William Tyndale was born in 1494 in England. He went to Oxford at the age of 11 and spent 10 years getting his Master's Degree. He was very gifted at learning languages and spoke 8 fluently by the time he was 21- Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, and German. In fact, it was said that whichever language he spoke in, he spoke so well that you would think it was his native tongue.
William became the tutor at the house of John Walsh. It was during this time that he started to preach reformation. A clergyman once told William, “We are better to be without God’s laws than the Pope’s”. To which William replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you!”
This is the beginning of William's translation of the Bible to English. He left for Germany in 1524 where printing of the English translation of the New Testament took place in 1525.
He was under the impression that it was safe to return to England and he did so in 1534. He was not only a Bible translator, but also an evangelist. He wanted as many of the common people, or laity, to understand the Scriptures for themselves as he could possibly teach.
He was betrayed by a friend and sent to prison for over a year. He was tried and convicted for heresy and treason. His last words were "Lord, open the king of England's eyes." He was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536.
His last prayer was answered in 1539 with the publication of The Great Bible in the English language by King Henry VIII, and by regal authority was placed in every parish of the Church of England.
Here is a passage from the Tyndale Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the King James Bible.
The Tyndale Bible was instrumental in the translation of the King James Version and many of Tyndale's translations were used such as "Let there be light" and "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" and "with God all things are possible". Some have even surmised that the King James Bible is in fact the finished product of what William Tyndale started almost 100 years before!
