Sponsor Links
| William Tyndale - Biography |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by David Gaddy | |||
| Wednesday, 31 December 1969 23:59 | |||
William Tyndale is one of those names that you hear along with other names of the restoration period that grew from intolerance ...
 William Tyndale is one of those names that you hear along with other names of the restoration period that grew from intolerance of the Catholic rule that had engulfed the World in the dark ages. His name follows on the heals of Luther and Wycliffe in this movement. However, Tyndale's part in our Bible's history is larger than you may realize.To preface the events leading to Tyndale's involvement, let's begin in 400AD. The Roman church had been using carefully transcribed Greek manuscripts for the past 3 centuries to convey the writings of the apostles. It was noted that the Greek language was changing and it was feared that the original writings would be marred by this if they were continually transcribed, so it was decided that since Latin was a dead unused language, then the scriptures integrity could be maintained forever by translating it to Latin. This became the job of Jerome of Bethlehem. This was a noble idea and the Latin Vulgate was created and used for 1000 years. Over the years the Catholic Church became corrupted more and more by unscriptural rules and regulations that were created to give the Church more of a governmental power. Since the only scripture readily available was now in Latin, then most of the common people were oblivious to this, because only the church scholars could read and understand it. In fact, the Catholic Church became so entrenched that many of the priests could not even understand what they were reading when they presented the scriptures. In 1494 William Tyndale was born in Glouchestershire, England. He was educated at Oxford in 1512 and ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church in 1514. Tyndale was a very talented student and priest and was a very accomplished linguist. He mastered and became fluent in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. He became very well versed in the Latin Vulgate as well as the Greek Septuagint. As his studies grew so did his understanding that the Catholic Church was very wrong and was imposing false doctrine upon the world. He began to have dinner parties where he would discuss such issues. Many times these topics of discussion let to disagreements and soon to an accusation of heresy in 1521. This was taken lightly and never really proved to the Catholic Church. Then Henry VIII was crowned King of England, and while he had no great love for the Catholic Church, he was obedient in case he needed the political ties. It was about this time when Tyndale began to write down some of his studies and opinions. He even published a few anonymously. By this time William Tyndale had decided that he would translate the new testament into a language that everyone could understand, even the plough boy. In his zeal, he proclaimed this to a colleague who had said that regardless of the scripture the Pope was the authority. Tyndale's words were, "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." and Tyndale soon became a wanted man. Tyndale then left England and headed for Hamburg, Germany in 1524 where he began his work on the New Testament basing his translation on the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, and other Greek manuscripts. His work brought him to Cologne where he began to print his work. It's important for us in this day and time to understand the tedious process of printing anything in the early 1500s. The printing press had not been created yet and printing a book took a substantial amount of time. Each letter was an individual metal stamp that had to be aligned one by one, then pressed, then realigned for the next page. Therefore the trust of a good printer was required and Tyndale was printing illegal contraband since the Catholic Church regarded any translation of scriptures other than Latin to be heresy. Tyndale was betrayed by his printer in Cologne and had to flee to avoid capture. He went to Worms where he printed the first English New Testament ever printed. It was completed in 1526 and began to make its way back to England as contraband on boats hidden in laundry and grain sacks. Soon copies were all throughout England and the Catholic Church was furious. Every copy found by the authorities was burned and those caught with the Word were imprisoned, tortured and many times executed. This didn't seem to deter the English from scrambling for copies of the New Testament. This continued for a few years as Catholic officials hunted Tyndale, and Tyndale worked on the Old Testament. Then on his way back to Hamburg, Tyndale's ship was shipwrecked and he lost everything; all his source documents and work to date. This did not stop him either. Through it all, he managed to print the English Pentateuch (5 Books of Moses) in 1530 at Antwerp. Then William Tyndale met Henry Phillips a fellow translator with obvious common beliefs. What William Tyndale did not know, was that Phillips was a spy sent by Catholic authorities to find Tyndale and befriend him. Once Tyndale's confidence in Phillips was secured, Phillips reported Tyndale's whereabouts. In the night of May 21, 1535 Catholic authorities broke in and kidnapped William Tyndale. After his arrest, he was pretty much defenseless. He hoped that he could obtain the sympathies of the King. But Henry VIII had an agenda to divorce his current wife Catherine because she was not producing an heir. The Catholic Church would not allow the divorce on these grounds, so Henry was working on false accusations of unfaithfulness and needed the Church's help. Tyndale was tried and convicted of heresies against the Church and sentenced to death. Rumor has it that Tyndale continued to work on his translation of the Old Testament from prison with the help of friends. On October 6, 1536 at the age of 42, William Tyndale is taken to a stake, strangled, and burned for bringing the word of God to the English speaking people. Tyndale's dying words were, "Lord! open the king of England's eyes." William Tyndale's dying prayer appeared to be answered within the year.
Tyndale's work may have gone un-rewarded during his life, but his work echoed into the hands of millions of Christians. Over 90% of Tyndale's words made it directly into the King James Version, the most trusted version in print today.
|
