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William Tyndale

History and Theory of Translation�Professor Zsófia Gómbar

By Mariana Verdial

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Who Was William Tyndale?

  • William Tyndale was born c.1494, in England.
  • He was an English biblical scholar and linguist.
  • First translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts; the first to use the printing press; the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation; and the first English translation to use the name Jehovah to refer to God.
  • Was the foundation for other English translations, including the King James Version.

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Background

  • The Bible was to be read only in Latin.
  • It was illegal to translate the Bible into English.
  • Everyone who did so, would get the death penalty.
  • Tyndale believe that it was important to translate the Bible into the common people’s language.

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The Ploughboy Trope

  • “In the name of God, I defy the Pope and all his laws: and… if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy that drives the plough to know more of God’s law than either you or the Pope.”

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Translation and Exile

  • The London Bishop denied his request to translate the Bible.
  • He left to continental Europe to translate and print his copies.
  • His copies were smuggled back to England.
  • The London Bishop condemned Tyndale’s translation and ordered the copies to be burned.
  • Tyndale was condemned as heretic.
  • King Henry VIII failed to have Tyndale returned to England.

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Death

  • William Tyndale was seized in Antwerp in 1538.
  • Charged with heresy and condemned to the death penalty.
  • He wrote about justification by faith, free will, denial of the soul, etc.
  • He was executed in 1536.

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Pentateuch Preface

  • “And some or rather every one say that it would make them rise against the king, whom they themselves (unto their damnation) never yet obeyed.”

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Pentateuch Preface

  • “Finally in this they be all agreed to drive you from the knowledge of the scripture, and that ye shall not have the text thereof in the mother tongue, ant to keep the world still in darkness, to the intent they might sit in the conscience of the people, through vain superstition and false doctrine, […] and to exalt their own honour above king and emperor, yea and above god himself.“

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Pentateuch Preface

  • “I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue […]“

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Pentateuch Preface

  • “[…] I suffer because the priests of the country be unlearned, as god knoweth there are full ignorant sort which have seen no more Latin that they can read in their portresses and missals which yet many of them can scarcely read […]“

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Conclusion

  • Many people lost their lives to translate the Bible into English.
  • He was led by his desire to bring the Bible to the common people.
  • His translations became the foundation for many other translations such as the Great Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, and the King James Version.

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Bibliography

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