This is a selection of questions concerning William Tyndale's lifelong work of translating the Bible into English. Links to questions about his work and about the Tyndale Society can be found through the menu above (FAQs).
A: William Tyndale first translated the New Testament from Greek, using Erasmus’s recently printed Greek New Testament of 1515. He was also a great scholar and he no doubt checked against the Latin Vulgate which he knew, and after he got a copy of Martin Luther’s German New Testament checked against that as well. He then later translated books of the Old Testament from Hebrew. He did not translate the Bible directly from Latin nor German, but the prefaces to books in his 1534 edition are partly translated from German.
A: Tyndale’s Bible translations had a lasting impact on English language, literature, and Christianity. His work laid the foundation for English Protestantism and subsequent English Bible translations. His final prayer reportedly asked God to "open the King of England’s eyes," reflecting his hope for religious reform in England. This happened and Henry VIII commissioned a copy of the English Bible for every parish church, which drew heavily on Tyndale’s work although he was not acknowledged.
There are many words and phrases which are first found in print in the works of William Tyndale. Printing was fairly new in Europe in the early 1500s, so we cannot be completely sure if many of these words were already in use but appeared in print for the first time as used by Tyndale or if he coined them himself. However, he is generally credited with coining the terms atonement, Jehovah, mercy seat, Passover, scapegoat, and showbread, which all appear in Tyndale's 1530 Pentateuch. He then used Passover instead of Easter in his 1534 revision of the New Testament.
A: Tyndale translated the New Testament and some of the Old Testament. The Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) and the book of Jonah were published in his lifetime. We are not totally sure how far into the Old Testament William Tyndale got in his translation, but it is believed that he had also translated several more of the historical books like Joshua, Judges, the books of Samuel, and the books of Kings which were incorporated into the Matthew Bible. He also translated lectionary readings from the Old Testament which were added at the back of his 1534 New Testament, which included a few verses from the Apocrypha.
A: The King James Version was a revision of earlier versions of the Bible which stem from Tyndale. Various sources quote different percentages of difference between Tyndale and the KJV depending on how you look at it. In the New Testament the KJV is remarkably similar to William Tyndale, and the KJV is at least 90% the same as Tyndale. William Tyndale never completed the Old Testament so the Old Testament of the KJV is only similar to Tyndale in those books which he translated.
A: Many modern Bible versions owe much to Tyndale. The King James Version was revised as the Revised Version published in 1885, which was edited in the USA to become the American Standard Version (ASV). This was revised as the Revised Standard Version (RSV). The RSV was revised by one group to make the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and by another group to make the English Standard Version (ESV). In the New Testament and the early part of the Old Testament these versions are all effectively updated and modernised Tyndale. In some places they only differ in spelling and punctuation.
A: Many well-known biblical expressions come from Tyndale’s translation, including “Judge not, lest ye be judged”, “You are the salt of the earth” and “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find”.
A: No, the surname Tyndale is English and not Cornish. The name comes from “Tyne dale” meaning the dale of the River Tyne which is in northern England. Cornish is a different language and most historic Cornish surnames are quite unlike English surnames.