Letters to the Editor

It was good to have the Tyndale Society Journal in yesterday’s post: as usual it provides a good read and plenty of stimulus to thought……. …I was glad to read about the Geneva conference. I really seem to have missed an excellent occasion. I must hope to be fit enough to be able to visit Antwerp at the end of August…..

It was good to see that you quoted the opening verse of the Advent hymn ‘Hark the glad sound, the Saviour comes’. But may a retired schoolmaster get out his red pencil? The tune (Bristol) is indeed by Thomas Ravenscroft (Psalmes 1621), but the words are those of Philip Doddridge (1702-1751). Doddridge seems to me a most interesting person: a dissenter he was nevertheless on good terms with the Archbishop of Canterbury of his day and with Secker, Bishop of Oxford. He had a friendly correspondence with both men. He became quite a national figure – it was a tragedy that consumption killed him when he was only 49.

The simplicity and directness of Doddridge’s hymn appeal to me very much: it has a subtle elegance of its own. And I think it would have appealed to Tyndale…..

Editor’s reply

I am pleased that Mr Robin Everitt has corrected my small error and I have made a mental note for the future not to scrawl references hastily on a scrap of paper after the church service!

Let me say first what a joy it is to read the Tyndale Journal in the lighthearted, unstuffy way that you have. Keep it up.

In the recent issue you refer to David Daniell speaking on the 1560 Geneva Bible: the Shocking Truth. I am agog to know what his shocking truth is. Has David’s lecture been published? Or will it be given in a future issue of the Journal?….

My own interest in Tyndale is largely for what he did for English prose. I am not much of a Christian these days: but if I believe anything, it is what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1st Epistle chapter 13), especially in the words William Tyndale used, before the wretched King James men mucked it up with their Latinity.

Editor’s Note

It is nice to hear from an American reader. David Daniell’s Geneva Conference lecture is printed in this issue.

Many thanks for another Journal and just in case you have not heard Still Waters Revival Books have reissued:

1. Robert Demaus, ed Richard Lovett, William Tyndale: A Biography

2. William Tyndale, An answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue (Parker Society ed.)

Three comments:

1. The books are a surprising size: 11 1/4” x 8 5/8”, although they are reprints of octavos. The reason is that two pages are reproduced side by side on each page, so the book has to be read turned 90º. four pages being seen at an opening. Awkward.

2. SWRB follows its practice of including adverts and ‘extracts’. In Demaus not only are there 46 such pages at the back, but furthermore blank pages at the front of the original have not been left blank. Tyndale has 16 such pages at the back, some of which duplicate pages in Demaus.

3. The two books are back in print in legible type.

The bad news for United Kingdom and Ireland residents is that SWRB have appointed Book Academy, Southsea, as their agent here. When this was first announced, I emailed Book Academy, but received no reply. Fortunately for me SWRB agreed to continue to sell me CDs direct. Then I saw a US book on Book Academy’s web site priced @ £25, the US price is $25, so it would appear that they are using a rather advantageous (to them) exchange rate.

Thank you so much for getting in contact about the Adam Foster article in the Gleanings from Foxe series I started a while ago. I am pleased that it will eventually be published in the Tyndale Journal.

I do appear to have neglected you all of late - sorry! Health to one side, I have been immensely busy working on an interlinear translation of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels and which, when published, will again belong to the Tyndale Society (copyright, royalties etc).

Its appearance will complete the trilogy of the earliest translations of the Bible into English: the Anglo-Saxon (10th century), the Wycliffe (1388) and, as a crowning glory, the Tyndale of 1526. That is some legacy for the Tyndale Society to give the world - but that is also why my head scarcely appears above the parapet.

God bless you, and have a wonderful Easter!

Would you be so kind as to inform me of how to keep up to date on modern publications of the old English Bibles like the modern spelling Wycliffe etc?

Are you aware of any electronic editions of the pre-Authorized Version (a.k.a. King James Version) freely accessible on the internet? I know about the licensed ProQuest Information and Learning product - Early English Bibles Online - but I do not have access since I am not a student. I can pay $400 for a one year subscription or buy the CD set for some $2,500! Also, Greydon Press put out a CD with the English Hexapla, but this also costs $200! Being a common man (ploughboy) and a believer in Tyndale’s philosophy, this situation is outrageous. Is the Tyndale Society working to rectify this problem in any way?

I am wondering if Professor David Daniell would be inclined to give permission to make his modern-spelling Tyndale Bible available freely to the public through a website and/or with Bible search programs that can be downloaded for free off of the internet?

Sincerely,
Ross J Purdy
rossjpurdy@hotmail.com