Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. Among the many milestones that are to be marked in 2026 should be the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament and later the Old Testament into English. His commitment that common people should have the Bible in their own language eventually led to his execution. Still, his translation has influenced English Bibles ever since. Tyndale was an Oxford scholar who was ordained to the priesthood in 1515.
A reformer in the church, he was heavily influenced by Martin Luther. In fact, it was because Luther had published a translation of the New Testament into German in 1523 that Tyndale decided to do the same thing in English.
Now, two centuries prior, John Wycliffe had been condemned by the Catholic Church as a heretic for translating the Bible into Middle English. And so, because every unauthorized translation of the Bible was prohibited as heresy, Tyndale's bishop refused to grant him permission and likely even flagged Tyndale as a Lutheran sympathizer. And since Henry VIII was executing Luther, for heresy, that became a very dangerous situation for Tyndale. And that's why in 1524 Tyndall fled to Germany, so that he could translate the scriptures, print them, and then smuggle copies back to England. He sent the first copies of the New Testament back to England in 1526 and then began work on the Old Testament.
His New Testament was quickly condemned by Bishop Tunstall of London, who then warned booksellers against it, bought all the available copies and publicly burned them. Those actions, however, did not have the desired result. Even many faithful Catholics questioned whether or not it was really appropriate for an executioner to burn the Bible. Henry VIII appealed to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. to have Tyndall extradited to England on charges of heresy.
Though Charles was no friend to the Lutherans, he refused on grounds that Henry had presented no formal evidence. In 1530, Tyndale further angered Henry by publishing the practice of prelates. In it, he opposed Henry's annulment of Catherine of Aragon, the very first of the king's wives, to be annulled, and argued against the misbehavior of Catholic clerics. In 1535, Tyndale was arrested in Antwerp on suspicion of heresy. and then was imprisoned in Brussels.
But rather than stand trial, his Roman Catholic Inquisitor, Latimus, allowed Tyndale to defend his theological positions in written communication.
So the two debated back and forth with replies and counter replies. From this Latimus even wrote a book. Interestingly, the topic of Bible translation was not an issue in those discussions. In fact, Tyndale was allowed to continue translating the Old Testament while he was in prison. Latimus concluded that despite several important points of agreement between the two, Tyndale held views common to Protestants that had been condemned by the Catholic Church as heresy.
Latimus seems to have attempted to save Tyndale, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. His ideas were found heretical according to Rome, and that was a capital offence. On October the sixth, fifteen thirty six, William Tyndale was tied to a stake, was strangled, and then his body was burned. He was forty two years old. Though he never completed his translation of the entire Bible, his legacy and influence continued to this day.
His translation of the entire New Testament, the Pentateuch, and the Book of Jonah, were all used in the Coverdale Bible, which was published a year before his execution, and was the first complete Bible published in early modern English. The Matthew Bible of 1537 and the Great Bible of 1539, which was the first royally authorized English Bible, also used his translations of these books. In fact, the majority of the New Testament and the first half of the Old Testament of the King James Version were likely taken from Tyndale's translation. Tyndale also coined common words and phrases used in translation like Passover, scapegoat, mercy seat, and atonement, a word with the etymological breakdown of at one with God. He also coined phrases like, let there be light, the powers that be, it came to pass, the sign of the times.
And so his work laid the foundation for virtually every English Bible translation of the past 500 years, and also left a major mark on the English language. and our theological vocabulary. The 500th anniversary of his New Testament is a wonderful opportunity to express gratitude to God for his work, his life, and his impact on the world. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr.
Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org.
