned the opinions and practices for which he could find no Scriptural support. From the outset of his career he showed a clearness, boldness, and freedom from the trammels of tradition, which evidences the unusual vigour and originality of his intellect.

With Erasmus at Cambridge

Tyndale’s removal from Oxford to Cambridge may have been prompted by the persistence of the church authorities in rooting out ‘heresy’ at Oxford, where the influence of Colet had bred much dissatisfaction with the teaching of the church. At Cambridge Tyndale was still indirectly influenced by Colet, for Erasmus had learned much from Colet, and in his lectures he concentrated upon the Scriptures and abandoned the fantastic theories of the ‘schoolmen’. It is no coincidence that Tyndale expressed his resolve to translate the Scriptures almost in the very words of Erasmus, who wrote: ‘I totally dissent from those who are unwilling that the sacred Scriptures, translated into the vulgar tongue, should be read by private individuals ... And I wish that they were translated into all languages of all peoples, that they might be read and known, not merely by the Scotch and Irish, but even by the Turks and Saracens. I wish that the husbandman may sing parts of them at his plough, that the weaver may warble them at his shuttle, that the traveller may with their narratives beguile the weariness of the way.’

At Cambridge Tyndale continued his studies aided by that Divine Teacher whose continual help he doubtless implored. His allusions to Bilney, his contemporary at Cambridge, make it evident that he was influenced by this ‘gentle reformer’, who graciously testified that when he had tried all the penances and pardons prescribed by the church, ‘he heard speak of Jesus, and forthwith knew in himself that he was healed’.

At Sodbury Manor

Tyndale probably left Cambridge for the home of ‘Master Walsh’ in 1521, and at the old Manor House at Little Sodbury, not far from Bristol, gave instruction to Sir John Walsh’s children in the capacity of Chaplain rather than as tutor. The children were young, and Tyndale had ample time for study and opportunities for conversation with the ‘great-beneficed men, abbots, deans, archdeacons, and other doctors and learned men’, who were often entertained at the Manor House. Many of these men bore a secret grudge against Tyndale because he so frequently showed them how their opinions were at variance with the plain teaching of God’s Word.

In an English rendering of the ‘Manual of a Christian Soldier’ by Erasmus, Tyndale first employed his skill and learning as a translator and exposed the scholastic dogma and futile ritual which prevailed everywhere under the name of the church. Sir John and Lady Walsh became convinced that Tyndale was in the right and that the clergy were wrong, and the ‘great-beneficed men’ were less frequent and less welcome guests. Tyndale preached in the little church behind the Manor House and sometimes to great crowds on the College green in Bristol. The priests accused him of heresy and he was called before the Chancellor. Tyndale records, ‘He threatened me grievously and reviled me, and rated me as though I had been a dog’. At this time Tyndale consulted with ‘a certain doctor that dwelt not far off’, who told him that the Pope was ‘the very antichrist which the Scripture speaketh of’ but warned him that to make such a charge publicly would cost him his life.

Tyndale Resolves to Translate the Scriptures

This was a turning point in his career. He saw that he owed his enlightenment to the Word of God, and desiring that others should see the light of the Gospel, he began to contemplate the translation of the New Testament into the English tongue, as a necessary preliminary to any possible reformation of the abuses which abounded in the church. It was about the year 1522 that he formed this resolve, and to one who told him that ‘we were better without God’s laws than the Pope’s’, Tyndale replied, ‘I defy the Pope and all his laws ... If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost’.

At that time the ignorance of the clergy and religious orders had become more profound than ever. Many were ignorant of the Latin employed in the services of the church, and Tyndale asserted that there were twenty thousand priests in England who could not have translated a simple petition of the Lord’s Prayer. The Bible was practically unknown to clergy and people alike, English translations were forbidden, and no one could read the Scriptures without the permission of a Bishop. In Tyndale’s ‘Answer to More’ in 1530 he wrote: ‘Remember ye not how within these thirty years, and far less, the children of darkness raged in every pulpit against Greek and Latin and Hebrew ... In the Universities they have ordained that no man shall look at the Scripture until he be noselled [nursed] in heathen learning eight or nine years, and armed with false principles, with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of Scripture’.

His Experience in London

Unlike Wycliffe, who had to rely upon the Latin, and so produce a translation of a translation, Tyndale was an accomplished Greek scholar and determined to translate the New Testament from the Greek language in which it was written. When his intention was known and he was conscious of his danger, he said to Sir John Walsh: ‘I perceive that I shall not be suffered to tarry long here in this country, nor shall you be able to keep me out of their hands ...’ Sir John gave him a letter of introduction to Sir Harry Guildford, Controller of the Royal Household, and Tyndale set out for London hoping to do his translation work in the house and under the patronage of Bishop Tunstall.

Tyndale arrived in London in July or August 1523. There he had little encouragement and little opportunity to exercise his gifts, either as a preacher or translator. He was, however, welcomed by Humphrey Monmouth, a wealthy merchant, and in his home he met many of the most learned men in London and studied the works of Luther, whose influence gradually replaced that of Erasmus, whom he had regarded as the light and guide of the age. Tyndale also conferred with Frith on the necessity of putting the Scriptures into the language of the people, ‘that the poor might also read and see the simple, plain Word of God’.

