Tyndale's two most sustained works of scriptural exegesis were printed originally in Antwerp, the Exposition of 1 John in 1531, the Exposition of Matthew V-VII ca. 1533. They were then reprinted several times in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI prior to their inclusion in John Foxe's 1573 edition of the "whole works" of Tyndale, Barnes and Frith: the former was published together with Lancelot Ridley's commentary on 2 and 3 John in two editions from the press of John Nicholson, ca. 1537/1538; the exposition of Matthew V-VII was printed in three editions by Robert Redman ca. 1536/1537, again by John Day and William Seres in 1548, and a fifth time by William Hill probably in 1549.
The Expositions are in one respect provocatively polemical works. On the model of John in his epistle and Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, who stripped away the false glosses of the scribes and Pharisees to reveal the true meaning of God's law, Tyndale condemns the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church and reveals the errors of its doctrine with the aim of restoring scripture to its right understanding. At the same time, these are foremost homilies of practical instruction for living life every day according to the "profession of thy baptism" — meaning, most elementally for Tyndale, to love God, to love the law of God, and to love thy neighbor as thyself for His sake.