William Tyndale

William Tyndale’s Bible translations are perhaps the best kept secret in English historical scholarship. Many have heard of Tyndale but few have knowingly read him. Yet no other Englishman - including Shakespeare - has reached so many. Tyndale was the first to translate the Bible into modern English. Why was his work so important? His 1534 New Testament, widely read itself, was a linguistic lynchpin of our culture as it was later used for much other written scholarship. In fact, as the basis for today’s global lingua franca, it’s probably the most influential text in world history.

Tyndale's background

Tyndale was born around 1494 into a middle class family based near Dursley in rural Gloucestershire. His ancestors had originated in Northumberland. He went on to study for several years at Oxford and in 1517, perhaps at Cambridge, though this is less certain. His MA in 1515 allowed him to read theology, though he complained the course did not include Scripture. A phenomenal scholar and brilliant linguist, he found the time and energy to learn French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin and Spanish - a list later topped up with Hebrew. As Diarmaid MacCulloch nicely puts it, "He was a gourmet of language". 

Little Sodbury Manor

In 1521 he found a job as tutor to Sir John Walsh’s family at the manor of Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire. It’s a lovely house in the Cotswolds, and Tyndale’s duties there wouldn’t have been especially onerous. He preached around the area, including at Bristol Green, and irritated some local clergymen with his reformist opinions. Summoned before John Bell, Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester, and other church leaders, he argued his corner and came up with a memorable quote. A colleague asserted “We had better be without God’s laws than the Pope’s”. Tyndale (in today’s English) replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws - and if God spares my life, before long I’ll ensure the ploughboy knows more of the Scriptures than you”. Chatting riskily to a colleague on another occasion about the papacy, he was told “The Pope is the Antichrist, but if you say so you’ll be killed”.  

Tyndale developed an argumentative streak, and perhaps for various reasons, found his life in Gloucestershire of private study and translation too limiting. In 1523, hoping to paint on a bigger canvas, he moved to London and asked permission from Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall to translate the Bible into English. Averse to the idea, the Bishop excused himself by saying he had no room for Tyndale in his household.  Based in London for a while, he stayed with Humphrey Monmouth, a cloth merchant sympathetic to reformist ideas. Under Monmouth’s patronage he lectured widely in and around the city. He spent time writing and, presumably, translating. But he found it an increasingly hostile environment for religious reformers. In the spring of 1524 he left London for Hamburg, possibly travelling on to the University at Wittenberg.

Politics of bible translation 

It’s important to understand why bible translation was such a hot button issue in the 1520s. In 1517 Luther’s 95 theses kicked off the European Reformation. Among issues it opened up was access to biblical texts. The Church used the Latin versions of the scriptures, which few English people, including many clergy, could understand. But allowing people to read the texts for themselves was risky. The medieval church tried hard to stop this, fearing it would lose power if bishops and priests were sidelined. By controlling communications, it controlled the narrative and thus in effect the population. Penalties were severe for anyone in unlicensed possession of English language scripture.

Tyndale's 1534 New Testament

Yet by the time of Tyndale’s departure many examples of vernacular Bibles were available on the Continent. The Germans had had several, for 50 years or so, the latest being Luther’s in 1522. There’d been Italian, French and Czech translations since the 1470s. So ideas from vernacular Bibles would still have circulated internationally if Tyndale hadn’t lived. But with history, causation and agency are complex issues. Popular media coverage does neither history nor Tyndale any favours when it simplifies the process to distortion.

Though not formally banished, and well treated by Monmouth and his family, there’s no doubt Tyndale felt forced overseas in 1524, if he was to follow his mission as a translator and writer. He was then able to ply his trade, mainly in Worms, Hamburg and, later, Antwerp. He would never see his own country again. His was a harum scarum existence, losing a whole manuscript on a sea journey, moving his home and base when a printer was raided, and coping with English ‘friends’ who wanted credit for their assistance. He completed his first New Testament in 1526, then a revised version in 1534. This was his greatest achievement, a ravishing solo effort. He also managed most of the Old Testament by 1535. This period also saw a running, quite vituperative correspondence between him and Thomas More.

