Faithfulness unto Death:

William Tyndale

William Tyndale left England for the Continent at the age of thirty, never to return. He hoped to find there what was not available at home, freedom to print the Bible in his own language.

In 1523, the Bishop of London refused to authorize and subsidize his efforts, so he left for Germany the next year. After a close escape from ecclesiastical authorities in Cologne, he traveled to Worms and printed his English New Testament there in 1525. This was the first complete translation of the New Testament into English from the Greek text of the Textus Receptus. A revision of the New Testament was completed on the Continent, as were portions of the Old Testament.

By 1535, about 50,000 copies were in circulation. That same year, Tyndale was betrayed by a friend and imprisoned at Vilvorde Castle. On October 6, 1536, following a thirteen-month imprisonment, he was strangled and burned at the stake for heresy. He uttered these last words from the executioner’s platform:

Lord, open the

 King of England’s eyes.

William Tyndale (c.1494—1536)