<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE BIBLE:<br> HOW IT CAME TO US<br><br> <font size="4">CHAPTER 8<br> WILLIAM TYNDALE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION</b></font></p> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Wycliffe’s death did not stop people from wanting the Bible translated into English. An obscure scholar, <a href="http://www.williamtyndale.com/0page1c.htm" target="_blank"><b>William Tyndale</b></a>, was not content to merely translate the church’s Latin Bible. He wanted to use Greek and Hebrew manuscripts to create his English translation.</p> <p>Most folks today don’t realize how significant William Tyndale still is to the English-speaking world. Using Greek and Hebrew texts prepared by the Dutch scholar <a href="http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/portraits/eramus.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Erasmus</b></a>, Tyndale had a feel for the poetry of the English language. It is Tyndale who gave us phrases like:</p> <center><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>"Let there be light"</center> <center>"Let my people go"</center> <center>"The truth shall make you free"</center> <center>"Am I my brother’s keeper?"</center></font></b></i> <p><font face="arial, helvetica">In fact, <a href="http://www.williamtyndale.com/0page1a2.htm" target="_blank"><b>85%</b></a> of the King James Version of the Bible was taken directly from Tyndale’s translation.</p> <p>Although Tyndale’s translated words are still with us today, <a href="http://www.lib.umich.edu/pap/exhibits/papyri_james/02_14.jpg" target="_blank"><b>his Bibles</b></a> (this link is to the Gospel of Luke in Tyndale’s 1536 New Testament) were burned in special ceremonies in London and Antwerp. <a href="http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/chch/history/pix/wolsey.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Cardinal Wolsey</b></a>, no doubt at Henry VIII’s direction, wanted to eliminate all English Bibles from the land. Tyndale and his editor, <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006469.jpg" target="_blank"><b>John Rogers</b></a>, were <a href="http://www.williamtyndale.com/0page1a.htm" target="_blank"><b>executed</b></a> for translating the Bible into the vernacular.</p> <p>As <a href="http://www.williamtyndale.com/0page1a.htm" target="_blank"><b>Tyndale and Rogers</b></a> were publicly strangled, then burned at <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006402.jpg" target="_blank"><b>the stake</b></a>, Tyndale’s last words were for the King of England. He prayed for <a href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/images2/history/henry8b.htm" target="_blank"><b>Henry VIII</b></a> to see the light and allow Tyndale’s English translation to stand. One year after Tyndale’s death, Henry VIII allowed it.</p> <p>Today, only three known copies of the Tyndale New Testament (which had to be published outside England) are known to exist. In 1994, the British Library paid more than 1 million pounds for <a href="http://www.bl.uk/diglib/treasures/tyndale-bible.html" target="_blank"><b>its copy</b></a> (which was published in Germany).</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="bible_story_ch7.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="bible_story_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="bible_story_ch9.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>