Betrayal

Tyndale was eventually betrayed by the English agent, Henry Phillips, who had inveigled his way into the translator's company. He was arrested by armed guards near his home in Antwerp, imprisoned at Vilvoorde, now a suburb of Brussels, and questioned extensively by leading clerics from Louvain. Heresy trials in the area at the time were in the hands of special commissioners of the Holy Roman Empire. It took months for the law to take its course before Tyndale was condemned and delivered to the secular authorities for punishment.

Tyndale's execution, October 1536

It’s still not clear why the imperial authorities should have singled him out for special treatment, but the Phillips papers have not yet been properly scrutinised, let alone edited. Obviously they might throw some light on the subject. Some believe London’s Bishop Stokesley was driving things, but other figures such as Thomas More have also been suggested. We just don’t know. Tyndale believed in the Protestant mantra, ‘justification by faith’.  He was technically prosecuted for heresy, but his translations were surely the real reason. The move was unusual as it undermined Antwerp’s progressive business culture, and its reputation for tolerance. Thomas Cromwell in fact wrote to Charles V pleading for Tyndale’s life but in October 1536 he was finally strangled and burned at the stake by the imperial authority at Vilvoorde. 

The English language Bible

Within three years or so of his death every church in England had a copy of the English Great Bible, largely the work of William Tyndale. Some are astonished that the 50 or so clerics who spent years preparing 1611’s so called ‘authorised version for King James I’ spoke so often with one voice - apparently miraculously. Of course they did. That voice (never acknowledged by them) was that of William Tyndale. Remarkably, nearly 90% of the 1611 New Testament came directly from him, writing some 75 years earlier. His 1534 New Testament, of which only two copies survive, was his crowning achievement. A real challenge to the stultifying power of the medieval church, and the foundation of the modern English language. The book and its author deserve proper recognition.

Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall overseeing the burning of Tyndale's bibles

Tyndale translated straight from the Greek (New Testament) and later Hebrew (Old). He bypassed the Latin (Vulgate) version used by the Church for hundreds of years, and through the printed word, made these works directly accessible to hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. The Church of course tried hard to stop this. Tyndale further compounded this opposition by cutting away institutional props: ‘faith hope and charity’ became ‘faith hope and love’; Church was ‘congregation’; ‘do penance’ became ‘repent’.

Tyndale found Greek and Hebrew texts lent themselves far more readily to English than to Latin. ‘Let there be light’ shows strength and simplicity. Tyndale preferred a strong direct English phrase, and short sentences, to the Latinate pattern of circumlocution and sub-clauses. We can admire phrases of lapidary beauty - ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you’. (Matt. 7). Or perhaps ‘With God all things are possible’ (Matt. 19). Or some of the lovely passages from John 1: ‘In the beginning was the word’; ‘in him was life, and the life was the light of men’; ‘And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us’. We can see here the cadence and rhythm of the wonderful English language, the language of Tyndale.

Tyndale's phrases today

We still use his phrases all the time: Am I my brother’s keeper?; salt of the earth; sign of the times; they made light of it; eat drink and be merry; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak; in his right mind; the scales fell from his eyes; full of good works; a law unto themselves; the powers that be; filthy lucre; the patience of Job; fight the good fight; the twinkling of an eye; gave up the ghost. The flow and power of these English words comes straight off the page. Their influence is vast. ‘No Tyndale, no Shakespeare’, as scholar David Daniell said.

 First edition of the 1611 English Bible

Yet the 400th anniversary of the 1611 Bible passed with barely a mention of Tyndale. Media coverage was extensive, but astonishingly ignorant, and it was clear those involved had simply not properly considered the role of William Tyndale, 75 years before. Some of his strong phrases were used with admiration, though never attribution. 1611 was not the date of an ‘Authorised’ or ‘King James Version’ in a way we would understand (it was never signed off by the monarch). It was accepted for centuries though its full 'national treasure' status only began 150 years later in the 1760s. And as the committee producing it often reverted to Latinate prejudices the text has a reputation it does not merit.

