Germanicus
nephew and adopted son of emperor Tiberius, heir of the Roman Empire
William Tyndale
English Bible translator and reformer
William Tyndale was a prominent English Bible translator and linguist who played a key role in the Protestant Reformation. His pioneering translations of the Bible into English helped spread Reformation ideas and influenced later versions, including the King James Bible.
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About the William Tyndale
William Tyndalewas an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known as a translator of much of the Bible into English, and was influenced by the works of prominent Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther.
Tyndale’s translations were the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation, and the first English translation to use Jehovahas God’s name. It was taken to be a direct challenge to the hegemony of the Catholic Church and of those laws of England maintaining the Church’s position. The work of Tyndale continued to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world.
A copy of Tyndale’s The Obedience of a Christian Manoutside Brussels for over a year. In 1536 he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake.
Tyndale’s translations of biblical books were re-used by subsequent English editions (often without his sectarian prefaces or annotations), including the Great Bible and the Bishops’ Bible, authorized by the Church of England. In 1611, after seven years of work, the 47 scholars who produced the King James Version of the Bible drew extensively from Tyndale’s original work and other translations that descended from his. One estimate suggests that the New Testament in the King James Version is 83% Tyndale’s words and the first half of the Old Testament 76%. In 2002, Tyndale was placed 26th in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Frequently Asked Questions
William Tyndale was an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution.
Tyndale is well known as a translator of much of the Bible into English, and his translations were the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts.
Tyndale’s translations were the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation and played a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world.
In 1536, Tyndale was arrested, convicted of heresy, and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake.
The scholars who produced the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 drew extensively from Tyndale’s original work, with one estimate suggesting that the New Testament is 83% Tyndale’s words and the first half of the Old Testament 76%.
Tyndale’s translations were the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, and the first to use the name ,Jehovah, for God.
Tyndale’s book ,The Obedience of a Christian Man, came into the hands of King Henry VIII, providing a rationale for breaking the Church in England away from the Catholic Church in 1534.
11 Quotes by William Tyndale
- 1.
No more doth it hurt to say that the body and blood are not in the sacrament.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 2.
I know divers, and divers men know me, which love me as I do them: yet if I should pray them, when I meet them in the street openly, they would abhor me; but if I pray them where they be appointed to meet me secretly, they will hear me and accept my request.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 3.
In the old covenants the people were sprinkled with blood of calves without, in their bodies, to bind them to keep the law; else we were bound to just damnation, for the breaking of it.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 4.
My overcoat is worn out; my shirts also are worn out. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening; it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 5.
And as the circumcised in the flesh, and not in the heart, have no part in God’s good promises; even so they that be baptized in the flesh, and not in heart, have no part in Christ’s blood.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 6.
Many things there be in the scripture, which have a carnal fulfilling, even there where they be spoken or done; and yet have another spiritual signification, to be fulfilled long after in Christ and his kingdom, and yet never known till the thing be done.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 7.
Here is also to be noted, that the cause of the institution was to be a memorial, to testify that Christ’s body was given, and his blood shed for us.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 8.
I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 9.
Christ made the bread the sacrament of his body only: wherefore as the bread is no similitude of his blood, so am I not bound or ought to affirm, that his blood is there present.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 10.
To see how Christ was prophesied and described therein, consider and mark, how that the kid or lamb must be with out spot or blemish; and so was Christ only of all mankind, in the sight of God and of his law.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer
- 11.
Neither was there any heresy, or diversity of opinion, or disputing about the matter, till the pope had gathered a council to confirm this transubstantiation: wherefore it is most likely that this opinion came up by them of latter days.
William TyndaleEnglish Bible translator and reformer