The first printed English Bible
by Keith Bassham
William Tyndale, a genius and scholar with fluency in eight languages, read from the Greek New Testament while a student at Cambridge and Oxford. He therefore knew the Latin Vulgate distorted the Word of God, and became committed to making an English version for the people. Tyndale said that if God would spare his life he would make it possible for even a ploughboy to know more about Holy Scripture than the Pope himself. A century after Wycliffe, in August of 1525, his translation of the New Testament was complete. Printing the new translation was impossible in England, though after printing in Cologne, 6,000 were sold in England by April of 1526. Official opposition in England led to the destruction of most of these early copies, though a few survived.
Tyndale’s English work is similar to that of Martin Luther who had been translating in Germany. We believe he used Luther’s German translation, as well as the Latin Vulgate and Erasmus’ Greek text. His work was so well done that 90 percent of the New Testament in the King James Version (KJV) is Tyndale’s translation. By the same token, where the KJV departed from Tyndale’s wording, the English Revised Version (ERV) of 1881 went back to it.
Without question, this first printed English New Testament is the basis of all future works of translation, and his wording and sentence structures are found even in most modern-day translations of the Bible. Tyndale even invented words for his translation, words we still find familiar today: peacemaker, Passover, atonement, intercession, and scapegoat, are a few.
Tyndale did not live to complete his Old Testament translation. On May 21, 1535, he was arrested and later executed for heresy at Vilvoorde, Belgium, on October 6, 1536. However, we can see his heart and passion in a letter written from his cell in late fall 1535 to an authority who had the power to make his life somewhat more bearable.
“I believe, most excellent Sir, that you are not unacquainted with the decision reached concerning me. On which account, I beseech your lordship, even by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to pass the winter here, to urge upon the lord commissary, if he will deign, to send me from my goods in his keeping a warmer cap, for I suffer greatly from cold in the head, being troubled with a continual catarrh, which is aggravated in this prison vault. A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin. Also cloth for repairing my leggings. My overcoat is worn out; the shirts also are worn out. He has a woolen shirt of mine, if he will please send it. I have also with him leggings of heavier cloth for overwear. He likewise has warmer nightcaps: I also ask for leave to use a lamp in the evening, for it is tiresome to sit alone in the dark.
But above all, I beg and entreat your clemency earnestly to intercede with the lord commissary, that he would deign to allow me the use of my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Lexicon, and that I might employ my time with that study. Thus likewise may you obtain what you most desire, saving that it further the salvation of your soul. But if, before the end of winter, a different decision be reached concerning me, I shall be patient, and submit to the will of God to the glory of the grace of Jesus Christ my Lord, whose spirit may ever direct your heart. Amen.
W. Tyndale”
One can almost hear the echoes of the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy, from a similar situation and with requests:
“Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: … The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments … Do thy diligence to come before winter.” (2 Timothy 4:9, 13, 21)
Tyndale’s dying prayer was that the Lord would open the eyes of the King of England. He left behind a manuscript containing the translation of the historical books from Joshua to 2 Chronicles that was finally published in 1537. Two years later, in 1539, Henry VIII decreed that an English Bible should be made available in the churches of England, and he funded the production of what became known as “the Great Bible,” and in fewer than 100 years, the King James Version would bear the king’s name.