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Who Was William Tyndale and Why Does He Matter? | Ian Hamilton · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take your sources and distill
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compelling insights, cutting through the noise to help you
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gain clarity and understanding. For this particular deep dive,
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we're focusing on a figure whose work, well, it quite literally
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plays the English Bible into your hands.
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That's right. We're drawing from an address by
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Ian Hamilton, delivered from Missionary 24, titled Who Was
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William Tyndale? And Why Does He Matter?
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It really gives us a look into a life that was, you know, so
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singular in its aim and frankly, staggering in its cost.
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So our mission today is to unpack the story of William
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Tyndale, not just as some figure from history, but to really try
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and grasp the driving force behind his steady purpose and to
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understand why his life and ultimately his sacrifice holds
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such a relevance for you right here, right now.
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Exactly. We'll see how he genuinely was
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this one thing I do kind of man. Just marked by incredible,
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undaunted courage. And how his whole existence was
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really set apart for the glory of Jesus Christ.
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OK, let's unpack this then. William Tyndale wasn't born into
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a quiet world. He he stepped onto the scene
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during a period of massive shifts across Europe.
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Can you maybe paint a picture of what that world was like for
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him? Yeah, it's fascinating,
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actually. When you consider how Tyndale
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appeared during three simultaneous societal shifts.
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It was almost like, well, like God orchestrated a perfect storm
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for alterations 3, Three major shifts happening together.
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It was as if divine Providence had really set the stage for
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precisely the kind of figure Tindio would become, and, you
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know, the work he would complete.
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First, there's a technological revolution.
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Some decades before Tyndale was even born, Johannes Gutenberg
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had devised the mechanical printing press.
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Right Euenberg. And this invention, it just
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completely altered the face of Western Europe and beyond.
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Suddenly, books could be printed mechanically, disseminated
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widely, instead of being, you know, laboriously copied by
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hand, one at a time. Which room must have taken
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forever? Absolutely.
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So this was a total game changer for spreading ideas.
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It made knowledge accessible in a way it had never ever been
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before. It wasn't just about making
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books cheaper, though that helped it.
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It democratized information. It challenged centuries of
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centralized control, and it really laid the groundwork for
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individual thought and eventually widespread dissent.
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I mean, just imagine a world where information could suddenly
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travel further and faster, reaching way more people than
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ever start to grasp the, well, the ground shifting impact of
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this innovation. Yeah, Then, secondly, there was
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a biblical revolution already underway in the year 1516,
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Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist scholar, he
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published for the first time in printed form the Greek New
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Testament. OK, the Greek New Testament.
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This was a landmark, just a seismic moment in European and
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world history. Now a lot of people know about
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October 31st, 1517, right when Martin Luther nailed his 95
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theses. Yes, that date sticks.
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It does, but the publication of Erasmus Greek New Testament just
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a year before was perhaps even more significant in, you know,
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preparing the way. See, for centuries since the
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beginning of the 5th century, the Church had primarily relied
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on a Latin Vulgate as its standard text.
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The official. Version.
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The official version, but now with Erasmus Greek text readily
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available thanks to the printing press, scholars and later even
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more ordinary men and women started comparing the Latin
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Vulgate to the original Greek. And what did they find?
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Well, what they found was truly revolutionary.
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They were scratching their heads, realizing that the Greek
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text, it challenged, sometimes in a really confrontational way,
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many of the accepted beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic
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Church at the time. Can you give us a specific
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example, something concrete that would highlight that kind of
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revelation? Absolutely.
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One of the most significant discovery, and really a key one
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for the Reformation was the difference in wording about
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repentance. In the Latin Vulgate you often
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found the phrase PO in attention ajait, which translated to do
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penance. Now that implies an outward act
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right? A work you perform to atone for
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sin, maybe fasting or you know, self flagellation, giving money
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to the church. It was something external you
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did to gain forgiveness or merit.
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Right, works based. Exactly.
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But when scholars looked at the Greek text, it clearly said
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Metanoate. Metanoate.
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Which means repent. Now this wasn't about an
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external action. This shifted the whole
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understanding of salvation from an act or works to a fundamental
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heart change, an internal turning from sin to God.
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That's a huge difference. Massive.
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And it was a startling revelation that actually
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underpinned Luther's first three of his 95 theses written just
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shortly after Erasmus publication.
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Luther wrote that the Lord Jesus Christ calls us to repentance, a
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whole lifetime of repentance. People were realizing, you know,
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salvation doesn't rest on penances and pilgrimages or
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these bought indulgences. It rests on an internal turning
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from sin to God in Christ, a change brought about by grace.
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This is just a radical departure from the prevailing theology.
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Erasmus himself, you know, he had this hopeful outlook.
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In the preface to his 1516 Greek Newcastement, he expressed this
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vision that everyone everywhere would have God's Word in their
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own language. Really.
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Even back then? Oh.
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Yeah, he wished that the least woman, his words, would be able
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to read the Gospels and the letters of Paul.
