William Tyndale
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William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tindale) (ca.1484 - October 6, 1536) was a 16th century priest and scholar who translated the Bible into an early form of Modern English. Although numerous partial and complete English translations had been made from the 7th century onward, Tyndale's was the first to take advantage of the new medium of print, which allowed for its wide distribution.
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Life
His date of birth is unclear, with sources giving dates varying between 1484 and 1496. About 1494, 1495 or 1496 seem most common. He was born most probably at North Nibley (15 miles s.s.w. of Gloucester), England.
He went to school at Magdalen College School, Oxford and Cambridge University, and about 1520 became tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh, at Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire.
Tyndale studied the Scriptures and began to endorse the doctrines of the Reformation, views which were considered heretical, first by the Catholic Church, and later the Church of England. The open declaration of his sentiments in the house of Walsh, disputes with Roman Catholic officials, and especially his preaching, stirred up conflict. He left there and went to London (about Oct., 1523), where he began to preach, and made many friends among the laity, but none among ecclesiastics.
With support from Sir Humphrey Monmouth and others, he began his effort to translate the Bible into common English. Because his translation was not authorized by the Church, and contained notes and commentary promoting his Reformation views, he was prevented from working on it in England.
He then went to Germany about May, 1524, to continue his translation work there. He appears to have visited Hamburg and Wittenberg; but the place where he translated the New Testament, although conjectured to have been Wittenberg, can not be named with certainty.
It is, however, certain that the printing of the New Testament in quarto was begun at Cologne in the summer of 1525, and completed at Worms, and that there was likewise printed an octavo edition, both before the end of that year. From an entry in Spalatin's Diary, Aug. 11, 1526, it seems that he remained at Worms about a year; but the notices of his connection with Hermann von dem Busche and the University of Marburg are utterly unwarranted conjectures; and, it being now an established fact that Hans Luft never had a printing-press at Marburg, the colophon to Tyndale's translation of Genesis, and the title pages of several pamphlets purporting to have been printed by Luft at Marburg, only deepen the seemingly impenetrable mystery which overhangs the life of Tyndale during the interval between his departure from Worms and his final settlement at Antwerp.
His literary activity during that interval was extraordinary. When he left England, his knowledge of Hebrew, if he had any, was of the most rudimentary nature; and yet he mastered that difficult tongue so as to produce from the original his translation.
Tyndale's translation was banned by the authorities, and Tyndale himself was burned at the stake in 1536 at Vilvoorden (6 miles n.e. of Brussels), Belgium, at the instigation of agents of Henry VIII and the Anglican Church. His last words were, "Lord, open the king of England's eyes."
Works
Along with Stephen Tolbert, a famed theologian of the time he completed a translation of the entire Pentateuch, the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First Chronicles, contained in Matthew's Bible of 1537, and of the Book of Jonah, so excellent, indeed, that this work is not only the basis of those portions of the Authorized Version, but constitutes nine-tenths of that translation, and very largely that of the Revised Version.
His Biblical translations appeared in the following order: New Testament, 1525-26; Pentateuch, 1530; Jonah, 1531. There is no general title of the Pentateuch; each book has its own title.
In addition to these he produced the following works. His first original composition, A Pathway into the Holy Scripture, is really a reprint, slightly altered, of his Prologue to the quarto edition of his New Testament, and had appeared in separate form before 1532; The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1527); and The Obedience of a Christian Man (1527-28). These several works drew out in 1529 Sir Thomas More's Dialogue. In 1530 appeared Tyndale's Practyse of Prelates, and in 1531 his Answer to the Dialogue, his Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, and the famous Prologue to Jonah; in 1532, An Exposition upon the V. VI. VII. Chapters of Matthew; and in 1536, A Brief Declaration of the Sacraments, which seems to be a posthumous publication. Joshua-Second Chronicles also was published after his death.
To translate the Bible, Tyndale introduced new words and phrases into the English language: Jehovah, Passover (as the name for the Jewish holiday), scapegoat, atonement (= at + one + ment, meaning "to unite" or "to cover", which springs from the Hebrew kippur, the Old Testament version of kippur being the covering of doorposts with blood), "the powers that be", "my brother's keeper", "the salt of the earth", and "a law unto themselves".
Tyndale's place in history has not yet been sufficiently recognized as a translator of the Scriptures, as an apostle of liberty, and as a chief promoter of the Reformation in England. In all these respects his influence has been singularly under-valued. The sweeping statement found in almost all histories, that Tyndale translated from the Vulgate and Martin Luther, is most damaging to the reputation of the writers who make it; for, as a matter of fact, it is contrary to truth, since his translations are made directly from the originals.
The Prolegomena in Mombert's William Tyndale's Five Books of Moses show conclusively that Tyndale's Pentateuch is a translation of the Hebrew original.
A monument commemorating the life and work of Tyndale has been erected on the Thames Embankment, London. There is also a memorial tower, the Tyndale Monument, erected in 1866 and prominent for miles around, on a hill above his birthplace of North Nibley.
References
Adapted from J.I. Mombert, "Tyndale, William (http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc12/htm/ii.xv.x.htm)," in Philip Schaff, Johann Jakob Herzog, et al, eds., The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1904, reprinted online by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://www.ccel.org/). Additional references are available there.
External links
- Tyndale Society homepage (http://www.tyndale.org/)
- Why Tyndale's translation was condemned - a Roman Catholic view (http://www.geocities.com/thecatholicconvert/biblegrahamch13.html)
- William Tyndale memorial site - a Protestant view (http://www.williamtyndale.com/)
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