William Tyndale was born around the year 1494 in Melksham Court, Stinchcombe, a village near Dursley, Gloucestershire in south west England.
Tyndale took a Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford University's Magdalen Hall (later Hertford College), starting in 1506 and receiving his B.A. six years later. He became a subdeacon around the same time. Tyndale was made Master of Arts in July 1515. Between 1517 and 1521, Tyndale went to the University of Cambridge.
He was a gifted linguist and became fluent over the years in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, in addition to English.
Tyndale was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and by Martin Luther. However in England the bishops had banned the English Bible because they feared the Lollards, who had their own translation (the Wyclif Bible). This was because their translation had been made only from the Latin Vulgate and was inaccurate.
Tyndale became chaplain at the home of Sir John Walsh at Little Sodbury in South Gloucerstershire and tutor to his children in the early 1520s. While there he saw at first hand the ignorance of the local clergy about the scriptures. To one cleric he is said to have declared "If God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!" This task became his life's work.
Tyndale left for London a couple of years later to seek permission from the learned bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, to translate the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek. The bishop, however, declined to extend his patronage. In due course Tyndale obtained financial support from a cloth merchant, Humphrey Monmouth.
It was clear that England was no safe place to translate the Bible so in the spring of 1524 Tyndale left for continental Europe. He never returned to his homeland.
On arriving in Europe, Tyndale began clandestinely translating the New Testament, possibly in Wittenberg. By early 1525 the New Testament was ready for the press and an incomplete version was produced in Cologne, which was interrupted by the impact of anti-Lutheranism. A full version of Tyndale's New Testament was printed in 1526 by Peter Schöffer in Worms, a free imperial city then in the process of adopting Lutheranism. More copies were soon printed in Antwerp.
When Tyndale's Bible was printed and smuggled back into Britain, the common people flocked to hear the humor, violence and suspense of the Biblical stories. Despite its popularity the Bishop of London ordered all copies to be seized and burned but these were replaced and copies continued to be smuggled in great quantities into England and Scotland. It was so popular that people were paying two weeks wages for a copy.
In 1530, Tyndale wrote The Practyse of Prelates, which opposed King Henry VIII of England's divorce from Catherine of Aragon on the grounds that it contravened Scripture.
In 1535 Tyndale was betrayed and arrested near Brussels under the orders of the Holy Roman Emperor. On October 6, 1536 he was strangled then burnt at the stake in Vilvoord. "Lord open the eyes of the King of England" were William Tyndale's last words before being killed.
After his death Tyndale was vilified by authorities in church and state in England. Nothing was too bad to say about his English translation of the Bible. Thousands of copies were seized on entering Britain and were publicly burned.
Within three years William Tyndale's final prayer was answered when the English-language Bible was accepted by the crown. A complete English Bible, two thirds of it Tyndale's work and licensed by Henry VIII, was circulating in Britain with an image of the king on the title page. That Bible was read out at every church in the land which meant that people all over the kingdom gradually learned the same standardized version of the English language.
William Tyndale's translation of the Bible introduced new words into the English language, such as peacemaker, scapegoat, and beautiful.
90% of the King James Version of the Bible and 75% of the Revised Standard Version are from the translation of the Bible into English made by William Tyndale.
Source The Lion History of Christianity
 |
| William Tyndale |
Tyndale took a Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford University's Magdalen Hall (later Hertford College), starting in 1506 and receiving his B.A. six years later. He became a subdeacon around the same time. Tyndale was made Master of Arts in July 1515. Between 1517 and 1521, Tyndale went to the University of Cambridge.
He was a gifted linguist and became fluent over the years in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, in addition to English.
Tyndale was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and by Martin Luther. However in England the bishops had banned the English Bible because they feared the Lollards, who had their own translation (the Wyclif Bible). This was because their translation had been made only from the Latin Vulgate and was inaccurate.
Tyndale became chaplain at the home of Sir John Walsh at Little Sodbury in South Gloucerstershire and tutor to his children in the early 1520s. While there he saw at first hand the ignorance of the local clergy about the scriptures. To one cleric he is said to have declared "If God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!" This task became his life's work.
 |
| Portrait of William Tyndale (1836) |
Tyndale left for London a couple of years later to seek permission from the learned bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, to translate the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek. The bishop, however, declined to extend his patronage. In due course Tyndale obtained financial support from a cloth merchant, Humphrey Monmouth.
It was clear that England was no safe place to translate the Bible so in the spring of 1524 Tyndale left for continental Europe. He never returned to his homeland.
On arriving in Europe, Tyndale began clandestinely translating the New Testament, possibly in Wittenberg. By early 1525 the New Testament was ready for the press and an incomplete version was produced in Cologne, which was interrupted by the impact of anti-Lutheranism. A full version of Tyndale's New Testament was printed in 1526 by Peter Schöffer in Worms, a free imperial city then in the process of adopting Lutheranism. More copies were soon printed in Antwerp.
 |
| The beginning of the Gospel of John, from Tyndale's 1525 translation of the New Testament. |
When Tyndale's Bible was printed and smuggled back into Britain, the common people flocked to hear the humor, violence and suspense of the Biblical stories. Despite its popularity the Bishop of London ordered all copies to be seized and burned but these were replaced and copies continued to be smuggled in great quantities into England and Scotland. It was so popular that people were paying two weeks wages for a copy.
In 1530, Tyndale wrote The Practyse of Prelates, which opposed King Henry VIII of England's divorce from Catherine of Aragon on the grounds that it contravened Scripture.
In 1535 Tyndale was betrayed and arrested near Brussels under the orders of the Holy Roman Emperor. On October 6, 1536 he was strangled then burnt at the stake in Vilvoord. "Lord open the eyes of the King of England" were William Tyndale's last words before being killed.
 |
| Tyndale, before being strangled and burned at the stake. Fom Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563). |
After his death Tyndale was vilified by authorities in church and state in England. Nothing was too bad to say about his English translation of the Bible. Thousands of copies were seized on entering Britain and were publicly burned.
Within three years William Tyndale's final prayer was answered when the English-language Bible was accepted by the crown. A complete English Bible, two thirds of it Tyndale's work and licensed by Henry VIII, was circulating in Britain with an image of the king on the title page. That Bible was read out at every church in the land which meant that people all over the kingdom gradually learned the same standardized version of the English language.
William Tyndale's translation of the Bible introduced new words into the English language, such as peacemaker, scapegoat, and beautiful.
90% of the King James Version of the Bible and 75% of the Revised Standard Version are from the translation of the Bible into English made by William Tyndale.
Source The Lion History of Christianity
No comments:
Post a Comment