My dear readers,

The Bible of Bible-Presbyterianism
– Part III
Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor, Calvary Pandan BPC

2. William Tyndale (1494 - 1536)

A brilliant scholar of Oxford and Cambridge, William Tyndale was won to Christ reading Erasmus’ Greek New Testament. Having received the “treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7), he vowed that he would devote his life to translate the Scriptures from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek so that his fellowmen might read the pure, unadulterated Word of God in their mother tongue.

The terror of Rome working through the English bishops caused him to go into self exile on the Continent, moving from place to place to elude his enemies. Labouring tirelessly Tyndale completed the New Testament in 1525. An estimated 18,000 copies were secretly shipped to England. To stem the tide of Tyndale Bibles, the Bishop of London ordered the Books intercepted and burned.

The Tyndale Bibles literally set England alight! “The entrance of thy word giveth light” (Psalm 119:130). Only God’s light could dispel the spiritual darkness over England, where people were taught by the priests to rely on the merit of works for justification, such as making pilgrimages to shrines, kissing and kneeling before images, relying on penances and indulgences, and a host of other Romish superstitions. From cradle to grave, the people were held in the grip of the priesthood, until Tyndale’s Bible came and set them free.

But betrayal caught up with Tyndale. On the morning of October 6, 1536, he was taken to the place of execution, tied to the stake, strangled, then burned. At his death Tyndale prayed - “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”

William Tyndale “fought a good fight, finished his course, kept the faith.” In a blaze of glory he won the hearts of believers in England and Europe, and the title “Hero of the Reformation.”

Tyndale’s Bible became the foundation of the KJV, the greatest translation coming out of the Reformation. About 85 percent of the KJV is taken from the “Tyndale Bible.”

3. John Rogers (1500 - 1555)

John Rogers took up the pen when his friend William Tyndale laid it down. Working on the unfinished books of the Old Testament, he completed it in 1537, calling it the Matthew’s Bible (after his pen name Thomas Matthew). For his part in defying the authorities he was arrested and condemned. On February 4, 1555, John Rogers followed William Tyndale to the fires of martyrdom.

For love of the Bible and “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3), John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, John Rogers, and a host of other men and women in England, suffered the fires of Rome.

But Rome never rested in her attempts to return England to the fold. The Council of Trent (1545 - 1563), the Jesuit Douay Bible (1582) and the Spanish Armada (1588), gave notice of Rome’s undying determination to subdue England.

In the light of these persisting threats, a thousand Protestant ministers in England petitioned King James to authorize a new translation - a national effort to give England a superior and enduring Bible, faithful and true to the Protestant faith, which would unite the nation against the Romanizing forces.

The King commissioned a company of scholars, experts in Hebrew and Greek, drawn from the three centres of learning: London, Cambridge, Oxford, initially comprising fifty-four men. Working according to a systematic programme with meticulous checks and counter-checks, the band of godly men gathered the most faithful and trustworthy manuscripts and “Reformation Translations,” the chief of which was the Tyndale Bible, the committee laboured from 1604 for seven years.

The result was the King James Bible (1611), a translation without equal. It was “The Reformation Bible,” a national treasure with six vital qualities.

(1) Reformation Spirit
With England fighting her way out of Roman subjection, there was a prevailing spirit of Reformation in the KJV, the spirit of “earnestly contending for the faith” (Jude 3) for which men and women had endured fire, dungeon and sword.

(2) The Philosophy

The philosophy of the men behind the KJV was uncontaminated with the leaven of modern thought: German rationalism, Darwinian evolutionism, higher criticism. These only arose in the following two centuries.

(3) The Translators
These were chosen scholars from London, Oxford, and Cambridge, men of impeccable fidelity to Holy Scripture, whose one commitment was to translate the texts faithfully and true to the Lord who gave the Word.

(4) The Texts
These were the best manuscripts - the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament Text and the Received Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus), the most accurate and perfectly preserved copies of the inspired, inerrant, infallible Scriptures. These copies (apographs) were in the possession of the faithful Church up to the time of the Reformation, and accepted by Protestant scholars as the most accurate and perfectly preserved texts, purest and closest to the originals (autographs). These stood against the corrupt Westcott-Hort Texts which contained an amazing number of fabrications. (From these corrupt texts came Modern English Bibles.)

(5) The Technique
The King James Bible translators adhered strictly to the literal method of translation: “Verbal Equivalence” or “Word for Word” technique, the Spirit-guided safeguard which ensured a faithful translation, free from the corruption of men’s ideas.

(6) The Theology
The translators were men of faith and sound understanding of God’s Word. Among their company were High Churchmen of the Church of England and Puritan scholars -fully submitted to the authority of Scripture, and uncontaminated by the modern thought and godless ideology of the later centuries. (To be continued ..)

Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Senior Pastor