William Tyndale
William Tyndale
Why he is up there with Chaucer, Cranmer and Shakespeare.
William Tyndale is remembered by the Church of England on 6th October, the date on which he was strangled and burned for heresy in Vilvorde, just north of Brussels in 1536.
Before he was committed to the flames, he cried out “Lord, open the King of England’s Eyes!”. Two years later, the order went out from Thomas Cromwell on behalf of King Henry VIII that every church in England should possess a Bible in English. That Bible, known as The Great Bible, was almost entirely Tyndale’s work.
Tyndale was only 42 when he was executed. He began his studies at Magdalen Hall in Oxford at the age of 12, showing a real aptitude for languages. Within thirty years, this astonishing man from Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire had impacted the English-speaking peoples, as Churchill called them, as much as Chaucer, Cranmer, Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens. In fact, the only one of those greats not influenced by Tyndale was Chaucer who was long dead.
Glossing over his theological works, including the highly influential Obedience of the Christian Man,Tyndale’s magnum opus was his English translation of the New Testament which was published in 1526. He had also translated much of the Old Testament before he was tracked down and prevented from completing his life’s work.
Shocked by his local clergy’s ignorance of scripture – and appalled at their lack of devotion to the scriptures to which they alone had access, Tyndale is reputed to have said that:
"If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy who drives a plough to know more of the scriptures than you do".
With an English Bible in every church in England, of which there were thousands, within a few years of his death, Tyndale’s work had given the ploughboy a fighting chance.
But Tyndale’s work did not just live on the pages of the Great Bible and in the hearts and minds of those who heard that word, as if that were not a sufficient legacy. Much of his work lived on in the King James Version of 1611. According to Melvyn Bragg and self-confessed Tyndale fan:
The King James Bible New Testament is almost entirely Tyndale's work, now estimated at more than 93%. In the Old Testament, the books he translated (the first five) are about 85% Tyndale, His voice rises from his ashes and we hear it everywhere – in internal diplomacy, on ‘world committees’ of multiple purposes, new English based dialects and new versions of the Bible. Tyndale's work is the fundamental engine, the touchstone and the driving force through its influence on literature, films, theatre, television and radio and education. It is expressed through the King James Bible of 1611.1
Such was the chasm between the original texts of scripture and 16th Century English, Tyndale found himself having to invent new words. Without these neologisms, we would struggle to think biblically. Tyndale gave us the words ‘intercession’, ‘atonement’, ‘Passover’, ‘mercy seat’ and ‘scapegoat’.
Moreover, Tyndale’s work had crucial theological consequences – for the better – as he translated the Greek word metanoia as “repent” rather than “do penance.” Repentance and doing penance look very different.
Stop The Press!
No wonder the establishment tried to stop him. What is still so astonishing is the actions of the Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall who burned every copy of Tyndale’s New Testament outside St Paul’s Cathedral in 1526. God’s word in the language of the people was torched. For those hungry for reform, this was a truly shocking sight.
For Tyndale, Tunstall had once been a figure of hope. Sensing a kindred spirit, Tyndale reached out to the bishop for patronage, protection and help to produce an English Bible. This was illegal under a law from 1401, banning the work of John Wycliffe and his writings and those of his followers – including vernacular Bible translations. This was all confirmed by a Convocation of the church in Oxford in 1408.
At that point, Wycliffe and his followers could only work from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate which was, in itself a translation, and an ancient one at that. By the 1520s, original Greek texts were available. Cuthbert Tunstall had worked with Erasmus on an edition of a Greek/Latin New Testament.
But the bishop refused a place to Tyndale in his household, leaving the upstart scholar to chance his arm in Europe. He left England for Germany in 1524, never to return, but he would at least be safe from persecution, enabling him to carry out his work. Or so he thought.
Publish the New Testament and Be Damned?
Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament was published in 1526 and copies smuggled into England. Then, learning Hebrew, he used his prodigious abilities to translate the Old Testament.
But he was not safe. Betrayed by a friend called Henry Phillips, he was lured out of safety, captured by Imperial agents and imprisoned for sixteen months. He was accused of various heresies which to you and I amount to fairly conventional Protestant views. He was ultimately tried on charges of Lutheran heresy, although he himself was not a Lutheran, found guilty and sentenced to death. His strangulation was permitted as a kindness.
In life, William Tyndale had given modern English expression to the very words of God. In his death, on 6thOctober 1536, Tyndale showed he was no mere wordsmith. The words on the page of scripture were shown to be written on his own heart. Refusing to recant in exchange for his own life, even though he had more work to do, he submitted to death, confident in his Christ’s atonement and his own resurrection on the last day.
Why not celebrate the day by reading scripture aloud in a public place, or putting your favourite verse on social media?
Making Culture and Having a Cow
In some ways, Jazz Cow is a William Tyndale, being part of the resistance against Doctor Popp. If you’re not read this piece I wrote about the Jazz Cow project, why not take the time now? And consider backing it. It directly and seriously affects my bottom line:
Do you Want to Make Your Own Culture?
And if you’re wanting make your own stuff - like write a novel, produce a play or shoot sketches for YouTube - I’m running a 90 minute webinar on Thursday at 6pm UK time called Making Your Own Entertainment. It’s pay-what-you-like so for a little as £2, we could be in a zoom room talking about your idea.
Changing the Culture with Jokes
If I may ‘pivot’ from changing the culture back in the 16th century to today. My friend, the Reformed Mythologist Nate Morgan Locke, just made this excellent videos about how sitcoms can - and do - change the culture. Watching this is a very pleasant and informative way to spend 14 minutes.
William Tyndale: A Very Brief History (2019) by Melvyn Bragg