Dead Folk You Should Know - Tyndale
How much do we value God’s word? Here is the story of a man that will stir our hearts to appreciate what we have now. We English speakers owe a great debt to William Tyndale. Colin Reed writes of Tyndale's amazing achievements in life and his unjust death:
In the early 1500s it was illegal in England to have a Bible in English. The lack of Bible knowledge before the Reformation is shocking, even among the clergy. One bishop surveyed all the clergy in his diocese; fewer than half could recite the ten commandments, ten could not say the Lord’s prayer. They could only read a service in Latin!
But the people hungered for Bibles. Some were printed in Europe and smuggled into England; if they were found, they were burned and the owners punished.
Wycliffe’s translation of the 1300s was now outdated. Another scholar started on a new translation, William Tyndale. He had access to the original Hebrew and Greek. Tyndale’s friends warned him that it was too dangerous for him to work in England, so he went to Wittenberg in Germany, and from there fled to Holland. He completed the New Testament and then worked on the Old, getting as far as 2 Chronicles.
Then, in 1536, he was tricked into coming out of hiding by British agents. They strangled him to death then ritually burned his body. But the flame could not be extinguished; Miles Coverdale continued the translation and finished the Old Testament. That translation by Tyndale and Coverdale formed the basis for later translations.
Yet, God was at work. Two years after Tyndale was murdered, King Henry VIII ordered every church in Britain to have an English Bible on display for people to read, and six years after that the authorities ordered that a chapter of the OT and the NT be read in English every Sunday. We should not forget Tyndale, who gave his life for people to have God’s word in their own language.
(Incidentally, I, Colin, studied at Tyndale Hall in Bristol and in our chapel was the actual table at which he wrote.)
‘The world was not worthy of them.’ (Hebrews 11:38). Praise God for those who suffered that we can own a Bible in our own tongue! They would love us to show our thanks by… reading it!!
Grace and Peace,
Mark