William Tyndale

“I defy the Pope and all his laws,” said Tyndale to a man who considered the pope’s law superior to God’s law.  Tyndale went on, “If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.”

The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, by Matthew Barrett

Henry VIII (aided by others) would write a response to Luther’s Babylonian Captivity of the Church, defending the seven sacraments and the papacy itself.  For this, he was rewarded by Pope Leo X with the title Defender of the Faith.

Luther, however, read Henry’s response and was so nauseated by its unbiblical arguments that he vomited one of his most venomous replies in his book Contra Henricum Regem Angliae. 

Thomas More would respond to this on Henry’s behalf, “one of the most malicious responses to Luther in Counter-Reformation history.”  Cuthbert Tunstall, determined to keep Lutheranism out of England, burned Luther’s book wherever they were found.  Suffice it to say, England was a hostile place for a sympathizer of Luther.

And onto this stage walked William Tyndale.  He received his bachelor of arts degree from Oxford in 1512, and his master of arts from the same university in 1515.  After this, he went to Cambridge, at the time considered a step down from Oxford. 

Why he transferred is not clear, but somewhere in here was born his lifelong interest to translate the Scripture into English.  A dangerous desire, no doubt.  But Erasmus’s 1516 translation of the New Testament into Greek opened a door of study that Tyndale was eager to walk through. 

Tyndale saw the lack of familiarity with the Scriptures in the English Church.  Even the basics were unknown: the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer.  The clergy and the papacy were responsible for this.  Yet, as long as he was in England, the possibility of translating the Scripture was unlikely.

Other European countries began seeing translations, but papal legate to England, cardinal Thomas Wolsey, would see to it that England did not follow suit.  To be successful, Tyndale would have to leave England. 

Cologne was his destination, but likely he stopped in other cities first – perhaps even including Wittenberg for up to a year, but there is no direct evidence that he spent time with Luther.  Once in Cologne, he began work on the gospel of Matthew, and printing began in 1525.

He then worked on a full translation of the New Testament.  However, further publishing came to an immediate stop when Tyndale discovered he was soon to be arrested.  Tyndale would take his work and flee to Worms.

One could see in Tyndale’s translation both dependance and originality.  He considered Luther’s translation as well as the Vulgate, yet he also relied directly on the Greek. 

…by working from the Greek, the accuracy of Tyndale’s translation unveiled the Vulgate’s mistakes and, more importantly, the ways Rome had misunderstood and misused the text for its beliefs and practices.

Metanoia.  “Do penance” became “repent.”  Tyndale had to be aware that such changes would undercut the entire sacramental system of the Roman Church.  English evangelicals, already facing persecution, saw that persecution intensify.

Tyndale acknowledged that the translation wasn’t perfect (which one is?), but felt it was a positive first step.  He wrote in an English prose that made the reading and understanding much easier.  His wording can be found throughout the Authorized King James Version, which would follow a century later.

Wolsey and Tunstall preached against the translation.  Tunstall would burn not only theological books, but the Bible itself! 

Tyndale understood they hated him and his beliefs, but how could a Christian man take the Scriptures themselves – and in his own language – and set them on fire?

Tyndale would affirm Luther’s doctrine of justification, publishing an original work on the matter.  He distinguished law and gospel: the law enslaves, the gospel sets free.  Faith alone justifies the wicked; only with justification by faith alone established can good works hold any value or meaning for the believer.

Works do not justify the sinner, but are a sign the sinner has been justified, the fruit of a new right standing with God.

If this wasn’t enough, he would follow with a publication making clear that the pope was subject to the ruler – that even the pope would have to suffer if the ruler was evil or corrupt.  Henry VIII actually liked this work, given that it placed the pope under the king.  However, Tyndale also gave a warning to the king: that the king was subject to God’s judgment if he sinned; the king would be replaced if he was unjust.

Henry’s approval would be fleeting.  Tyndale now, like Luther before, attracted the attention of Thomas More.  More would reply with ferocity: while turning a blind eye to ecclesiastical affluence, he would defend the church’s infallibility.  A replay, in many ways, of Luther’s exchanges with Eck.

More especially found the doctrine of sola scriptura disagreeable.  Inherent to the doctrine is the idea that the pope and the church could err.  More was very focused on Tyndale’s use of the word “congregation” when translating ecclesia.  Such a translation would threaten papal supremacy.

…[More] refused to acknowledge that the church of his day was crooked in any sense.  He did not want to concede this point to Tyndale….

This despite other humanists, like Erasmus, recognizing that abuses were prevalent.  In any case, More’s work was a mess; his responses were “protracted and repetitious.”

…the reader was left with the impression that More was frantic, so desperate to score points against his opponent, that he could not land his argument no matter ho many words he used.

After all of More’s efforts, Tyndale came out with a translation of the Pentateuch from Hebrew into English.  Many humanists knew Greek; few knew Hebrew.  Where and how Tyndale learned Hebrew is a mystery lost to history.  In any case, he demonstrated a mastery of the language – his knowledge of Hebrew paralleled his knowledge of Greek.

Tyndale thought of the canon as a whole, a unity.  Yes, it was written by many human authors, but they were all guided by the Holy Spirit.  This view gave Tyndale the confidence to read and translate the Pentateuch as if Moses knew something of the gospel itself.  He never had the opportunity, however, to finish translating the Old Testament. 

He would return to new editions of his New Testament.  He saw Romans as the hermeneutical key, writing of it:

“…the principal and most excellent part of the New Testament, and most pure evangelion, that is to say glad tidings and that we call gospel, and also a light and a way in unto the whole of scripture.”

On this, Luther and Tyndale were aligned.  As you will recall, I have wondered if such an approach was backward.

By now, Cromwell was trying to persuade Tyndale to return to England.  Tyndale decided not to return until the king legalized the translation of the Scriptures into English.  Then came a trap; in 1535, Tyndale was betrayed.  Henry Phillips was trusted, and Henry Phillips became Tyndale’s Judas.

Phillips came to Tyndale as a friend, a servant in the cause of translation.  In May 1535, having invited Tyndale for a meal, soldiers in waiting surprised Tyndale with arrest.  He was in prison for a year and a half, even evangelizing one of his guards.  Unlike Paul and Silas, however, Tyndale would not go free.

Conclusion

Tyndale received the mercy of strangulation before being burned.  Others in England were not so “lucky,” if you could call it that.  Hiding a Bible or any evangelical book was cause for execution.  First, dragged behind a horse, then hanged and strangled within inches of life, then hoisted upright with genitals cut off.  As he was bleeding out, his belly cut open with intestines and organs ripped out.

Yet, through all of this, the skilled executioner could keep the “heretic” alive. 

Finally, his heart was cut out, he was quartered – including decapitation.  His body parts were then displayed throughout the town – call it a visual warning.