William Tyndale (Reformation Day 2013)

"I defy the pope and all his laws; and, if God spares me, I will one day make the boy that drives the plow in England to know more of the Scriptures than the pope does!" So said translation pioneer William Tyndale.

Born near Dursley, Gloucestershire, UK, between 1484 and 1496, Tyndale developed a zeal to get the Bible into the hands of the common man—a passion for which he ultimately gave his life.

Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, Tyndale became fluent in at least seven languages. In 1522, the same year Luther translated the New Testament into German, Tyndale was an ordained Catholic priest serving John Walsh of Gloucestershire. It was during this time, when Tyndale was 28 years of age, that he began pouring over Erasmus’ Greek New Testament. The more he studied the more the doctrines of the Reformation became clear. And like a great fire kindled by a lighting strike, so Tyndale’s heart was set ablaze by the doctrines of grace:

Nearly 200 years earlier, starting in 1382, John Wycliff and his followers (known as Lollards) distributed hand-written English translations of Scripture. The Archbishop of Canterbury responded by having Wycliffe and his writings condemned.

But Rome was not finished. In 1401, Parliament passed a law making heresy a capital offence. Seven years later, the Archbishop of Canterbury made it a crime to “translate any text of the Scripture into English or any other tongue . . . and that no man can read any such book . . . in part or in whole." The sentence was burning. Across Europe, the flames were ignited and the Lollards were all but destroyed. Rome was determined to keep God’s Word out of the people’s hands.

Rome was not finished with Wycliffe either: 44 years after his death, the pope ordered Wycliffe’s bones exhumed, burned, and his ashes scattered.

Fearing for his life, Tyndale fled London for Brussels in 1524 where he continued his translation work for the next 12 years. Tyndale’s time in exile was dreadful, as he describes in a 1531 letter:

On the evening of May 21, 1535, Tyndale was betrayed to the authorities by a man he trusted, Henry Philips. For the next 18 months, Tyndale lived a prisoner in Vilvorde Castle, six miles outside of Brussles. The charge was heresy.

The verdict came in August, 1536. He was condemned as a heretic and defrocked as a priest. On or about October 6, 1536, Tyndale was tied to a stake, strangled by an executioner, and then his body burned. He was 42 years old. His last words were, “Lord! Open the King of England’s Eyes!”

Tyndale’s translations were the foundations for Miles Coverdale’s Great Bible (1539) and later for the Geneva Bible (1557). As a matter of fact, about 90% of the Geneva Bible’s New Testement was Tyndale’s work. In addition, the 54 scholars who produced the 1611 Authorized Version (King James) bible relied heavily upon Tyndale’s translations, although they did not give him credit.

Tyndale is also known as a pioneer in the biblical languages. He introduced several words into the English language, such as Jehovah, Passover, scapegoat, and atonement.

“Actually the Catholic Church always called on men to be responsible for themselves.”

Yes, responsible enough to give up the right to think for themselves, and come to Rome to grovel at the feet of ignorant Priests for a chance at forgiveness.

“What Protestants sects do - even if unintentionally - is call sin not sin (e.g. contraception, divorce and remarriage, abortion, gay marriage, etc.), reduce individual responsibility through doctrines such as “once saved always saved”, and generally distort Christianity.”

Yeah, those dang Protestants and their Final Perseverance and doctrines wherein we are saved by grace and not by works!

“But of such as these [the Elect] none perishes, because of all that the Father has given Him, He will lose none. John 6:39 Whoever, therefore, is of these does not perish at all; nor was any who perishes ever of these. For which reason it is said, They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have continued with us. John 2:19”. (Augustine, Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints)

“I assert, therefore, that the perseverance by which we persevere in Christ even to the end is the gift of God; and I call that the end by which is finished that life wherein alone there is peril of falling.” (Augustine, On the Perseverance of the Saints)

“And, moreover, who will be so foolish and blasphemous as to say that God cannot change the evil wills of men, whichever, whenever, and wheresoever He chooses, and direct them to what is good? But when He does this He does it of mercy; when He does it not, it is of justice that He does it not for “He has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens.” And when the apostle said this, he was illustrating the grace of God, in connection with which he had just spoken of the twins in the womb of Rebecca, who “being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calls, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.” And in reference to this matter he quotes another prophetic testimony: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” But perceiving how what he had said might affect those who could not penetrate by their understanding the depth of this grace: “What shall we say then?” he says: “Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” For it seems unjust that, in the absence of any merit or demerit, from good or evil works, God should love the one and hate the other. Now, if the apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good works of the one, and evil works of the other, which of course God foreknew, he would never have said, not of works, but, of future works, and in that way would have solved the difficulty, or rather there would then have been no difficulty to solve. As it is, however, after answering, God forbid; that is, God forbid that there should be unrighteousness with God; he goes on to prove that there is no unrighteousness in God’s doing this, and says: “For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” “ (Augustine, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love, Chapter 98. Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God’s Free Grace.)

