Bibles of the English Reformation: The Tyndale Bible

This post today will be focusing on how The English Bible impacted the world and changed it forever. Of special significance, I want to bring attention to how The Tyndale Bible was laying the foundation for a much more popular English translation just a little while later. That later version I speak of, would come to be known in the English speaking world as The Authorized Version, or more commonly, The King James Bible. 

 It is hard to mention the English Reformation, without first mentioning William Tyndale. William Tyndale impacted the English speaking world in ways that no one had ever done yet.
 Influenced by Martin Luther, Tyndale was an English Lutheran that not only spoke against abuse in the Catholic Church, but saw the need, from his perspective, to translate the Bible into the tongue of English men.
 When people think of Reformation theology, they probably often think of the debate over how a man is justified before God. Whereas Roman Catholicism has taught dogmatically since The Council of Trent, that man is justified not by faith alone, on the reverse, Protestants commonly taught that it was faith alone in Christ that did justify. Of course, that is not to say that all the Protestants or Catholics did not disagree with each other on the specifics of justification, but rather my point is to illustrate the fact that the justification debate was instrumental to the Protestant Reformation.
 That said, there maybe one area of difference compared to the justification one, and that I suggest to be the debate over the use of Holy Scripture by lay people.
 Many in the Roman Catholic hierarchy were in fear that a Bible in the Vernacular, would cause people to question the church, and for heresy to spread. Bibles produced by the Protestant Reformers were commonly banned or burnt by the command of the Catholic Church.
 On the other hand, Protestants claimed that Latin was no longer the Vernacular, and that all people should be able to read the Bible for themselves.
 While I don't want want to get into much detail about the Protestant Reformation here, it should be noted that Tyndale was a contemporary of Martin Luther, though it is unclear if they ever met. But Tyndale may bear more similarities to the earlier John Wycliffe, if not in theology, than certainly by the fact that both Wycliffe and Tyndale were English men.

 Unlike John Wycliffe, Tyndale's English Bible, though never complete, was translated from the Greek New Testament rather than the Latin. His interest in Greek set the stage for many of the Bible translations after him. Prior to The Crusades, and especially the Protestant Reformation, Greek had been largely unknown in the West for about a thousand years. However, by the time of the Reformation, many of the Protestants more and more began to distrust the Catholic Church, and took further interest in translating the Bible from The Textus Receptus of Erasmus, rather than simply The Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome. Even then, many Protestants throughout the ages have treasured the work that St. Jerome did for the West by his writing of The Latin Vulgate.

                                         The above picture is of The Tyndale Bible.



           English law under Henry VIII would forbid many of the common people from reading the English Bible. However, due to the printing press and the great efforts of Tyndale's followers, the English Bible would spread quickly. Tyndale would not recant his alleged heresies, and would suffer at the burning of the stake before it.
 While William Tyndale is an interesting figure, I am not going to discuss details of his life here, though I encourage you, my readers, to do that. What I am simply trying to impose through these series of post on the English Bible of the Reformation, is their brief influence on literature. Indeed, however one sees the Reformation, the burning torch of it's adherents cause would not be so easily blown out by the popes or bishops of the Roman Church. In time, no matter the persecution or trial, The English Bible would survive all future threats and attempts at it's burning or banning from the common man. Even when Queen Mary Tudor successfully Catholicised England to it's Roman roots, she could not stop the publication of the English Bible. Mary Tudor would have multiple English Bibles burnt, but every attempt at this, only seemed to further help the Protestant cause. In time many English Protestants would not only see the pope as Antichrist, but the Roman Catholic Church as a great evil institution.  Exaggerations on the part of many Protestants would blow some of the events of the Reformation out of their historical context, but even then, these hatreds on the part of many Protestants towards the Roman Church, can be largely traced back to the division between Catholics and Protestants over whether ordinary people were fit to interpret the Bible for themselves, in contrast to the interpretation of the Scriptures, being made by the Catholic Church.
 The English Bible had now changed the world forever, and for many Protestants, there was no going back. If anything, many Protestants would continue to dissociate themselves from Roman Catholic doctrines more and more. Soon, Protestants such as the Puritans, would disavow not only the use of crucifixes, but also of crosses. What all Protestants did certainly agree on though, was that Scripture is for all people, and all people must study it.

There are several notable films of William Tyndale that I would recommend including God's Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale.  This film was done really well not just in it's historical accuracy, but also the fact that is just entertaining! That said, this film I think, is certainly from the Protestant point of view, which may disinterest hardcore Roman Catholic in it.