- This topic is empty.
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
-
Posts
-
William Tyndale, the man who translated the Bible into English and was burned alive at the ridiculously young age of 42, for his efforts.
Nearly 500 years ago, this week, William Tyndale, affectionately called “Father of the English Bible,” was strangled and burned at the stake after being tried and convicted of heresy and reason for translating the Bible into English.
HIS TRANSGRESSION!
He translated the Greek Bible into English.
That you have a Bible in a language you can read is largely due to its labor, and many of the phrases you read in it retain the flavor of its understanding of the Greek and Hebrew.
A graduate of Oxford and Cambridge, Tyndale had a powerful desire to make the Bible available even to the common people in England in order to correct the “biblical ignorance of the priests.” At one point, Tyndale said to a priest, “If God spares my life, many years will pass, I will cause a boy who drives the plow to know more about Scripture than you know.”
Today, 90% of the King James Version of the Holy Bible and 75% of the Revised Standard Version of the translation were made by Tyndale, a man to whom you owe more than you will ever know.
A beautiful dream, but how was Tyndale to accomplish his task when translating the Bible into English was ILLEGAL at the time?’
He went to London to ask Bishop Tunstall if he could be authorized to make an English translation of the Bible, but the bishop declined to give his approval.
Tyndale, however, would not allow the disapproval of men to stop him from carrying out what seemed so obviously God’s will. With encouragement and support from some British merchants, he decided to go to Europe to complete his translation, then have it printed and smuggled back to England.
In 1524 Tyndale sailed for Germany. In Hamburg he worked on the New Testament, and in Cologne he found a printer who would print the work. However, news of Tyndale’s activities came to an opponent of the Reformation who caused the press to strike.
Tyndale himself managed to escape with the pages already printed and made his way to the German city of Worms where the New Testament was soon published.
Six thousand copies were printed and smuggled into England.
The bishops did everything in their power to eradicate the Bibles. Bishop Tunstall had copies ceremonially burned at St. Paul’s; the Archbishop of Canterbury bought copies to destroy them. Tyndale used the money to print improved spending!
Tyndale continued to hide among the merchants in Antwerp and began translating the Old Testament while the king’s agents searched for him all over England and Europe.
A copy of Tyndale’s “The Obedience of a Christian Man” fell into the hands of Henry VIII, who provided the king with the reason for breaking the Church in England from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.
In 1535 Tyndale was arrested and arrested for over a year in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) outside Brussels.
Tyndale’s work was denounced by authorities of the Roman Catholic Church and Tyndale himself was accused of heresy.
Tyndale, 42, was eventually found by an Englishman posing as his friend but then surrendering to authorities. After a year and a half in prison, he was executed for heresy — THAT, AMONG OTHER THINGS, HE BELIEVES IN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND THAT THE GRACE OFFERED IN THE GOSPEL IS ENOUGH FOR SALVATION. In August 1536 he was condemned and was publicly executed on 6 October 1536 in a small village in Belgium [burned alive at the stake].
As he burned to death, Tyndale reportedly said, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
HAS HIS PRAYER BEEN ANSWERED?
YES! The prayer was only partially answered when, three years later, in 1539, Henry VIII required every parish church in England to make a copy of the English Bible available to his parishioners. Today, Tyndale’s prayer is fully answered, not only is the King’s eyes opened, but the Bible a universal instrument.
* In 1611, the 54 scholars who produced the King James Bible drew significantly from Tyndale, as well as from translations descended from his.
* In 2002, Tyndale was placed at number 26 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons; but in heaven he would surely be before the preceding 25.
A very important and interesting piece of history that is worth knowing and appreciated by all believers.
And may it *challenge* us to spend quality time in this same glorious book for which this great servant literally gave his life.
Today it is difficult to imagine the world without an English Bible, and there may now be as many as 900 of such translations – but before Tyndale this had never happened. He is known as the Father of the English Bible, as the later, epochal work of the King James Version of the Bible consisted largely of Tyndale’s scholarly and accessible translations.
The English language, as with scholarly understanding, continues to evolve – and so the work of Bible translation continues today.
But without the courage and genius of men like Tyndale, who challenged the status quo before them and died for it, this might never have been possible.
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.