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William Tyndale
Forbidden to work in England, Tyndale translated and printed in English the New Testament and half the Old Testament between 1525 and 1535 in Germany and the Low Countries. He worked from the Greek and Hebrew original texts when knowledge of those languages in England was rare. His pocket-sized Bible translations were smuggled into England, and then ruthlessly sought out by the Church, confiscated and destroyed. Condemned as a heretic, Tyndale was strangled and burned outside Brussels in 1536.
Photo: Statue of William Tyndale by Lawrence Holofcener (2000), Millennium Square, Bristol, United Kingdom.
© Brian Buxton.
Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament was taken almost word for word into the much praised Authorised Version (King James Bible) of 1611, which also reproduces a great deal of his Old Testament. From there his words passed into our common understanding.
People across the world honour him as a great Englishman. His solitary courage, and his skill with languages - including, supremely, his own - enriched English history and then reached out to affect all English-speaking nations.
His influence has been as wide as Shakespeare's. His phrases are so well-known that they are often thought to be proverbial - 'let there be light', 'we live and move and have our being', 'fight the good fight', 'the signs of the times', 'the powers that be', 'a law unto themselves', and hundreds more. The familiar words telling the great Bible stories are usually Tyndale's.
Elsewhere on this website you will find more information about his life and his works, together with some recommended Resources for further study.
Aims of the Tyndale Society
The aims of the Society are to promote a greater knowledge and understanding of the importance of the contribution made by Tyndale to the English Reformation by his Biblical translations and theological writings, and to encourage relevant research and study.
Membership of the Society is international and we warmly encourage anyone interested in its aims to join. The Society is in no way a credal body and all are welcome into membership regardless of their personal religion or other philosophy of life. Lower down this page is information on membership and applying to become a member.
A Brief History of the Society
The Tyndale Society was inaugurated in 1995. It followed on from the activities organised the previous year by the William Tyndale Quincentenary Trust. The founder chairman, holding office until 2005, was Professor David Daniell, author of the major modern biography of Tyndale and editor of editions of several of his works. Sadly David passed away on 1st June 2016.
Professor David Daniell (1929-2016)
The Society pursues these purposes primarily through publications and events. There are two regular publications. The Tyndale Society Journal, issued twice a year, includes several in depth articles by members and others, as well as book reviews, notices, reports of events, and other Society matters. From 2014 Reformation is issued twice a year and is an academic journal with a range of articles by scholars specialising in Reformation issues.
International conferences have been held in several centres, including Tyndale's place of education, Hertford College, Oxford, where the Society's twentieth anniversary was marked in 2015. Major conferences have also been held in Antwerp and Geneva. More localised events, both residential conferences and study days, have been organised in the United Kingdom and in the United States of America.
In England it has been customary to hold an annual carol service in the church of St. Mary Abchurch, in the city of London, with singing led by the English Chamber Choir and readings from Tyndale's translations.
Tyndale famously said that he wanted "the boy that driveth the plough" to have the Scripture. At an early stage the society appointed a Ploughboy Convenor to co-ordinate the taking of the story of Tyndale into a variety of groups through talks, audio-visual presentations etc.
More recently a Fellowship of Tyndale Theologians was inaugurated by the Reverend Dr. Ralph Werrell through which those engaged in studying aspects of Tyndale's theology could make contact with others researching similar areas and could identify topics to which attention could usefully be given. Dr. Werrell himself has published The Theology of William Tyndale (2006), The Roots of Tyndale's Theology (2013), and The Blood of Christ in the Theology of William Tyndale (2015).
Membership
All members receive:
• The Tyndale Society Journal twice a year.
• Details of forthcoming conferences and other events,
sometimes including visits to sites not generally open to the public.
• 25% discount if wishing to advertise in The Tyndale Society Journal.
