June 9, 2023 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Hello, friends. Have you ever stopped to think that the reason you and I can hold the Bible in our hands and read it in our own language today is because of the great sacrifices believers in the past made? While the Scriptures were forbidden by the Roman Church, the Reformers could not rest until they, through the power of God, made the Bible accessible to people in the common languages.
While Martin Luther was opening a closed Bible to the people of Germany by translating the Scriptures into German, William Tyndale was moved by the Spirit of God to do the same for the English-speaking world.
More than 200 years earlier, Wycliffe’s Bible had been translated from the Latin text, which contained many errors. Furthermore, the cost of manuscript copies was so expensive that only the very wealthy could afford them.
In 1516, Erasmus, the Dutch theologian, published his famous Greek New Testament, which would become the standard from which Martin Luther and William Tyndale worked in producing translations of the Bible into German and English.
Tyndale was a diligent student, a gifted linguist, and an earnest seeker for truth. He learned the Gospel by reading Erasmus’ Greek New Testament, and fearlessly preached his convictions, urging that all doctrines be tested by the Scriptures.
His preaching excited great interest, and many people accepted the truth. The priests, however, were watching, and as soon as Tyndale left one area, they attempted to destroy his work, and often they succeeded.
“What is to be done?” [Tyndale] exclaimed. “While I am sowing in one place, the enemy ravages the field I have just left. I cannot be everywhere.” Then, coming to an important realization, he cried out, “Oh! If Christians possessed the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue, they could of themselves withstand these sophists. Without the Bible, it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth” (The Great Controversy, p. 246).
From that moment, Tyndale set his mind and heart on translating the Scriptures into the English language. Determined to help people know the truth for themselves, he earnestly set about his work, beginning first with the New Testament.
When confronted by a Catholic professor who told him, “We were better to be without God’s laws than the pope’s,” Tyndale replied, “I defy the pope and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than you do” (The Great Controversy, p. 246).
Driven from his home by persecution, Tyndale went for a time to London, where he continued his work. But again, violence forced him to flee, this time to Germany. There, in spite of difficulties, he completed his translation of the English New Testament and, in 1525, attempted to print it in Cologne. Unfortunately, however, just after the printing started, the print shop was raided, and Tyndale had to flee to the city of Worms with his New Testament translation only partially printed.
Not one to give up easily, Tyndale published 3,000 copies of a new edition of the New Testament in 1526. These precious copies were smuggled into England and spread quickly across the country. Trying to stop its spread, the bishop of Durham bought the entire stock of Bibles from a bookseller, intending to destroy them. However, instead of doing harm, the bishop’s money was used to purchase material for producing a new and better edition of Tyndale’s Bible!
Tyndale moved to the country of Belgium, where he worked on translating the Old Testament into English. Sadly, however, he was betrayed by a supposed friend into the hands of the authorities and taken to a cold, dark dungeon in a castle in Brussels, where he would spend the last 16 months of his life. Even in that dreary place, Tyndale begged for a Hebrew Bible so he could continue translating the Old Testament into English.
William Tyndale was tried on a charge of heresy, was found guilty, and condemned to be burned to death. In early October 1536, this great man of God was taken to the stake, where he was first strangled to death and then his body was burned. His final words were loud and clear: “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!” The martyr’s prayers were answered just three years later when, in 1539, King Henry VIII allowed the Bible to be placed in every local church in England.
Although his life was cut short at the age of 42, William Tyndale’s careful translation work has made a profound impact. It was the first English Bible to draw directly from the Hebrew and Greek texts and was the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press. His translation was used for what became known as the Great Bible, and the Bishops’ Bible, both authorized by the Church of England. The 47 scholars who produced the King James Version in 1611 drew extensively from Tyndale’s original work. “One estimate suggests that the New Testament in the King James Version is 83 percent Tyndale’s words and the Old Testament, 76 percent.”[i]
God used this man in a mighty way to spread His Word in English-speaking countries around the world, and it is still having an impact today. Truly, the text found in Revelation 2:10 can be applied to the life of William Tyndale and to all who are faithful to the end:
“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation . . . Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (NKJV).
If you would like to read more about this great Reformer, I encourage you to download your free copy of the book The Great Controversy today at the URL shown at the bottom of the screen [Insert: thegreatcontroversyproject.org].
Let’s take a moment just now to thank the Lord for William Tyndale and others like him who were willing to give their all so that people could have the precious Word of God in their own language.
Father in Heaven, thank you for inspiring so many dedicated people to find the truth as it is in Jesus, in the Holy Word, which is the written word pointing to the living word, Jesus Christ. Now, Lord, thank you for inspiring people like William Tyndale and others to stand firm for Bible truth, even at the price of their own lives. Help us to read the Bible, to live the principles through the power of the Holy Spirit that we read in the Bible. And to share this precious word with others. Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus name, we ask it. Amen.