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. The efforts of translating the books of the Bible from the original languages it was written in has spanned for over two millenia. ... The Bible has been translated into many languages. ... A number of Old English Bible translations were prepared in mediaeval England, translations of parts of the Bible into the Old English language. ... Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit from the Gospel of Matthew. ... The age of Middle English was not a fertile time for Bible translations but saw the first major translation that of John Wyclif. ... Wyclifs Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English, that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wyclif. ... Early Modern English Bible translations are those translations of the Bible which were made between about 1500 and 1800, the period of Early Modern English. ... Myles Coverdale (also Miles Coverdale) (c1488 - January 20, 1568) was a 16th-century Bible translator who produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English. ... Matthews Bible, also known as the Matthew Bible, is the first complete English translation of the Bible (not just the Old Testament or New Testament) published in 1537 under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. The Matthew Bible was the combined work of three individuals, working from numerous sources in at... Taverners Bible, more correctly called The Most Sacred Bible whiche is the holy scripture, conteyning the old and new testament, translated into English, and newly recognized with great diligence after most faythful exemplars by Rychard Taverner, is a minor revision of Matthews Bible edited by Richard Taverner and... The Great Bible was the first authorised edition of the Holy Bible in English, authorised by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. ... The Geneva Bible was a Protestant translation of the Holy Bible into English. ... The Bishops Bible was an English translation of the Holy Bible produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568. ... The Douai Bible, also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douay-Rheims Bible, is a Catholic translation of the Holy Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English. ... The King James Version (KJV) is an English translation of the Holy Bible, commissioned for the benefit of the Church of England at the behest of King James I of England. ... There are many attempts to translate the Bible into modern English which is defined as the form of English in use after 1800. ... The Holy Bible in Modern English, commonly known as the Ferrar Fenton Bible, was one of the earliest translations of the Bible into modern English. ... Categories: Literature stubs | Bible versions and translations | Quakerism ... Charles Thompsons Translation is a very rare direct translation of the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew Scriptures. ... Noah Websters 1833 limited revision of the King James Bible focused mainly on replacing archaic words. ... Youngs Literal Translation is a nineteenth-century translation of the Bible made by Robert Young, author of the Analytical Concordance to the Bible. ... The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, also called the Inspired Version of the Bible or the JST, is a version of the Bible dictated by Joseph Smith, Jr. ... This was the first complete Bible translation by a woman. ... The Revised Version (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. ... The Standard American Edition, Revised Version, more commonly known as the American Standard Version (ASV), is a version of the Bible that was released in 1901. ... The Jewish Publication Society of America Version of the Jewish Bible (i. ... The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible that was popular in the mid-20th century and posed a serious challenge to the King James Version (KJV) as the most popular Bible in English. ... The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) is a modern-language translation of the Bible published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. ... The Jerusalem Bible is a Catholic translation of the Bible which first was introduced to the English-speaking public in 1966. ... Formally titled The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts (ISBN 0060649232), the Lamsa Bible (which it is commonly called, after its editor, George M. Lamsa) first appeared in 1933. ... In 1970 the New American Bible was first published. ... The New English Bible (NEB) is a Bible translation jointly produced in 1970 by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. ... The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is a translation of the Bible. ... The New Jewish Publication Society of America Version of the Jewish Bible (i. ... The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Christian Bible. ... The New King James Version (NKJV) is a modern Bible translation, published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. ... The Recovery Version The New Testament Recovery Version is an English translation of the New Testament of the Holy Bible by the so-called local churches. First published in 1985 by The Living Stream Ministry, the Recovery Version of the New Testament was created in response to the publishers of... The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Holy Bible. ... The Holman Christian Standard Bible is an English-language Bible translation, first published with the complete Old and New Testaments in March 2004. ... The Anchor Bible Series is a scholarly and commercial co-venture that has been setting a high standard since 1956, when individual volumes of the series began publication. ... The NET Bible ® (acronym for New English Translation) is a free, on-line English translation of the Bible, funded by the Biblical Studies Foundation. ... The World English Bible (also known as WEB) is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. ... The Orthodox Study Bible is a translation of the Christian Bible currently in production by the Orthodox Church. ... Events July 6 - Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of Congo River December 5 - Pope Innocent VIII gives the inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany with the lead of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger First cuirassier units (kyrissers) formed in Austria Births January... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). ... // Events February 2 - Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline. ... The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... // Events Islam starts in Arabia, the Quran is written, and Syria, Iraq, Persia, North Africa and Central Asia convert to Islam. ...

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. Events July 6 - Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of Congo River December 5 - Pope Innocent VIII gives the inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany with the lead of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger First cuirassier units (kyrissers) formed in Austria Births January... Events January 3 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. ... Events January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. ... Events February 22 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the citys throne. ... Events January 3 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. ... North Nibley is a village in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. ... Gloucester (pronounced ) is a city and district in south-west England, close to the Welsh border. ...

