Tuesday 26 June 2007

William Tyndale and the English Bible


William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536) has been called “the father of the English Reformation,” and is known for his translation into English of the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament. He attended Hertford College, Oxford, receiving degrees in 1512 and 1515. As an ordained priest he later studied at Cambridge, where he came into contact with Erasmus. By the early 1520s was working on a translation of the Bible into English. Church authorities did not support this effort, though, which forced him to flee to the continent, where he met Martin Luther and others. Tyndale’s English New Testament was published at Worms in 1526, and copies were smuggled into England. Tyndale was condemned as a heretic, and he went into hiding, continuing to translate other parts of the Bible. He was arrested in Antwerp and burned at the stake outside Brussels in 1536. Tyndale’s influence on later editions of the English Bible, particularly the King James version, is great, and he has been called an architect of the English language. The stained glass window shown here is located at Hertford College; it depicts the reformer holding a book above a printing press scene. The names of other reformers are listed on the side windows, and there are several inscriptions, including “Every man in his own language.”