Found hundred and eighty-three years ago on Friday, October
6th 1526, at the young age of 53, William Tyndale was tied to a
stake, strangled to death, and then burnt in the sight of men. Most of what we
know of the man comes from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs where we learn of his final
words: “His last words, uttered with fervent zeal, and in a loud voice, were
these: “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes!”
Tyndale was a highly educated man, studied at Oxford at an
early age and later moved to Cambridge where he became acquainted with Erasmus,
a great Greek scholar of his day, who had just completed the Greek New
Testament. Learning this language and so learning the New Testament in its
original language, became a follower of the Lord Jesus. You must understand
that at this time in the world, the Bible was not available to people like it
is today. It was in a language the people did not speak, either of Greek or
Latin, and the Roman Catholic church kept it away, hidden from the people.
Tyndale could not keep silent about the things he learned from the Bible and
openly taught the people and debated the priests. One of Tyndale’s opponents, a
Roman Catholic priest had remarked that it would be better to have the pope’s
laws than God’s Law. To this Tyndale replies, “I defy the pope, and all his
laws; and if God spare me I will one day make the boy that drives the plough in
England to know more of Scripture than the pope himself!”
With a fervent zeal and love for his people, Tyndale set to
do what had never been done up to his day: translate the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures (Old and New Testament) out of the original languages into English.
After many attempts to do so in England, Tyndale found there was no room for
him in all the land to conduct the work there. This did not deter his purpose,
so in 1524 he left his home in England, never to return, and went to Hamburg
Germany. There, in poverty and constant danger, he continued his work. The
Roman Catholic church at the time had often persecuted the true Christians,
burning alive men, women and children, who would even quote the Lord’s Prayer
in English. How much more Tyndale who would give all of England the whole New
Testament in English!
In Germany Tyndale could work and utilize the new printing
press which made the making of copies far more numerous and at a cost most
could afford. This did not stop the papacy and priestcraft from launching a
vehement persecution against the work. Thousands of copies of Tyndale’s New
Testament were discovered and burned at St. Paul’s Cross, in the city of
London. This in no way discouraged Tyndale who said, “In the burning the book
they did none other thing that I looked for; no more shall they do if they burn
me also, if it be God’s will that it should be so.” When the papacy could see
that burning the books did no good, and the New Testament spread all the more,
they conspired to buy all the New Testaments so they could to burn them all. Of
course, this meant that ALL of Tyndale’s testaments were purchased. To this
Tyndale remarked, “I am the gladder, for these two benefits shall come of it: I
shall get money to bring myself out of debt, and the whole world will cry out
against the burning of God’s word. The overplus of the money that remains shall
enable me to correct the said New Testament, and then newly to print the same
again, and I trust the second will be much better than ever was the first that
I printed.”
The result was exactly that, and the New Testament went into
England with a better revision and all the more abundantly. It was a terrible
betrayal that caused Tyndale to be caught by the authorities. A man pretending
to be a Christian won Tyndale’s confidence that led to his arrest and
imprisonment. He suffered greatly in prison not having good clothing, suffering
cold, lack of food, and sickness. The Lord had not only provided for this great
brother in the Lord to work in bringing to Word of God in English to the
people, but also to crown him with the sufferings of Christ and lay his life
down for those who he labored so much to bring to Christ. Of his sufferings we
have from him, “I suffer greatly from cold in the head, and am afflicted by a
perpetual catarrh (terrible cold, inflammation of sinus, sinus infection),
which is much increased in this cell…My overcoat is worn out; my shirts are
also worn out…And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening: it is
indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark. But most of all I beg and beseech
your clemency to be urgent with the commisionary, that he will kindly permit me
to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may pass
the time in that study.”
Not only Tyndale, but his fellow workers, suffered much to
give the English speaking world a Bible in English. All the books of Moses and
some of the prophets and the whole New Testament were given to us by God
through the life, sufferings, and martyrdom of Tyndale. My purpose in sharing
this with you today is not only to remember one of the greatest servants of God
in history on the anniversary of his death, but to encourage you and inspire
you to treasure what you have when you hold your English Bible in your hands.
It is not saying too much to say that from the King James Version of the Bible
to all English translations that 70% of what we hold is Tyndale’s (although
most will not acknowledge this, as is the case with many servants of God, who
would prefer themselves to decrease anyway, and see the Lord Jesus increased
all the more). Here are a few phrases that are wholly Tyndale’s that may be
familiar to us all:
“And God said, Let there be light, and there was light”
Genesis 1
“Ask, and it shall be give you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you” Matt 7
“With God all things are possible” Matt 19
“Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life” 1
Timothy 6
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”
Hebrews 12
Let’s pray and give thanks to the Lord who raised up men like Tyndale so we could have His
Word in our own language and that Jesus will truly be to us the author and
finisher of our faith.