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He even stated that, you know, the Scots, the Irish, the Turks
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and the Muslims would have the word of God in their own
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language. And he famously hoped the
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plowboy, as he tells his fields, will be able to read the
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scriptures, recite the scriptures, sing the Scriptures.
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The plowboy. That phrase comes up later,
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doesn't it? It certainly does with Tyndale
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and Erasmus is reason you put it this way.
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What you most truly are depends on what you're actually reading.
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He dumbly believed in the power of direct access to Scripture to
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shape a person's inner being, letting each individual confront
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God's truth directly. That's quite a vision,
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especially for that time. And then came the third
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revolution, the spiritual one that must have just poured
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gasoline on the fire. Precisely that was the third key
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shift when Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the door of the
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Catholic Church in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517.
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Well, the Theses themselves weren't overtly evangelical in
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their initial content. They were really a challenge to
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the practice of selling indulgences.
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Right, the Indulgences controversy.
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Exactly. But they caught a mood among the
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people. Coupled with Erasmus, Greek, New
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Testament, Luther's actions caused people to start asking
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these fundamental questions about the church and their
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faith, questions that have been, you know, simmering for
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centuries. The whole atmosphere of the
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times was captured by this Latin phrase adfontis.
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Adfontis. Meeting back to the sources now,
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this movement applied to a renewed interest in classical
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literature, going back to original Greek and Roman texts.
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But above all, above all, it applied to the scriptures
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themselves. Back to the Bible.
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Back to the Bible. It was this societal push to get
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to the foundational texts, to rediscover the original
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wellsprings of truth. And it was into this charged,
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dynamic atmosphere, just ripe for new ideas and bold action,
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that William Tyndale was born. OK, so that sets the stage
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brilliantly. What about Tyndale himself?
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What do we know about his early life and how did his own
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personal mission start to take shape in this this vibrant
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environment? Well, actually very little about
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his earliest years. William Tyndale was born
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probably in 1494, maybe 1495, in Gloucestershire, which is a very
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rural county in southwest England.
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OK, what we do know really begins with his education around
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age 12, which seems young to us, but wasn't unusual.
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Then he went to study at the University of Oxford, one of
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England's two big universities, Oxford and Cambridge.
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He got his Bachelor of Arts in 1512, and then three years later
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his Master of Arts. So this tells us he was a
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scholar of really exceptional ability, mastering the tough
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academic curriculum of the day, Latin, logic, philosophy, the
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works. Now, the precise timing, the
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exact moment or manner of his coming to saving faith in Jesus
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Christ, well, that's not known for certain.
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John Fox, in his famous Book of Martyrs, actually gives
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differing accounts. Yeah, in the 1st edition, Fox
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suggests Tyndale came to faith reading Martin Luther's
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writings. But then in a second edition a
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few years later, Fox says Tyndale's conversion came
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through reading the Scriptures in the Latin Vulgate, the very
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texted later challenge. Interesting.
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So we don't know for sure how it happened.
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We don't. But what's really striking and
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very characteristic of the reformers and later the
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Puritans, is how little interested they were in the
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pathology, so to speak, of anyone's conversion.
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They wouldn't typically ask when you were converted or how.
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Their key question was much simpler, but also much more
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searching. Are you converted and does your
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life show that you have been converted to Jesus Christ, that
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you now live under His saving Lordship?
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The evidence was in the living. Exactly the tangible evidence of
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faith was in the life changed by God's grace, not just the
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details of the experience itself.
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Now Tyndale by this time had become an exceptional linguist.
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His Latin was superb. He could converse easily,
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fluently in it, like any highly educated person then, right?
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And his Greek was becoming brilliant, which of course would
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be absolutely crucial for his future work.
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Translating directly from Erasmus Greek text right row
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1519. He moves from Oxford to
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Cambridge, and Cambridge during that period had become known as
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Little Germany Little. Germany.
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Why? Well.
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Because scholars there would gather in a place called the
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White Horse Inn. It's not there anymore, sadly,
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but they'd meet to discuss the latest writings of Martin
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Luther, things like his three great treatises from 1520 to the
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Christian Nobility, on the Babylonian captivity, on the
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Freedom of a Christian. Those are.
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Absolutely explosive documents, challenging papal authority,
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traditional sacraments, the whole structure.
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Now, we don't have proof of direct contact between Tyndale
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and the guise of the White Horse Inn, or even with Luther or
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Melanchthon themselves, but he clearly realized something
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significant during this time. What was that?
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He realized he needed time away from the academic world.
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He needed to set himself apart for this great project that God
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had began to lay on his heart, which was to give his own
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people, the English people, the word of God in their own
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language. It's clear this vision was
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becoming a powerful conviction for him.
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But like you said, this wasn't just some academic pursuit, was
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it? What?
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What exactly was the climate like for anyone even thinking
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about translating the Bible into English?
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Yeah, this is a vital point because we take it so for
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granted today, having the Bible in English, yeah, I might think
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it's a basic right, but in Tyndale's time, anything but.
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It was dangerous. Extremely dangerous.