Subscriptions (as at 2015)
UK annual subscription: £22-50
USA annual subscription: (USD)$45
In addition members can receive Reformation twice a year at a significantly discounted price: —
UK annual subscription to include Reformation £45.00
USA annual subscription to include Reformation (USD)$90
Applying for Membership
To subscribe EITHER print off (see below) and complete the UK Membership Application Form or the USA Membership Application Form and forward this, with payment where applicable, to the appropriate membership secretary OR request a PayPal invoice from tyndale.society@aol.co.uk .
Membership forms can be downloaded by using the appropriate link below (use a right-click if you wish to save the form to disc).
Download UK Membership Application Form (in PDF format)
Download USA Membership Application Form in '.docx' format or USA Membership Application Form in PDF format
Membership Queries
If you have a query about membership of the Society, details for the relevant person to contact can be found on the Contacts page.
News
Publication Grant
The Tyndale Society is proud to announce that Dr. Mark Rankin, Associate Professor of English at James Madison University, Virginia, USA, has received a 3-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant of $335,000 to fund publication of the Independent Works of William Tyndale. The grant falls under NEH's Scholarly Editions and Translations program. Dr. Rankin will serve as Principal Investigator on the project to produce reliable editions in both print and online formats of these writings for an audience of scholars, students, and general readers. An international team of professors and members of staff at seven colleges and universities will work together, as follows:
Dr. Tibor Fabiny (Károli Gáspár University, Budapest, Hungary)
Dr. Susan Felch (Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. Gergely Juhász (Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK)
Dr. Clare Costley King'oo (University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT)
Dr. Cathy Shrank (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK)
Dr. J. Christopher Warner (Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY)
Mr. Worthy Martin (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA)
Catholic University of America Press will publish these Tyndale editions as printed books, following the example set by the first completed volume in this series: William Tyndale, An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, edited by Anne M. O'Donnell and Jared Wicks (Washington, DC, 2000; first printed 1531). The project is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, USA, with support from the collaborating universities and from a Marie A.O'Donnell bequest. Free and open-access online versions of these Tyndale books will be developed and maintained by The Institute of Advanced Technology at the University of Virginia.
This grant acknowledges Tyndale as one of the most significant writers of the English Renaissance. Best known for the first printed English New Testament (1526) and portions of the Old Testament, his other writings are valuable for our understanding of his Bible translations, and because they shaped discussion, during the English Renaissance and Reformation, on topics as diverse as education and political obedience. However, because these books are not generally available, this project will increase knowledge of Tyndale's ideas. (posted 16 August 2016)
Tyndale Society Events
Forthcoming Events, to which non-members are welcome, include the following:
Cambridge Library Day Friday 26 April 2019
Join us for a guided tour of the Bible Society Collection, the Parker Library and a Choral Evensong in Cambridge.
Older Events:
Carol Service at
St Mary Abchurch,
Abchurch Lane, City of London
Monday, 17 December 12.30 - 1.30 pm
Once again the English Chamber Choir will sing a mix of carols old and new for us, and we will read the timeless Christmas story in the
translation of William Tyndale — all in the setting of this perfect hidden church by the great Sir Christopher Wren. Reception
afterwards with cheer and mince pies. Everyone welcome. (Nearest tubes: Bank, Monument, Cannon Street)
Tyndale's Gloucestershire
July 16th — 18th, 2018
Informative 3-day conference with varied presentations plus a tour of Tyndale's boyhood haunts from Trevisa's church
(the forbidden idea of the Bible in English) to a safe haven in the Walsh's Manor House (first translations). Read a full account in
Tyndale Society Journal no. 50
Tuesday 24 October 2017 at 6.30pm,
'Souls at Stake: Tyndale, the Bible and the 21st Century'
at St Paul's Cathedral. This was a free event with Jane Williams talking to Melvyn Bragg about his new
book as part of the
Adult Learning series.
A recording of this event is available on
YouTube
and a full report will be in the forthcoming issue of the Tyndale Society Journal.