Five hundred years ago this year, a few brave men defied the authorities and began to print a translation of the New Testament into English. William Tyndale had just finished his translation from the Greek text but having been banned from publishing it in England, he had moved to Europe to publish it and continue his translation work.
Prior to this, the only Bibles available in English were copied by hand from John Wycliffe’s 1382 translation of the Latin Vulgate, or from a revision his associates produced after his death in 1384. Wycliffe's translation was banned under threat of execution by burning but copies were made and sold, with prosecution avoided by ascribing to them dates earlier than the ban specified. More manuscript copies survive today than all of Chaucer's works - not bad for a forbidden book! Queen Elizabeth I was even presented with a copy on the way to her coronation.
The Bible was originally a mix of three languages, the Old Testament mainly Hebrew with some Aramaic, and the New Testament, Greek. The whole Bible had been translated into Latin by Jerome by about 405 CE – the Vulgate, or common-speech version, and was the only version permitted in Europe for many years, although earlier Latin versions persisted in a few areas, particularly mountainous northern Italy. Both Wycliffe and Tyndale intended their work to be available in common English and worked tirelessly to that end.
Although Wycliffe survived to die peacefully in his own bed at home in Lutterworth, Tyndale was ensnared, imprisoned and executed by strangling before being burned.
Surely such a book merits careful reading and understanding to learn what these brave, dedicated men saw in it to make them risk their lives.
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