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It was explicitly against English law to possess any part
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of the Bible in English. This is reinforced by something
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called the Constitutions of Oxford way back in 14 O 8.
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Wow, over a century before. Yes, and the consequences for
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breaking this law were, well, tragically severe and often very
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public. For instance, in 1519, just a
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few years before Tyndale really got going, three men and one
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woman were burned at the stake in London.
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Burned for what? Simply because they had taught
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their children the Lord's Prayer in English.
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Just the Lord's Prayer in English.
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Just the Lord's Prayer. Can you even imagine?
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And in that same year, another man suffered the same horrific
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fate just for having on his person a tiny fragment of the
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Sermon on the Mount in English. It's unbelievable.
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It wasn't abstract, it was literally life and death.
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The church at the time, the Roman Catholic Church,
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specifically, wanted to keep the scriptures within its own
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domain. Their motivation was pretty
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clear by controlling access to the Bible, keeping it in Latin,
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which only the educated clergy could really read and interpret.
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They kept control. They kept control.
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They aimed to maintain the people under the church's
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authority. They argued, you know, that
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translations into the common language would lead to heresy,
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misinterpretation, social chaos, the Pope, the bishops.
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They believed they were the soul guardians of divine truth, and
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direct access for common people threatened their theological
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power and, frankly, their political power too.
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It was about preserving institutional power by limiting
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spiritual freedom. So in that kind of incredibly
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oppressive context, how did Tyndale see himself?
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What was the ultimate drive that kept him going?
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Well, by this time Tyndale was a convinced Protestant, and for
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him, being a Protestant wasn't primarily about protesting
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against Rome, although they certainly did that.
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They protested its moral corruption, it's theological
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errors, it's spiritual tyranny, Right?
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But the original meaning of the Latin word protest are was
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actually to bear witness. Bear witness.
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Exactly so. Protestants were first and
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foremost men and women who bore witness to Jesus Christ, to his
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gospel, and to the truth of His Word.
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And Tyndale himself was just thoroughly saturated, completely
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enthused with the glory of the Gospel of God.
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He resolved, with God's help, to make translating the Bible the
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work of his entire life. Not just a project, but the
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work. The work It was the singular
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calling that consumed him, a mission he believed was given by
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God himself. After his time in Cambridge,
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Tyndale went back to Gloucestershire.
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He took up a job as a tutor in the household of a local
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nobleman, Sir John Walsh, in a place called Little Sodbury, and
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it was there that his vision really found its most famous
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expression. John Walsh, the nobleman, would
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often invite these eminent local dignitaries in Roman Catholic
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clergy over for dinner at the Manor House, and Tyndale, being
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the tutor, would be present. Awkward dinners, maybe?
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Potentially he would frequently engage them in animated
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conversation, debates, really, not just casual chat, often
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heated exchanges about faith, the church's authority, the role
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of Scripture. And on one memorable occasion,
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one of these Roman Catholic clerics, just infuriated with
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Tyndale's arguments, probably frustrated by Tyndale constantly
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peel into the biblical text, declared an exasperation,
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something like it would be better to have the Pope's laws
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than God's law. He actually said that.
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He actually said that. It's starkly reveals the core
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conflict, doesn't it? Human tradition versus divine
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revelation. And that's the moment, that's
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when Tyndale delivered his iconic reply, right?
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The one that really crystallized his whole mission.
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That's the one. It was in that charge moment
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that Tyndale famously replied, looking directly at the cleric.
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If God spare my life air long, I will cause even the plow boy
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that drive at the plow to know more of the word of God than
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you. Such a powerful.
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Statement. It really is.
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It perfectly encapsulated his vision, his zeal.
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It wasn't just a sharp comeback, it was a declaration of purpose.
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It showed his absolute conviction that the common
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person, even the uneducated laborer, the plowboy, deserved
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and needed direct access to death.
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That's word. And that he would make it
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happen. And that he, Tyndale, was
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willing to dedicate his entire life to making that a reality
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was just a revolutionary claim, cutting through centuries of
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clerical control, asserting the right of every single person to
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read the scriptures for themselves.
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So Tindio realized if he was going to pursue this calling,
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this singular purpose that now consumed him, getting the Word
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of God translated into English, he would really need the support
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of the church. Or at least you know it's
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permission. Some official backing.
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Right. So he made his way to London.
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He was hoping for official sanction.
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He actually had high hopes for Cuthbert Tunstall, who was the
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Bishop of London at the time. Tunstall.
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Why him? Well, Tunstall was known to be
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somewhat sympathetic to the new learning, this intellectual
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ferment sweeping Europe. Tyndale hoped Tunstall, being a
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scholar himself, might grant permission, maybe even offer
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patronage, protection. But the context, as we
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discussed, had shifted significantly, made Tunstall
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very cautious. By this time you had this great
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intellectual social ferment boiling over in Germany.
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Luther had translated the German New Testament in 1522.
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Right, just a couple of years earlier.