Tyndale’s Departure from England

While the law forbade men to translate the Scriptures on their own authority, theoretically this could be undertaken with the sanction of the bishops, but for more than a hundred years the bishops had been unrelenting in their severity towards all who dared to read the Word of God in the version of Wycliffe, and they took no steps to provide a better version which men might freely read. Tyndale received no help from Tunstall and became sorrowfully convinced ‘not only that there was no room in my Lord of London’s palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no place to do it in all England’. If England was to receive what he believed to be the greatest blessing that could be bestowed upon it, he must be ready to face the dangers of exile in a foreign country, and in May 1524 he sailed to Hamburg, never again to set foot in England. Not surrounded by books in the learned retirement of the ancient halls of Oxford and Cambridge, but as an exile in a foreign land, hunted by the untiring animosity of his enemies, Tyndale was to accomplish that glorious work for which England owes him an eternal debt of gratitude.

At Wittenberg and Cologne

There is little definite information about Tyndale’s movements on the Continent, but there are indications that he spent part of his first year at Wittenberg with Luther and other learned men. He was Luther’s equal in Greek scholarship and was acquainted with German, but Luther and the other learned men there knew no English, and although he could consult with them on difficult passages, they could not help with the English translation. He wrote: ‘I had no man to imitate, neither was helped with English of any that had interpreted the same or such like thing in the Scripture before time’. Wycliffe’s translation was in obsolete English and could not serve as a basis for a mere revision. The Greek New Testament of Erasmus had been printed in 1516, 1519, and 1522, and it is evident that Tyndale used his third edition as the basis of his English version.

Early in 1525 Tyndale moved to Cologne, where his printers were making good progress with the first edition when the city senate commanded them to stop. Tyndale and Roye took as many of the finished sheets as they could secure and sailed up the Rhine to escape arrest and imprisonment. At that time Cochloeus was in Cologne superintending the printing of his own works at the same press and he prevailed upon the senate to suppress Tyndale’s work. Tyndale and Roye resumed the work at Worms in October 1525 and Schoeffer, their printer, completed the first 8vo edition, two copies of which are still in existence. Only one copy survives of the second edition in 4to, which was printed by an unknown printer. Both editions were being smuggled into England in April 1526, and a well-organised clandestine colportage system ensured their rapid distribution in spite of the hostility of Henry VIII and the church authorities.

Tyndale’s Knowledge of Languages

Tyndale’s scholarship was acknowledged by his foes as well as by his friends. Sir Thomas More wrote: ‘Tyndale was well known for a man of right good living, studious and well learned in the Scriptures’. Buschius, a learned German contemporary, wrote: ‘He was so skilled in seven languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, and French, that whichever he spoke you would suppose it his native tongue’.

A comparison of Tyndale’s New Testament of 1525 with Luther’s of 1522 shows that Tyndale made good use of Luther’s material in the marginal notes, but when we pass to the actual text of the translation, the genuine originality and independence of Tyndale are at once conspicuously evident. Since those days the English Bible has been subjected to repeated revisions, and the scholarship of generations far better provided with sources and aids has been brought to bear upon it, but ‘that Book to which all Englishmen turn as the source, and guide and stay of their spiritual life, is still substantially the translation of Tyndale’. This is the highest tribute to the excellence of his work, which is woven into the fabric of the Authorised Version. Froude acknowledges that, ‘The peculiar genius which breathes through it, the mingled tenderness and majesty, the Saxon simplicity, the preternatural grandeur, unequalled and unapproached in the attempted improvements of modern scholars, all are here, and bear the impress of the mind of one man-William Tyndale’.

The Excellence of Tyndale’s Work

Memorials in bronze and stone record the life and labours of this gracious man of God, but the most enduring and appropriate monument is the English Bible itself. In it he showed that English is excelled by no language, ancient or modern, in its simplicity, majesty, strength, musical flow, ability to relate gracefully and perspicuously, to touch the feelings to awe by its solemnity, and to express the highest truths in the clearest words. In the Authorised Version Tyndale’s work survives as a model of the highest literary excellence, simple, honest, and manly, free alike from the pedantry of the verbal scholar, and from the affectation of the mere man of letters. If it must be admitted that his work was neither infallible nor immaculate, Tyndale himself expresses this with characteristic humility in his preface to the interrupted edition of Cologne:

‘I have here translated, brethren and sisters most dear and tenderly beloved in Christ, the New Testament for your spiritual edifying, consolation and solace; exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are better in the tongues than I, and have higher gifts of grace to interpret the sense of the Scripture and meaning of the Spirit than I, to consider and ponder my labour, and that with the spirit of meekness. And if they perceive in any places that I have not attained the very sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the honouring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is the body of Christ.’

Faithful Unto Death

Much more could be written of this faithful servant of God, of his years of labour on subsequent revisions, of his work on the Old Testament, of his other literary works, of his betrayal, arrest, imprisonment, and martyrdom. Humble and irreproachable in his life, zealous and devoted in his work, beloved by his friends, respected by his enemies, faithful unto death, where among the army of martyrs shall we find a nobler than William Tyndale? Our English Bible is no dead piece of learned labour. It is the Word of God, transmitted through the agency of one to whom that Word was the very life of his soul.

First published in Quarterly Record 450. Last edited 16 October 2023. 

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