My dear readers,

The Debt We Owe - II

The debt we owe William Tyndale

William Tyndale is the unsung hero of the English Reformation and of English Protestantism. For his masterly translation of the Bible he has enriched the English language more than any man. According to a recent exhibit jointly sponsored by the British Library and the American Library of Congress, it is publicly affirmed: “Contrary to what history teaches about Chaucer being the Father of the English Language, this mantle belongs to William Tyndale whose work was read by ten thousand times as many people as Chaucer.” What an amazing revelation!

Tyndale’s English, enshrined in his Bible translation and the KJB, has moulded the speech of generations of readers through the centuries following. The British Library described Tyndale’s New Testament (1526) as “the most important printed book in the English language.” Also, note carefully, Tyndale’s English is “Classic Bible English,” not Elizabethan or archaic. His English is not really hard to understand, no harder than today’s English.

Just consider these household sayings which have become part of common speech wherever English is spoken around the world:

“Am I my brother’s keeper'”

“Eat, drink, be merry, tomorrow we die ... “

“A prophet is not without honour save in his own country.”

“Fight the good fight of faith.”

“The spirit is willing … the flesh is weak.”

“A man after his own heart.”

“The signs of the times.”

These and many other commonly uttered sayings came from the pen of William Tyndale in his Bible, now in the KJB.

But most important of all, let us remind ourselves, Tyndale’s Old and New Testaments were the first ever English translation of the Scripture taken directly from the original Hebrew and Greek Texts. Speaking of the Tyndale Bible, The Times of London says it is “… the basis of all English language Bibles, until the recent fiascos. It’s phrases and cadences, both homely and pungent, are so woven into the language as to be rarely recognized as the work of an individual author …”

The Times refers to the advent of the corrupt and unfaithful Modern English Versions as “fiascos.”

The timeless excellence of Tyndale’s work endures to this day. When the select company of scholars appointed by King James sat to translate, they could do no better than to adopt Tyndale’s work almost in its entirety. Over eighty-five percent of the Authorized Version’s New Testament and the first half of the Old Testament were taken directly from Tyndale’s – albeit unacknowledged … Tyndale carefully chose words which would clearly express the meaning of the original Bible languages.” (Excerpt from The William Tyndale Home Page: William Tyndale: Fire For the Ploughman.)

William Tyndale’s reward is in heaven.

To Tyndale was given the vision to be God’s instrument to translate the Word of Life in a language which eventually was understood by the most number of people on Planet Earth. This was God’s doing. Tyndale gave himself to the task as one possessed by God – body, soul, and spirit. He tread the martyrs’ path.

Tyndale had counted the cost: he knew full well the price of opposing the authority, and he made no secret of it: “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost,” addressing his words to a priest of the church. Tyndale achieved his objective at the cost of his life. In translating the Word of life he won the prize.

Copies of the Tyndale Bible which escaped the attention of the authorities literally set the country alight with the Gospel, that salvation is God’s gift, freely bestowed and freely received by faith in Christ, and not by good works or penance or prescription of the Church. The Gospel message set free masses of English people from ignorance and fear.

In order to accomplish his life work, Tyndale went into self exile on the Continent, moving from city to city to escape detection and arrest. Under conditions of extreme hardship and danger to life, he pressed on with the task, undeterred by any adversity. But betrayal caught up with him, and he was confined in prison near Brussels. From prison he wrote a pitiful letter to the authority for relief from his physical suffering, asking for “… a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold in the head … a warmer coat, for that which I have is very thin; also a piece of cloth to patch up my leggings … my overcoat has been worn out: my shirts too … I wish also … to have a candle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark.”

Visualize William Tyndale, far from home and family, stranger in a foreign land suffering for the sake of the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, with the prospect of death ever hanging over his head.

Let us be reminded of the price paid by the Son of God for our redemption; that he “ … for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame ...” (Heb 12:2 ). For our sakes, the Lord Jesus willingly suffered.

Likewise Tyndale, following in the footsteps of his Master, saw in his mind’s eye the day dawning when the Scripture in the English mother tongue would travel from city to city, cottage to cottage, dispelling the spiritual darkness and bondage of a thousand years, imposed by the Church, thus restoring men and women back to the Word of God and into the liberty of the Gospel. For the joy that was set before him, Tyndale willingly suffered prison and death. (To be continued)

Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Senior Pastor