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Exactly. And Germans were actively
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reading the scriptures in their own language, and as they did,
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they started noticing these, well, glaring disparities
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between the Word of God they were reading and the visible
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church they saw around them. It's corruption, it's doctrines,
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it's practices like indulgences. So that made the English
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authorities nervous. Extremely nervous.
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This growing awareness created real tension, unrest across
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Europe, and it made the authorities in England,
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including Bishop Tunstall, exceptionally wary of any
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similar movements happening on their soil.
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They were terrified of the spread of Lutheran heresy, the
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destabilization of both church and state.
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So what was Tunstall's final decision and what did that mean
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for Tyndale's next move? Bishop Tunstall ultimately
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refused Tyndale permission. He apparently claimed the work
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couldn't be done properly in London, citing some vague
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difficulties, excuses. Almost certainly.
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The real reason was undoubtedly fear, fear of the doctrinal
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changes, the challenges to authority that an English Bible
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might unleash. So this refusal was a pivotal
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moment. William Tyndale then realized if
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God was going to help him translate the Scriptures, and by
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now his vision had expanded. It wasn't just the New
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Testament. He wanted the entire Bible even
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though he didn't even know Hebrew yet.
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Wow, ambitious. Incredibly, he realized he would
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have to leave England. He had this burden from God, and
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he understood the work simply could not be done within the
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confines of his homeland, where it was forbidden heresy,
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punishable by death. He made the huge decision to
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leave England, a land he would never, ever see again.
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So what did this mean for his actual work?
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Then he leaves England, becomes an exile, never to return.
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How did this impact the physical act of translation?
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How did his life unfold from there?
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Well, if we look at the bigger picture, his departure wasn't
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just, you know, a stroke of luck, as maybe some worldly
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scholars might frame it. The theological perspective
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looks like a clear instance of, well, the divine management of
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sovereign Providence. God's hand was guiding Tyndale
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away from a context where he would almost certainly have
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suffered the same immediate, imminent fate as others who
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tried to promote an English Bible.
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God moving him to safety in a sense.
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Exactly, a divine removal from danger to a place where his work
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could actually continue and flourish, enabling him to
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achieve his life's task. So for the next 12 years, from
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1524 to 1536, Tyndale lived in exile.
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He traveled throughout Germany and then the Spanish
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Netherlands, which you know, we call modern day Belgium and
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Holland. Constantly moving.
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Yes, often moving, yeah. And this was strategic not just
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for his personal safety, but also for the very practical
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reason of printing. At that time, Europe had
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something like 1000 printers. England only had two A. 1000
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versus 2, that's a huge difference.
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Massive. This disparity in printing
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capability meant the continent offered the necessary
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infrastructure for the large scale production his work
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demanded. Without access to those European
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printing presses, his vision of distributing the English Bible
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widely would have been incredibly difficult, maybe even
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impossible. He lived this clandestine life,
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often moving from city to city, rely on the kindness, the
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secrecy of sympathetic merchants and reformers.
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And it was during this exile that he hit his first major
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milestone, right, the New Testament translation.
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How did that come about and what was the immediate reaction?
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Yes, exactly. He made his way first to
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Wittenberg, the absolute heart of the Reformation, where
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figures like Luther and Philip Milanathon were based.
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Now, it's unconfirmed if he met them directly, but the
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atmosphere there was certainly supportive of his kind of work.
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In 1525 he completed his translation of the New Testament
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into English. He worked primarily from Erasmus
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Greek text, but meticulously compared it with the Latin
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Vulgate and also Luther's German translation.
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He found two printers willing to take the risk, Peter Quintel and
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Peter Schuffer. Taking a risk printing illegal
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material. A huge risk, but apparently the
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potential profits from printing such a highly demanded yet
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forbidden book were substantial enough for them to do it.
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So almost immediately, 6000 copies of the New Testament in
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English were printed. 6000 that's a lot for back then.
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A huge print run for the time, these volumes were then cleverly
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smuggled into the eastern seaboard of England and
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Scotland. They were often hidden inside
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bales of cotton or sacks of flour, other seemingly innocent
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goods. Hidden cargo.
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Yes, hidden by this network of sympathetic merchants and
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sailors, once they got into England, they were distributed
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secretly, passed from hand to hand, read in hushed tones in
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homes, in secret gatherings. But the authorities, the Roman
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Catholic authorities, were well aware of what was happening.
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Bishop Tunstall, the same one who refused Tyndale permission
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in London, organized public bonfires.
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Burning Bibles. Yes, gathering all the New
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Testaments they could find and burning them publicly, often
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with great ceremony and loud denunciations.
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Tunstall even preached against the heretics, claiming, get
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this, that there were 2000 errors in Tyndale's New
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Testament. 2000 errors. Was that true?
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Of course not in the sense he meant.
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The claim was made because Tyndale was translating directly
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from the Greek, not the Latin Vulgate which was the Church's
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official text. The so-called errors were
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actually accurate renderings from the original language that
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challenged established interpretations, especially
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around things like penance, good works, the role of the clergy.
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So the errors were actually the points of contention.
