We were just ministering in London and had a powerful Holy Spirit time! While trekking through the city one day we found a William Tyndale monument… quite appropriate for the anniversary of the Reformation.
The Wide-Reaching Effects of the Reformation
It’s the 508th Anniversary of the Reformation. As the Reformation took hold, its effects spread into other parts of the world including England, inspiring people like William Tyndale to translate the New Testament into English from the original Greek. The Bible had been kept in Latin by the powers that be, even though nobody spoke or understood Latin, save a few scholars.
The British Library calls their copy of the William Tyndale translation of the New Testament the most important book in the English language. Pause a moment and think about that… then consider if you ever heard one word about Tyndale in public school.
His New Testament had the massive side effect of unifying and codifying the English language into a comprehensive whole, while simultaneously spreading literacy throughout the nation. For a time in history, the UK was known as “People of the Book”; the Book, of course being the Bible.
Tyndale’s translation was followed by numerous others like his friend Coverdale’s and the Geneva Bible which were just slight revisions of Tyndale’s original work. In fact, 90% of the King James New Testament is actually Tyndale’s work, according to Oxford scholar David Daniel. The scholars assembled by King James revised, tightened, and expanded Tyndale’s already existent New Testament work.
Tyndale suffered immensely to give the English-speaking world the Bible in its own language and was opposed by the religious system at every turn, and then in the end he paid with his own life.
The English Reformation
Reformation impulses and Martin Luther’s teaching slowly began to make their way across the English Channel into the UK from Germany after the Reformation took hold there and was discussed regularly at the White Horse Inn at Cambridge University in England.
Tyndale had been formerly studying at Oxford but ran headlong into the official opposition Oxford held against the Bible being translated into the common language and so he transferred to Cambridge.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, an early reform figure himself, who was also teaching at Cambridge, had assembled the Greek text together and made it accessible without the constraints and control of the religious system.
This ultimately gave both Martin Luther and William Tyndale the opportunity in time to translate the New Testament into their respective languages.
However, the Catholic Church opposed the Bible being translated into vernacular tongues and only allowed the Latin Vulgate, which was only to be read and interpreted by their theologians. Moreover, possession of personal Bibles was officially forbidden as well. Since Latin was a long dead language and very few knew it, the Bible was kept in the dark and substituted with rituals and traditions and books like The Little Hours of Mary which promoted the cult of the adoration of Mary instead. Errant practices like “indulgences”—basically selling official documents of forgiveness for a price—were very profitable to the Catholic Church, and the Bible in the languages of the people would threaten these unbiblical yet highly profitable practices.
It was in fact the hawking of indulgences that drew a strong response from Luther and ultimately sparked the Reformation on October 31st 1517 when Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
The Bible Translated
Both Luther and Tyndale ultimately saw the need for the Bible to be in the language of the people.
Luther did his translation while escaping persecution and hiding out in the Wartburg Castle. His translation had a powerful influence of returning people to faith—not in a religious institution—but in the Savior Jesus Christ.
Seeing the powerful impact of Luther’s translation, Tyndale sought to do the same for the English-speaking people.
In fact, Luther’s translation of the New Testament into German greatly aided William Tyndale with his translation work into English. The fact that Tyndale spoke 7 languages greatly helped, and he actually met with Luther when he fled England due to persecution and was hiding out in Germany.
Tyndale’s Bibles were first printed in Worms, Germany and then smuggled as pocket-sized, contraband New Testaments into England and the larger UK.
The Bible put into the common languages of the people along with the waves of the Reformation pulsing through the lands drew people back to relationship with the living Christ and in time, spawned great revival and mission movements throughout the western world and far beyond.
William Tyndale ultimately gave his life to give the English-speaking world the Bible in English. We should remember the blessings we have inherited and take advantage by reading the Word.
We've done what we can to condense these important histories into shorter video formats so you can get a brief overview of the important parts as you take them in. Furthermore, we have done them from a Spirit-filled point of view. Make sure and check out the two videos we did on William Tyndale. We also have numerous other videos on Martin Luther, as well as others on the Reformation and the Revivals that followed in the wake of the Reformation.
Click here to check out our Reformation playlist on our YouTube channel Grace World Mission
