Compiled and modified by David Muanda in January 27, 2020, in Kyambeke, Kilungu Hills, Kenya.
For a period of 1,000 years in history, the official Bible of the western Catholic church was the Latin Bible, translated from Greek and Hebrew in the fifth century AD (see James Carleton Paget and Joachim Schaper, eds., The New Cambridge History of the Bible, Vol. 1, From the Beginnings to 600 (2013); see also vols. 2-4) and many Europeans at that time learned the word of God mainly through sermons given by priest for centuries. But in the 15th and 16th centuries, religious reformers created new Bible translations in the common languages of Europe, such as German, Italian, English, Spanish, and French. These translations were typically based on the original Hebrew and Greek texts—not on the Latin Bible. They enabled tens of thousands of readers to experience the stories and teachings of the Bible in their own language.
Martin Luther, born in 1483, was one of the leaders in publishing the Bible in the language of his day. His German translation was published in 1534—a pivotal year in the history of western Christianity. This fourth-century Latin translation became the Catholic church’s official version (see Richard Marius, Martin Luther: The Christian between God and Death, 1999). Luther’s belief in the power of the scriptures helped fuel the Reformation. Other reformers promoted universal education so that everyone could have the opportunity to read the scriptures for themselves. Some religious leaders were concerned that widespread reading of the Bible would lead to heresies, the undermining of the church’s authority, and even civil unrest. They responded by imprisoning, torturing, and even putting to death many who were discovered translating the Bible into the common language of the day or owning common-language translations of the scriptures.
Born in England about 1494, which is the time Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world, William Tyndale came upon the scene during Martin Luther’s courageous work on the German translation of the Bible (see David Daniel, William Tyndale: A Biography, 1994). While still a young man, Tyndale conceived the idea of making a new and better English version of the Bible based on the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and then became a member of the Catholic clergy. He was fluent in eight languages, including Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Tyndale was a devoted student of the Bible, and the pervasive ignorance of the scriptures that he observed in both priests and lay people troubled him deeply.
About 1523 he sought help and encouragement from the Catholic bishop of London to produce such a version so that all could read and apply the word of God but was vigorously rebuffed because the Clergy did not want the Bible to be published in common English. They hounded him from place to place and, finally, this pitiful figure was led from a dark and frewing dungeon in Vilvorde Castle near Brussels in Belgium. For nearly a year and half, William Tyndale had suffered isolation in a dark damp cell. His clothing was in rags. He begged his Captors for his coat and cap and a candle, saying “it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark” (see David Daniel, Introduction to Tyndale’s New Testament, 1989, p. ix). These were denied him.
In a heated exchange with a Cleric who argued against putting the scriptures in the hands of common man, Tyndale vowed: “If God spares my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost!” (see David Daniel, Introduction to Tyndale’s New Testament, 1989, p. viii). A prohibition against translating the Bible was passed by the convocation of Oxford in 1408 and Tyndale needed official permission to proceed without interference. Dedicated to the task of translating the Bible into English, Tyndale secretly began his challenging work.
In 1524 he traveled to Germany, under an assumed name, where he lived much of the time in hiding, under constant threat of arrest. With the help of committed friends, Tyndale was able to publish English translations of the New Testament in 1525 and later the Old Testament. Printed in Cologne, Germany, Tyndale’s translation was smuggled into England, where it was being sold in great demand and much prized by those who could get them in early 1526. They were shared widely but in secret. The authorities burned all the copies they could find.
Eventually, Tyndale, like many other men and women who were put to death for wanting the common people to have access to the scriptures in their own language, was condemned by political and ecclesiastical authorities, he was taken from prison and outside the castle wall before a large crowd, he was fastened to a post. He had time to utter aloud his final prayer, “Lord! open the king of England’s eyes,” and then he was strangled. Immediately, his body was burned at the stake on October 6, 1536 for a crime to have translated and published the Bible in English.
Nevertheless, within three years of Tyndale’s death, God did indeed open King Henry VIII’s eyes, and with publication of what was called the “Great Bible,” the scriptures in English began to be publicly available. Tyndale’s English translation, although unacknowledged, became the foundation for almost all future English translations of the Bible. His English translation lived on as his words and phrases and entire sections of his translation were incorporated into the King James Version of the Bible that was published in 1611 and was officially adopted by the Church of England; and later influenced the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in several significant ways (see David Norton, The King James Bible, A Short History from Tyndale to Today, 2011). It was and still is the most widely read English Bible in the world.
In Tyndale’s day, scriptural ignorance abounded because people lacked access to the Bible, especially in a language they could understand. Today the Bible and other scripture are readily at hand, yet there is a growing scriptural illiteracy because people will not open the books. William Tyndale’s work and martyr’s death were not in vain. Since Latter-day Saint children are taught from their youth to know the scriptures, they in a measure fulfill the prophecy made four centuries earlier by this man.
William Tyndale was not the first, nor the last, of those who in many countries and languages have sacrificed, even to the point of death, to bring the word of God out of obscurity. We owe them all a great debt of gratitude. We owe perhaps an even greater debt to those who faithfully recorded and preserved the word through the ages, often with painstaking labor and sacrifice—Moses, Isaiah, Abraham, John, Paul, Nephi, Mormon, Joseph Smith, and many others. What did they know about the importance of scriptures that we also need to know? What did people in 16th-century England, who paid enormous sums and ran grave personal risks for access to a Bible, what did they understand that we should also understand?
The scriptures are the standard for distinguishing truth and error. The scriptures enlarge our memory by helping us always to remember the Lord and our relationship to Him and the Father. Those who either don’t have or ignore the recorded word of God eventually cease to believe in Him and forget the purpose of their existence. Consider the magnitude of our blessing to have the Holy Bible and some 900 additional pages of scripture, including the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Surely with this blessing the Lord is telling us, as well as He told Prophet Joshua (see Joshua 1:8), that our need for constant recourse to the scriptures is greater than in any previous time. May we feast continuously on the words of Christ (see 2 Nephi 32:3) that will tell us all things we should do (see 2 Timothy 2:15 and 3:15).