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Precisely and ironically, the very attempt to destroy the
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Bibles just increase their demand.
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People were willing to pay higher prices for them.
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They became symbols of defiance, symbols of spiritual freedom.
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So he gets the New Testament out despite this massive opposition,
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but then he sets his sights even higher.
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The entire Bible, which meant, as you said, learning Hebrew.
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How did he tackle that alongside all the dangers he was already
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facing? Kendall was just, well,
21:31
undaunted by the challenges. He'd set his heart on
21:33
translating the whole Bible into English, and that meant he
21:36
absolutely had to learn Hebrew. This was an immense task.
21:39
Hebrew was far less commonly studied than Greek or Latin.
21:42
Then a. Whole new language to master a.
21:44
Whole new complex language family.
21:47
He devoted himself with this singular focus over the next
21:50
three years to becoming not just competent in Hebrew, but so
21:54
familiar with it that he could grasp not just the grammar and
21:56
syntax but its unique idioms, it's poetic structures, it's
22:01
cultural nuances. That's.
22:02
Incredible dedication. It really is painstaking,
22:05
singular dedication, often working late into the night,
22:08
just pouring over texts. He then began the arduous work
22:12
of translating directly from the Hebrew text into English,
22:15
starting with the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch, and
22:17
continuing on to the book of Joshua.
22:20
Things were progressing steadily.
22:22
But all during this time, remember, both the Church and
22:24
the state in England had spies out, paid assassins trying to
22:27
hunt him down. He was constantly moving city to
22:30
city, town to town, often protected by English merchants
22:33
who are sympathetic to the Reformation, the new learning.
22:35
Living constantly on the run. Pretty much despite these
22:38
constant threats, the ever present danger of discovery, his
22:42
translation work continued. And then catastrophe struck.
22:46
Oh no. What happened?
22:47
As he was travelling, probably from Hamburg to Antwerp, likely
22:51
to oversee a new printing run, the ship he was on was wrecked,
22:54
shipwrecked, shipwrecked. And all his work, the fruits of
22:57
three years of intensive Hebrew study, over a year of
23:00
painstaking Old Testament translation, all his
23:03
manuscripts, his notes, his progress, it was all lost to the
23:06
sea. Gone.
23:08
Oh, that's just devastating. After all that work, under
23:10
constant threat to lose everything like that.
23:13
What was his response? How did he even cope?
23:16
You can only imagine the despair, right?
23:17
The immense weight of such a loss.
23:20
For most people, that would have absolutely been the end of the
23:22
project. Game over.
23:24
Understandably. But Tyndale's response just
23:26
speaks volumes about his character, his spiritual
23:29
resolve. What did he do?
23:31
The source simply says he started again.
23:33
Just started over, yeah. He just started again.
23:36
He simply began anew, went back to his studies, retranslating
23:40
the lost portions of the Old Testament from scratch.
23:42
It just perfectly illustrates that one thing I do focus,
23:45
doesn't it? It's a true reflection of what
23:47
the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3.
23:50
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
23:53
ahead, I press on toward the goal.
23:56
Undistracted. Undeflected.
23:57
Completely. He viewed even this disaster as
24:00
well, a temporary detour, not a permanent stop sign.
24:03
He just embodied this resilient spirit, utterly driven by divine
24:07
purpose. Now, during this time, the court
24:09
of Henry the Eighth, I remember they'd failed with their spies
24:12
and assassins to capture Tyndale.
24:14
They tried a new tactic. They persuaded A merchant, A
24:18
somewhat sympathetic man named Stephen Vaughn, who's probably
24:20
leaning Protestant himself. They persuaded Vaughn to
24:23
approach Tyndale and offer him a pardon, a full pardon and a
24:27
place in the King's court. Apparently the King, Henry the
24:29
Eighth, admired Tyndale's brilliance, his scholarship,
24:32
even his boldness. He saw him as a valuable
24:35
intellectual asset. That sounds like a pretty
24:37
tempting offer. A royal pardon?
24:39
Safety. Influence at court?
24:41
What was Tyndale's condition for returning?
24:43
Did he accept? Tyndale's reply was absolutely
24:47
characteristic of his singular purpose.
24:49
It shows you exactly where his true loyalty lay.
24:52
He told Vaughn that he would return, he would lay down his
24:54
light before the king, let the king do whatever he wished with
24:57
him if there. Was an.
24:59
If a huge if, if the King would promise to appoint someone,
25:03
anyone didn't have to be Tyndale to translate the word of God
25:07
into the English language so that the people of England might
25:10
know God's glad tidings, the gospel, and find salvation in
25:13
Jesus Christ. That was his non negotiable
25:16
condition. So his mission came before his
25:18
own life. Absolutely, and Stephen Vaughn
25:21
famously reported back to King Henry with words many people
25:23
know, Sire Majesty. I found him always singing the
25:26
same note. Always singing the same note.
25:28
Tyndale Head one song to sing, one driving message, 1
25:33
unwavering mission. And so, because the King
25:35
wouldn't agree to that condition, Tyndale did not
25:38
return to England. His ultimate purpose just
25:41
completely outweighed any personal comfort or safety that
25:44
a royal pardon might have offered.
