William Tyndale

"Tyndale" redirects here. For the English family, see Tyndall. For other uses, see Tyndale (disambiguation).

William Tyndale
16th-century engraving of William Tyndale
Bornc. 1494
South Gloucestershire, England
Died (aged 42)
near Vilvoorde, Duchy of Brabant, Habsburg Netherlands
Cause of deathExecution by strangulation then burning
Alma materMagdalen Hall, Oxford
University of Cambridge
Years active1521 to 1536
Known forTranslation of the Penteteuch and New Testament into Early Modern English
Notable workTyndale Bible

William Tyndale (/ˈtɪndəl/;[1] sometimes spelled Tynsdale, Tindall, Tindill, Tyndall; c. 1494 – October 1536) was an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He translated much of the Bible into English, and was influenced by the works of prominent Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther.[2]

Tyndale's translations were the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation, and the first English translation to use Jehovah ("Iehouah") as God's name.[a] It was taken to be a direct challenge to the authority of the Catholic Church and of those laws of England maintaining the Church's position. The work of Tyndale continued to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world.

A copy of Tyndale's The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528), which some view as arguing for Caesaropapism (the idea that the monarch rather than the Pope should control a country's Church), came into the hands of King Henry VIII, providing a rationale for breaking the Church in England away from the Catholic Church in 1534.[3][4] In 1530, Tyndale wrote The Practice of Prelates, opposing Henry's plan to seek the annulment of his marriage on the grounds that it contravened Scripture.[5] Fleeing England, Tyndale sought refuge in the Flemish territory of the Catholic Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1535 Tyndale was arrested, and jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) outside Brussels for over a year. In 1536 he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake.

Tyndale's translations of biblical books were re-used by subsequent English editions (often without his sectarian prefaces or annotations), including the Great Bible and the Bishops' Bible, authorized by the Church of England. In 1611, after seven years of work, the 47 scholars who produced the King James Version[6] of the Bible drew extensively from Tyndale's original work and other translations that descended from his.[7] One estimate suggests that the New Testament in the King James Version is 83% Tyndale's words and the first half of the Old Testament 76%.[8][9] In 2002, Tyndale was placed 26th in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[10][11]

  1. ^ "Definition of Tyndale". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  2. ^ Partridge 1973, pp. 38–39, 52–52.
  3. ^ Daniell c. 2004.
  4. ^ Daniell 1994, p. [page needed].
  5. ^ Bourgoin 1998, p. 373.
  6. ^ "Translators to the Reader" . Bible (King James Version, 1611) – via Wikisource.
  7. ^ Harding 2012.
  8. ^ Tadmor 2010, p. 16.
  9. ^ Nielson & Skousen 1998.
  10. ^ Parrill & Robison 2013, p. 93.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc.co.uk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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