William Tyndale: The Man Who Gave the English Bible to the People

Ken Kalis
Oct 5
3 min read

Tyndale, before being strangled and burned at the stake in Vilvoorde, cries out, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes". Woodcut from Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563) which is the earliest source of the quote. (Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons)

I learned to read from the Bible before I went to school.

My parents pointed to each word and pronounced it for me
This opened my heart and mind; I was born again by reading God's Word.
Millions of souls have been saved through Tyndale's words.

He paid with his life for this but his dying prayer was answered.

Today, the Anglican Church in North America honors William Tyndale, as priest, translator of the Bible, and Martyr, 1536.

Tyndale was a Scholar with a Holy Purpose

Few names in Christian history shine with greater courage than William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536). Scholar, linguist, and martyr, Tyndale dedicated his life to one great cause: that the common people of England might read the Word of God in their own tongue.

Read more Christian biographies at my blog at https://www.kenkalis.com/blog

Born near the Welsh border, Tyndale was educated at Oxford and later at Cambridge, where he absorbed the reforming ideas sweeping Europe. He became convinced that Scripture—not Church tradition—must be the ultimate authority for faith and practice.

Yet in England, the Bible was chained to the altar and locked away in Latin, inaccessible to ordinary believers.

When one clergyman told him that it would be “better to be without God’s law than the Pope’s,” Tyndale famously replied,

“I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”

The Bible in the People’s Language

Medieval manuscript page featuring illuminated text titled "The Gospell off Sancte John" with a colorful illustration of a seated figure. — John 1 in Tyndale's translation.

(Public domain via the British Library)

Denied permission to translate the Bible in England, Tyndale fled to the Continent, working in secret in Hamburg, Cologne, and Worms. In 1526, his English New Testament rolled off the press—small enough to smuggle into England in bales of cloth.

The translation was crisp, musical, and unforgettable. Phrases like “Let there be light,” “the powers that be,” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” entered the bloodstream of the English language and remain with us today.

Persecution and Betrayal

Church and Crown alike branded Tyndale a heretic. He lived as a fugitive for a decade, constantly moving to escape capture. In 1535, he was betrayed by a supposed friend, imprisoned near Brussels, and tried for heresy.

On October 6, 1536, William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake. His final prayer rang across the centuries:

“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”

A Legacy That Cannot Be Burned

The Lord Jesus Christ* (4BC-30AD) answered that prayer. Within four years, King Henry VIII (1491-1547)ordered that every parish in England should have an English Bible—largely Tyndale’s own translation. Nearly ninety percent of the King James Version (1611) is drawn from Tyndale’s inspired wording.

An asterisk* after a name means the person is in my book SPIRITUAL LIVES.

Tyndale’s life reminds us that truth may be bound in chains, but the Word of God cannot be bound (2 Timothy 2:9). His translation gave English-speaking Christians direct access to Scripture and shaped both faith and language for generations to come.