25:46
He was living for a much higher cause.
25:49
It was also during this period that Tyndale got involved in
25:52
some significant theological controversies, particularly with
25:56
Sir Thomas Moore. Sir Thomas Moore, the famous
25:58
scholar and statesman. That's him, a brilliant Roman
26:00
Catholic scholar, a personal friend of Erasmus actually, and
26:03
a very prominent figure in England, held high office,
26:06
almost like a Prime Minister. Now, both Moore and Erasmus,
26:09
they recognize that the Roman Church had problems.
26:12
They saw the inequity, the ignorance, the folly.
26:14
They saw moral failings, corruption among clergy,
26:17
spiritual axity. But they failed to see beyond
26:20
those moral issues to the really deep theological and spiritual
26:24
failings in the church's foundational doctrine.
26:27
They were looking for reform within the existing structure,
26:30
not a complete theological overhaul based on Scripture
26:33
alone. So in 1528 Tyndale wrote three
26:36
very engaging, very readable treatises.
26:39
The Obedience of the Christian Man and The Parable of Wicked
26:42
Mammon were two main ones, plus the practice of prelates.
26:45
What were they about? The obedience of a Christian man
26:48
argued for the supreme authority of Scripture over both Pope and
26:52
King, though ironically, it also argued for the duty of subjects
26:56
to obey their monarch as God's appointed ruler, a point that
27:00
actually appealed to Henry the Eighth for a time.
27:02
The parable of wicked mammon dealt directly with the doctrine
27:05
of justification by faith alone. Core reformation stuff.
27:08
Absolutely Core and Thomas More reply to these works, especially
27:11
the Obedience. This led to a very sharp, often
27:14
quite bitter controversy between the two men fought out in print.
27:17
What did they argue about? Oh, the big things.
27:20
Justification, purgatory, venerating Saints, the nature of
27:23
the sacraments, the true meaning of the Church.
27:25
More in his writings could be incredibly harsh.
27:29
He called Tyndale a hell hound and accused him of malicious
27:32
intent. Wow, a hell hound.
27:34
That's strong language. Now, some have suggested that
27:37
Tyndale kind of let himself get diverted by these theological
27:40
fights, pulling him away from his main translation work.
27:42
Was that really a distraction for him?
27:44
It's a fair question to ask, but looking at it through Tyndale's
27:47
eyes, no, wasn't a distraction at all.
27:49
Quite the opposite, really. So for Tyndale, it was a burden.
27:53
He felt compelled to hold up the truth of God's Word and to
27:55
confront Rome with its errors. Its moral errors, yes, but also
28:00
it's ceremonial errors, things like relics and pilgrimages.
28:03
And crucially, it's fundamental theological errors about
28:06
salvation and authority. Especially in an age he saw as
28:10
filled with pervasive ignorance and darkness, he believed that
28:14
just translating the Bible wasn't quite enough.
28:17
The people also needed help understanding what it meant and
28:19
how it directly countered the prevalent false teachings they
28:21
were hearing constantly. So he was willing to take on the
28:24
brilliant Sir Thomas More because the truth of the Gospel
28:27
demanded it. So defending the truth was part
28:29
of spreading it. Exactly.
28:31
His aim wasn't just to put the Bible physically into people's
28:33
hands, but to help them grasp its glorious content.
28:36
It's life changing implications for faith and life for him.
28:40
The polemics, the arguments in the translation work.
28:43
We're really two sides of the same coin, spreading the light
28:46
of the gospel. What a truly remarkable life.
28:48
Just unwavering dedication, incredible perseverance,
28:51
constant sacrifice. But as we know, it all came at
28:55
an incredible price. His end was as dramatic, as
28:58
singular as his life had been. It really was, and it
29:01
illustrates that pattern, doesn't it?
29:03
The pattern of the grain of wheat falling into the earth and
29:05
dying to bear much fruit. A principle that was so central
29:08
to his own understanding of the Gospel and just so evident in
29:11
his life and death. It demonstrates that deep
29:13
reality that sacrifice even unto death can yield immense
29:17
blessing, and that God often uses the death of his servants
29:20
to powerfully further his Kingdom.
29:23
So in 1534, after years of this tireless work, these narrow
29:26
escapes, the constant moving, the Roman Church in England,
29:29
likely acting through the Bishop of London, finally got their
29:31
man. They paid a scoundrel, a man
29:33
named Henry Phillips. Henry Phillips, the betrayer.
29:37
The betrayer Phillips was apparently a master of deceit.
29:40
He managed to ingratiate himself with the English speaking
29:43
merchant community in Antwerp, where Tyndale was living more
29:46
openly at the time. Feeling relatively safe,
29:49
Phillips befriended Tyndale using lies, pretending to
29:53
sympathize with the Reformation cause.
29:55
Gaining his trust. Completely gaining his trust,
29:57
brining with him, learning his routines, his movement.