“But that world which God is in Christ reconciling unto Himself, which is saved by Christ, and has all its sins freely pardoned by Christ, has been chosen out of the world that is hostile, condemned, and defiled. For out of that mass, which has all perished in Adam, are formed the vessels of mercy, whereof that world of reconciliation is composed, that is hated by the world which belongeth to the vessels of wrath that are formed out of the same mass and fitted to destruction. Finally, after saying, “If ye were of the world, the world would love its own,” He immediately added, “But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” And so these men were themselves also of that world, and, that they might no longer be of it, were chosen out of it, through no merit of their own, for no good works of theirs had preceded; and not by nature, which through free-will had become totally corrupted at its source: but gratuitously, that is, of actual grace. For He who chose the world out of the world, effected for Himself, instead of finding, what He should choose: for “there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. And if by grace,” he adds, “then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.”” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 15:17-19)

This is from the link you provided. Do you agree with this law that's mentioned? If I want to publish a translation of the bible, should I be considered a law-breaker?

LOL! Not here in the US of A in 2013. In 15th century England however, as in most European countries, ecclesiastical law was aligned with State law. And to publish a heretical version of the Bible was was not only forbidden by the Church, it was punishable under secular law as treason. Not how we would do it these days, but that's how the people of the time worked it. You have to judge people within the times they lived, not as if everything was the same then as it is now.

For the record, for what it's worth, if I personally had the responsibility for souls as a father or a Church leader and it was in my power to prevent a heretical and even blasphemous version of the Bible from being distributed to the those who did not have the education or experience to recognize error, I would do it. And I hope you would too.

I would not execute someone for publishing a sorry translation of the bible. The Message fits the bill for me as a sorry translation. I’m not praying they get rounded up and offed.

LOL, nor am I. Like I said, that's not how we would handle it today.

So, justice is justice. Do you think by our standards that Tyndale received justice?

Of course not. But they didn't have our standards back then, did they? I've already said this once so try to pay attention: He was executed for heresy which at the time was the same thing as treason. Even now the penalty for treason is death. By the standard of the time (of which he was undoubtedly aware) he was treated justly.

Would you rather be judged by our standard or theirs?

LOL! By ours, of course! But that is completely irrelevant. They were living in their own times not ours. AGAIN, You have to judge people within the times they lived, not as if everything was the same then as it is now.

You've misinterpreted what's illustrating what. You're looking at an illustration of the previous paragraph, which explains about Battledores:

...use of the hornbook declined rapidly during the late eighteenth century when cheap, mass-produced, illustrated booklets became more readily available. These booklets, usually a single sheet of card folded in three, were known as battledores.... Originally cardboard battledores were printed on just one side and were varnished on the text side to protect them. Later, however, they began to have text on both sides. The prayers included in the hornbook were often omitted and a variety of other texts, such as short poems, were included instead. Their modest price, charming illustrations and more entertaining texts all contributed to their popularity and to the decline of the hornbook....

Of particular relevance in that page, however, is the statement, "Also known as abécédaires, ABCs (and similar variations), alphabet books have introduced children to their native language since at least the 16th century." Prior to the 16th century, such grammar and spelling books did not exist BECAUSE THERE WAS NO GRAMMAR STANDARDIZATION TO TEACH PRIOR TO THE WYCLIFFE BIBLE.

“Of particular relevance in that page, however, is the statement, “Also known as abécédaires, ABCs (and similar variations), alphabet books have introduced children to their native language since at least the 16th century.” Prior to the 16th century, such grammar and spelling books did not exist BECAUSE THERE WAS NO GRAMMAR STANDARDIZATION TO TEACH PRIOR TO THE WYCLIFFE BIBLE.”

You’re being foolish and are basically trying to wrest a website, talking about 16th-18th century ABC books, to cover your embarrassing comments. The Wycliffe Bible would therefore date to the end of the 14th century. Tyndale died in 1535. What you’re trying to do is deny that anyone taught English as a written language, that way you can claim that nobody bothered to teach it, and therefore to justify the keeping of the Bible from being written in the vernacular. Since, in your silly world, only Latin was taught to be read, since it would be too crazy, in your Catholic world, to expect English to have a written language. While, prior to the reformation, literacy, as in that other link, was estimated at a mere 1 percent, and certainly there was a wide array of different spellings, John Calvin himself having many different spellings for his name even in French, with the coming of the reformation came attendant literacy, as they said, edging into 50 percent by the time of Elizabeth. It is a fact that in England during these times, there was, in fact, an English written language, that was taught, as you would hope would not be the case, as these ABCs from the 16th century show plainly show, Mr. “English was taught... as a spoken language” only. LOL

*****A Latin Bible belched out by a Priest is meaningless to 99 percent of the congregation,***

I believe this is what PAUL was speaking about when he mentioned “unknown tongues”.

I Corinth:14

6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?

7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?

8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.

10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.

11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

Oh, read a bloody book. Wycliffe was the very start of the development of English grammar, not the end of a process. You hardly have to have a PhD in medieval languages to know the truth of what I write. Any early modern author is making up his grammar and spellings as he goes. Even Shakespeare, at the end of that era, has various spellings for the same word many, many times over.

As Wikipedia puts it, citing David Daniell and William Noah, “Tyndale took the ill-regarded, unpopular and awkward Middle-English “vulgar” tongue, improved upon it using Greek and Hebrew syntaxes and idioms, and formed an Early Modern English basis that Shakespeare and others would later follow and build upon as Tyndale-inspired vernacular forms took over.”

IN case you’re not grabbing what I mean by the English language not being mature enough to unambiguously create arguments, Wycliffe translated “Fiat Lux” as “Be made light.” (Or actually, “Be maad li[ch]t.”) Even in his day, that would seem to many to say God was commanding something to become light.

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