June 28, 2017
Devotions: Timeline of the Reformation: The English Bible 1525/6

In England, according to the 1408 Constitutions of Oxford, it was strictly forbidden to translate the bible into any native tongue. The only authorized version of the bible was the Latin Vulgate, St. Jerome’s Latin Translation. William Tyndale was fluent in eight languages. Like Luther, he believed it was important for the average person to be able to read the bible and to listen to the bible in their own language. When only the educated were able to read and understand Latin, the average person was reliant on those leaders and their teachings and explanations of the scriptures. It seems that both Luther and Tyndale were unhappy with the direction of the church of their day, and so they each decided to take matters in their own hands. While seeking refuge in the castle in Wartburg, Luther took to translating the New Testament into the German vernacular. Tyndale worked in secret, often having to leave his country of England to be able to finish his work.

Luther finished his German New Testament in 1522. Tyndale would show up on Luther’s doorstep in 1525 and by the end of that year he would publish his English New Testament. As expected, the church was not happy with his efforts. There were bounty hunters and Inquisitors often looking for Tyndale. Copies of his English Bible were burned as soon as any church authority could confiscate them. The church declared it contained thousands of errors as they torched hundreds of New Testaments confiscated by the clergy. Anyone found with a copy of this bible risked being burned at the stake.

We often take our faith for granted, having been raised in a country that allows the freedom of religion. We take it for granted that we can not only buy a bible, we can buy a multitude of translations of the Bible – NIV, CEV, NRSV, KJV, NKJV, The New Living Bible Translation. For the Church of the 16th and 17th century, allowing the masses to be able to read the bible for themselves meant that the church could no longer control access to the scriptures. People could read the bible and begin to have their own insights into the Word of God. Church practices like selling indulgences and the like could be proven to have no biblical support. The authority of the church would begin to crumble as the people would begin to realize how freeing the scriptures are – especially as Lutherans began to have insight into doctrine such as Justification by Grace through Faith. The availability of the scriptures in English was an enormous threat to the church, and Tyndale would eventually be executed for his efforts. Today, there are only two known copies left of Tyndale’s 1525-26 First Edition. Any copies printed prior to 1570 are extremely valuable. Tyndale’s flight was an inspiration to freedom-loving Englishmen who drew courage from the 11 years that he was hunted. In the end, Tyndale was caught: betrayed by an Englishman that he had befriended. He was incarcerated for 500 days before he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. Tyndale’s last words were, “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”. This prayer would be answered just three years later in 1539, when King Henry VIII finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible. (greatsite.com, English Bible History,)

Having heard the story of Tyndale and his effort to translate and print a bible in the English language, are you more or less inspired to set yourself on a course of consistent, persistent bible reading in the months to come?

Pastor Dave