30:00
Then Phillips engineered Tyndale's arrest.
30:03
He apparently lured Tyndale out into the open, perhaps under the
30:06
guise of needing help or going for a meal, right into the hands
30:09
of the waiting Imperial officers.
30:11
For the next 14 months, William Tyndale languished in a dark,
30:15
dank dungeon in Vilvord Vilvord Vilvord Castle, a formidable
30:20
state prison about 6 miles north of Brussels. 14 months in a
30:23
dungeon like that. Imagine the conditions for over
30:26
a year. Cold, damp, no natural light,
30:29
lightly infested with Furman, and despite being one of
30:32
Europe's foremost scholars, his most basic human needs were
30:35
denied. There's a famous, heartbreaking
30:37
letter he wrote to the authorities from his prison.
30:39
What did it say? He makes these simple yet
30:41
incredibly telling requests. He asked.
30:45
Please may I have a candle? It was too dark to read or work.
30:48
And please will you send me my warm cloak?
30:51
He was cold, showing where his mind still was, even facing
30:54
death. Please give me my Hebrew
30:57
dictionary, my Hebrew grammar, and my Hebrew Bible.
30:59
Still wanting to work even. Then still wanting to work even.
31:03
Facing death, his intellect, his dedication to the Word of God
31:06
remained his chief concerns. We don't actually know for
31:10
certain if those requests were granted.
31:12
The charge against him essentially controverting
31:15
English law, civil and church, and wanting to translate the
31:18
scriptures from the original languages into English.
31:21
That was the heart of it, daring to give the common man the very
31:23
words of God. And then came his final act.
31:26
The ultimate sacrifice, The end of this heroic life on October
31:29
6, 1530. 6 William Tyndale was taken from his dungeon.
31:33
He was first publicly degraded from the Roman priesthood, an
31:35
ordination he'd received early in his life.
31:37
Then, because he was a scholar, a man of letters, he was
31:40
technically given the mercy of being strangled first, before
31:43
his body was destroyed. Strangled.
31:46
His body was then, according to Fox, filled with gunpowder and
31:49
blown apart, and whatever remained was burned at the
31:51
stake, A gruesome public spectacle designed to terrify
31:55
anyone else who might dare to follow his path.
31:58
His life ended this way, all because he was a one thing I do,
32:02
man. His entire existence was poured
32:04
out for that singular purpose, translating and spreading God's
32:08
word. So why does William Tyndale
32:10
matter for us today, sitting here centuries later?
32:13
What can we really learn from his life, his death?
32:16
Let me try and share maybe five key lessons from Tyndale's life
32:19
for you, for us, lessons that I think resonate far beyond the
32:22
16th century. First, he exemplified just
32:25
undaunted perseverance. Tyndale truly took up his cross
32:28
and followed Christ. You know when the Lord Jesus
32:30
told those great crowds in Luke 14, if anyone would come after
32:33
me, let him take up His cross and follow me?
32:35
Well, His listeners understood that literally.
32:38
They knew what a cross meant. They knew.
32:39
Exactly what it meant. Taking up a cross meant you were
32:42
on your way to execution, probably being paraded through
32:45
the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus was asking point blank,
32:49
Are you ready to die? If not, you cannot follow him.
32:53
We tend to domesticate that language today, don't we?
32:56
We think of crosses to bear as just difficulties,
32:59
inconveniences, maybe hardships. Yeah, Challenges.
33:02
Challenges. But for Tyndale?
33:04
And for those early hearers, it was a question of ultimate
33:06
sacrifice, A readiness to lay down absolutely everything.
33:10
Now God provides the grace for such moments, a grace we might
33:14
not even be able to imagine until it's needed.
33:16
A grace that enabled Tyndale to face what he faced without
33:19
flinching. William Tyndale was raised up by
33:21
the Lord to be an example to us, an example of faithfulness in
33:24
the face of just immense pressure.
33:26
Like Athanasius or Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin,
33:28
Jonathan Edwards, he stands as one of these models God gives
33:32
his people through history. And you know, it's really a
33:34
tragedy of much modern Christian thinking that we have such an
33:38
ignorance of history. If you forget your history,
33:40
you're doomed to repeat its errors.
33:42
You really are our. Children ourselves, we should
33:45
grow up hearing about these figures, these exemplars God has
33:49
given to the church for our instruction, for our
33:51
encouragement. OK, Secondly, he was a one thing
33:54
I do that phrase, it comes directly from the apostle Paul
33:58
in Philippians chapter 3, where Paul declares forgetting what
34:01
lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
34:04
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of
34:06
God in Christ Jesus. Now most of us, maybe all of us,
34:11
we have gifts, abilities in various areas, right?
34:13
We might have more than one string to our bow.
34:15
We might have predominant strengths perhaps, but we can
34:17
dabble in many things. We get pulled in different.
34:20
Directions we do, but the Lord Jesus said.
34:22
Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
34:24
What is the one thing? What is the one thing that truly
34:27
shapes who you are, that determines what you're becoming,
34:30
that defines your ultimate purpose?
