The Translator of the Bible. WILLIAM TYNDALE lived in a time of appalling spiritual darkness, when priestcraft did everything possible to prevent men enjoying the mercy, peace, and free salvation of God. The Bible was a sealed book, and Romanism would have kept it sealed. But Tyndale was determined that by God’s help Englishmen should be placed in possession of this precious treasure, and to the task of translation in the English tongue he set himself in earnest.
Tyndale once said to one who was considered a learned divine, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than you do!”
Seeing that he could never accomplish in his native land the work upon which he had set his heart, Tyndale repaired to the Continent. He voluntarily became an exile for the glory of God, and for the honor of his Word.
The printing and publishing of Tyndale’s New Testament, and the efforts made throughout England to suppress it, form an important factor in the history of the Reformation. All the powers of Romanism were set against it: and the various ecclesiastics of that system were commanded to seize every copy it was possible to lay their hands upon. When one of the Archbishops said that he “had lately gotten into his hands all the books of the New Testament translated into English and printed beyond the seas,” and when these were all committed to the flames, it was thought that the Reformer’s plans were completely frustrated. On the contrary, the purchasing of the Scriptures even for the purpose of burning them delighted Tyndale. Said he: “These two benefits shall come thereof: I shall get money to bring myself out of debt, and the whole world will call out against the burning of God’s Word: and the overplus of the money that shall remain to me shall make me more studious to correct the said New Testament, and so newly to imprint the same once again.”
Tyndale’s work was of course in great demand, and many copies were secretly introduced into England and circulated and read. The next move on the part of his enemies was to have the so-called heretic arrested and burnt at the stake. Through the treachery of false fiends, he was seized and imprisoned: and after spending many months in the dungeon—realizing in the meantime the presence of God, and enjoying communion with Him—he was brought forth to the place of execution, tied to the stake, then strangled by the hangman, and afterwards consumed with fire.
The world owes a debt of gratitude to the memory of William Tyndale which can never be repaid. The New Testament as we have it is substantially the same as that given to us by William Tyndale. Our appreciation for this priceless blessing should lead us to a life of devotion to its Divine Author.