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. Magdalen College School or MCS is a boys independent day school currently located on the edge of central Oxford, England. ... REDIRECT [1] ... Events January 18 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde. ... Little Sodbury is an English village in South Gloucestershire a little east of Chipping Sodbury. ... Gloucestershire (pronounced [ ˈglɒstəʃəʳ]; GLOSS-ter-sher) is a ceremonial and administrative county in southwest England. ...

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. Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... The Roman Catholic Church believes its founding was based on Jesus appointment of Saint Peter as the primary church leader, later Bishop of Rome. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... St. ... Events April - Battle of Villalar - Forces loyal to Emperor Charles V defeat the Comuneros, a league of urban bourgeois rebelling against Charles in Spain. ... In religious organizations, the laity comprises all lay persons collectively. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ...

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. Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... Hamburg is Germanys second largest city (after Berlin) and, with the Hamburg Harbour, its principal port. ... Statue of Martin Luther in the main square Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a town in Germany, in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, at 12° 59 E, 51° 51 N, on the Elbe river. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ...

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. Cologne skyline at night. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... Political status Country: Germany Federal state: Rhineland-Palatinate Region: Rhine Neckar Area District: Independent municipality Facts Population: 85,829 (December 2004) Area: 108. ... Events January 14 - Treaty of Madrid. ... The University of Marburg, officially called Philipps-Universität Marburg after its founder, the Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse (usually called the Magnanimous), was founded in 1527 and is the worlds first and oldest Protestant university. ... Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the Lahn river. ... In publishing, a colophon describes details of the production of a book. ... Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ...

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. Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ...

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." Burning of two sodomites at the stake (execution of individuals by fire. ... // Events February 2 - Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina. ... Vilvoorde (French: Vilvorde) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. ... Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, French: Bruxelles, German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium and is considered by many to be the headquarters of the European Union, as two of its four main institutions have their headquarters in the... Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. ... The Anglican Communion is a world-wide organisation of Anglican Churches. ...

Works

He completed a translation of the entire Pentateuch, the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second 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. Torah, (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or especially Law. ... The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Judges (Hebrew: שֹּׁפְטִים) is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. ... The Book of Ruth is a book in the Hebrew Bible known to Jews as the Tanakh and to Christians as the Old Testament. ... The Books of Samuel, also referred to as [The Book of] Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל), are (two) books in the Hebrew Bible (Judaisms Tanakh and originally written in Hebrew) and the Old Testament of Christianity. ... The Books of Kings (also known as [The Book of] Kings in Hebrew: Sefer Melachim מלכים) is a part of Judaisms Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. ... The Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible (also see Old Testament). ... Matthews Bible, also known as the Matthew Bible, is the first complete English translation of the Bible (not just the Old Testament or New Testament) published in 1537 under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. The Matthew Bible was the combined work of three individuals, working from numerous sources in at... // Overview of Contents The Book of Jonah is a book in the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. ... The King James Version (KJV) is an English translation of the Holy Bible, commissioned for the benefit of the Church of England at the behest of King James I of England. ... The Revised Version (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. ...

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. Portrait of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478–6 July 1535), posthumously known also as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, writer, and politician. ...

William Tyndale, being burnt at the stake, cries out "Lord, ope the King of Englands eies" in this woodcut from an early edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

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". Image File history File links William Tyndale is burnt at the stake in Belgium; he cries, Lord ope the king of Englands eies. ... Image File history File links William Tyndale is burnt at the stake in Belgium; he cries, Lord ope the king of Englands eies. ... The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe (first published by John Day in 1563, with many subsequent editions, also by Day), is an apocalyptically oriented English Protestant account of the persecutions of Protestants, mainly in England, and other groups from former centuries who were deemed by Foxe and others of... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Jehovah (also sometimes spelled Yehovah) is the Name of the God of the Hebrews as commonly transliterated in English from the Masoretic Hebrew text. ... Passover, also known as Pesach or Pesah (פסח pesaḥ), is a Holy Day, observed by several religions, beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan and lasting seven days (in Israel and among some liberal Diaspora Jews, and eight days among other Diaspora Jews) that commemorates the exodus and... The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. ... The Atonement is the central doctrine of Christianity: everything else derives from it. ...

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 Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. ... The Luther seal Martin Luther (November 10, 1483–February 18, 1546) was a German theologian, an Augustinian monk, and an ecclesiastical reformer whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Lutheran, Protestant and other Christian traditions (a broad movement composed of many congregations and church bodies). ...

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. Several places exist with the name Thames, and the word is also used as part of several brand and company names Most famous is the River Thames in England, on which the city of London stands Other Thames Rivers There is a Thames River in Canada There is a Thames... St. ... The Tyndale Monument is a tower built on a hill at North Nibley, Gloucestershire, England. ... North Nibley is a village in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. ...

References

Adapted from J.I. Mombert, "Tyndale, William," 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. Additional references are available there.

External links

• Tyndale Society homepage
• Why Tyndale's translation was condemned - a Roman Catholic view
• William Tyndale memorial site - a Protestant view

This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge is a 1914 religious encyclopedia, published in thirteen volumes. ...