Tyndale's English in context

But Tyndale surely deserves to be better and more widely appreciated. The European Reformation was politically crucial in shaping the modern, rational world of today - a sine qua non of progress in learning and its application in philosophy, law, science and medicine. Tyndale was writing 150 years before the Enlightenment, but his work was a vital stepping stone to what we now take for granted. Historian Ian Mortimer writes, “no one has done as much to educate the English speaking people, and to make them see that what binds them together should be given priority over what separates them, and to encourage them to act in a godly, benevolent and peaceful manner towards their fellow human beings…What is truly astonishing about this achievement - and has been ever since Friday 6 October 1536 - is that he died for it”.  

Printing in the mid 16th century

Thousands of copies of Tyndale’s Bible were smuggled into Britain. People read them. And when the books were burnt, more were printed. His tolerant, modest attitude shines through all his work. Some of the Protestant reformers were as self-righteously cruel and dogmatic as the most extreme Catholic diehards. But Tyndale’s approach was more relaxed - ‘democratic’ we might say. If someone could improve on his writing, fine. Justification by faith, not works, perhaps. But what works!

It may seem a strange notion from today’s standpoint. But the 16^th century began with a debate on the worthiness of ‘rough’ English for literary purposes. That’s how many scholars saw it. By the 1530s Tyndale had given English its first classic prose - with its flexibility, directness, nobility and rhythmic beauty. He showed just what English could do. Given its lucidity, suppleness and expressive range, it was clearly a language which could far out-reach Latin in stature.

Tyndale's wider achievement

Mortimer, highlighting Tyndale’s wider reach beyond that of a Protestant martyr, picks five areas where he had a direct, or significant indirect, effect on the contemporary culture: the elevation of Scripture; the sense of responsible citizenship; increased literacy; standardisation of the English language; and the primacy of the vernacular. In the 1530s, the share of a rising number of titles printed in England in English rose from 47% to 76% of publications. Clearly Tyndale can’t be credited with all of this. But Mortimer points out that without an English Bible, and with England’s male literacy rate at 10%, “you would have seen barely a fraction of the scientific, astronomical and navigational discoveries which mark England out in the latter part of the sixteenth century. The publication of Holy Scripture in English underpinned the entire publishing industry, and thus the greater part of the intellectual life of the country”.

Supposed portrait of Tyndale (more likely to be John Knox) 

Tyndale’s death goes beyond martyrdom, for a martyr dies for his or her own faith. Tyndale suffered and died as part of a collective quest for understanding and greater fellowship among men. Many were martyred for religious or ideological reasons but Tyndale stands out as his motive was to improve the lives of his fellow men and women. Mortimer concludes “The person in the street today does not have the means to appreciate quite how much of our way of life is due to the vision of this great man”.  

Tyndale has been denied his place in the 16^th century learning revival. His key achievements were his role in breaking the suffocating power of the medieval church, and as father of the modern English language. Towering feats by any standard. And that’s why he is so important, and among the truly great figures of British history. A revolutionary, sure, and clearly a prophet without honour in his own land. But his effect on our culture is incalculable and his final legacy is with us today. Crucially he bridges the gulf between the religious and the secular, so people of faith and of no faith can be equally grateful to him. Some achievement.

Acknowledgments. 

The best biography is by David Daniell (1994), William Tyndale: A Biography, New Haven CT and London: Yale University Press

A shorter, more recent text is Bryan Moynahan, (2003), William Tyndale: If God Spare My Life, London Abacus

A fine text on Tyndale in context is Ian Mortimer’s keynote lecture to the Tyndale Society Conference at Hertford College, University of Oxford (2015), see www.ianmortimer.com

The Daniell book is comprehensive and detailed, and it would be hard to imagine it being bettered. A good shorter and more recent book is that of Bryan Moynahan.

I had the privilege of hearing live Ian Mortimer’s 2015 keynote lecture at Oxford. It’s easily the best explanation of Tyndale’s greatness and the breadth and depth of his contribution to our civilisation. A stunning unparalleled effort involving lots of work but clear and emphatic in its treatment. Quite brilliant.