TYNDALE, William

(c. 1490-1536)

William Tyndale was a translator of the English Bible, Protestant evangelical Reformer, and martyr. Sometimes known as William Huchyns, he was born near Gloucestershire, an area with a history of Lollard sympathies. He received a master of arts in philosophy at Oxford's Magdalen College and also studied languages and rhetoric. In 1522 Tyndale returned to Gloucestershire to tutor the children of Sir John Walsh and spent his spare time preaching in the surrounding villages. He may have also studied the Novum instrumentum, Desiderius Eras­mus's* recent translation of the New Testament in both Greek and Latin; this edition challenged the Vulgate, the traditional Latin version used in the Catholic church. Tyndale became convinced of the need for an English translation of the Bible so that lay people could read the Word of God for themselves.

He traveled to London, hoping to get approval from Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of London, but was denied; instead, Humphrey Monmouth, a wealthy merchant, befriended Tyndale and financed his trip to Germany in 1524. In Cologne, Tyn-dale's first translation of the Bible was cut short by a raid on the printing shop, but a fragment survived and made its way into England. In 1526 he was able to translate the New Testament from Greek into English; after it was printed in Worms, it was smuggled into England inside bales of cloth. When church au­thorities there burned several copies, Tyndale was appalled and began to attack the church and its abuses; his polemical writings included The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, The Obedience of a Christian Man, which stressed the im­portance of access to Scripture for all, and The Practice of Prelates, a work that inspired the wrath of Henry VIII* for its conclusion that the king could not lawfully divorce Catherine of Aragon. In 1530 Tyndale translated the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, from Hebrew into English for the first time. He also published a reply to Sir Thomas More's* Dialogue Concern­ing Heresies, an attack against Protestant Reformers, particularly Tyndale. In 1535 someone in England hired a man named Henry Phillips to falsely befriend Tyndale in Antwerp and trick him into a situation whereby he could be arrested. After his arrest, Tyndale was sent to Vilvorde, Belgium, where he was impris­oned, tried for heresy, and executed on 6 October 1536.

Tyndale's work, especially his 1534 revision, formed the basis for most suc­ceeding versions of the English Bible, including the King James Bible. He au­thored many of the most recognized phrases of the Bible, such as "In the beginning" and "Let there be light." In addition, his translation is one of the first written records of modern English.

Bibliography

D. Daniell, William Tyndale, 1994.

Jean Akers