Wycliffe’s death did not stop people from wanting an English translation of the Bible. An obscure scholar, William Tyndale, was not content to merely translate the church’s Latin Bible. He wanted to use Greek and Hebrew manuscripts to create his English translation.
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
Erasmus, Tyndale had a feel for the poetry of the English language. It is Tyndale who
gave us phrases like:
"Let there be light"
"Let my people go"
"The truth shall make you free"
"Am I my brother’s keeper?"
In fact, 85% of the King James Version of the Bible was taken directly from
Tyndale’s translation.
Although Tyndale’s translated words are still with us today,
his Bibles (this link is to the Gospel of Luke in Tyndale’s 1536 New Testament) were burned in special ceremonies in London and Antwerp.
Cardinal Wolsey, no doubt at Henry VIII’s direction, wanted to
eliminate all English Bibles
from the land. Tyndale and his editor, John Rogers, were executed for translating the Bible into the vernacular.
As Tyndale and Rogers were publicly strangled, then burned at the stake, Tyndale’s last words were for the King of England. He prayed for Henry VIII to see the light and allow Tyndale’s
English translation to stand. One year after Tyndale’s death, Henry VIII allowed it.
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
its copy (which was published in Germany).