34:32
For Kendale, it was absolutely clear when people thought of
34:35
William Tyndale, they knew Jesus Christ was everything to that
34:38
man, and putting His word into the hands of the common people
34:41
was the supreme means to that end to knowing Christ.
34:44
His whole life was oriented around that one central pursuit,
34:47
a steadfast devotion that just never wavered.
34:50
His entire being was geared toward this single God-given
34:53
objective. Thirdly, William Tyndale
34:56
understood our Savior's words in John chapter 12.
34:58
Jesus said truly, truly. I say to you, unless a grain of
35:01
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if
35:04
it dies, it bears much fruit. The grain of wheat principle.
35:07
Exactly. And there's something.
35:08
So strikingly counterintuitive about this principle, isn't
35:11
there? It speaks to this divine economy
35:14
where somehow we die to live. As Paul writes to the
35:18
Corinthians, death works in us, but life in you.
35:20
It's actually very striking if you compare 2nd Corinthians 2.14
35:24
where Paul says we always being LED in Christ triumphal
35:27
procession, this magnificent of cosmic victory.
35:29
Yeah, sounds amazing it. Does but then just two chapters.
35:32
Later in 2nd Corinthians 4.10 he says we are always being given
35:36
over to death for Jesus sake. Now those two always, they
35:40
aren't sequential. It's not like first triumph of
35:42
then death. They happen at the same time
35:44
they. Happen at the same time.
35:46
Simultaneously, by God's grace, we were in triumph because of
35:50
Christ's finished victory. And yet at the very same time,
35:53
we're also bearing about in our bodies the dying of the Lord
35:56
Jesus as we suffer for his name, as we sacrifice for His cause,
36:00
The great pattern that the Holy Spirit edged into the holy
36:03
humanity of Christ himself. Death and resurrection.
36:05
Death leading to life. He comes to reproduce that
36:09
pattern uniquely in your life and my life.
36:12
And Tyndale's life, and especially his death, illustrate
36:15
this so powerfully, bringing forth such great blessing from
36:18
his sacrifice as millions upon millions gained access to the
36:21
English Bible precisely because he was willing to die for it.
36:25
Fourthly, and this is perhaps the most vital point, he loved
36:28
the Word of God and he loved the God of the Word, the source of
36:30
his passion, the ultimate source.
36:32
If you could have asked William Tyndale as they let him out from
36:35
that dungeon in Ville Board on October 6th, 1536, why, Why
36:40
endure such hardship? Why face such an unimaginably
36:43
horrific death, He would surely have said yes.
36:45
It was that the plowboy might have the word of God that his
36:48
countrymen, his countrywomen might possess the words of life.
36:51
I mean his very final words, according to Fox, as the flames
36:54
came up around him were a cry lured open the king of England's
36:58
eyes. It shows his ultimate burden for
37:00
his nation, for the gospel to reach them.
37:02
But beyond that, beyond even those immediate earthly
37:05
motivations, as crucial as they were, I really believe he would
37:08
say, I've done all that I've done and I'm ready now to suffer
37:11
all I'm about to suffer, because he is worth it, Because Christ
37:15
is worth it. Because Christ is worth it.
37:18
It echoes the words you still hear from missionaries today,
37:21
maybe suffering greatly in difficult places for the sake of
37:23
the Gospel. They say it with this simple,
37:26
profound conviction. He's worth it.
37:30
Tyndale saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
37:33
revealed in that word. He translated, and that vision
37:36
just compelled him forward, no matter the cost.
37:39
And finally, the fifth lesson, the essential role of friends.
37:42
We can't forget this. William Tyndale couldn't have
37:44
achieved what he did alone. He absolutely needed the friends
37:47
who stood with him, who supported him crucially through
37:50
prayer and financially, his support network.
37:52
Exactly. He was protected.
37:53
By merchants like Humphrey Monmouth in London early on,
37:56
given resources by people who believed in his cause, harbored
37:59
in secret places on the continent, these friends risked
38:03
their own lives, their own fortunes to help his mission,
38:06
knowing full well the danger involved.
38:09
Now, most of us, you listening right now, you'll probably never
38:12
go to distant lands to face martyrdom like Tyndale did.
38:15
But you can be the friends of those who do.
38:17
You can stand with them in a real sense.
38:19
You can go with them as you enable their work through your
38:21
faithful prayers and through your sacrificial generous
38:24
giving, supporting the work from home.
38:26
Absolutely. Remember the principle.
38:29
To whom much is given, much will be expected.
38:31
God uses His people offer, working faithfully in the
38:34
background unseen, to enable the frontline gospel work.
38:38
It's this collective effort, this body of Christ working
38:40
together, that makes truly great things possible for His Kingdom.
38:43
William Tyndale born. Around 1494, dying in 1536, a
38:48
man, as the Bible says of others of whom this world was not
38:51
worthy, clearly raised up by God for his particular time.
38:54
Wasn't he a time of just massive upheaval, the very beginnings of
38:58
a spiritual revolution? And he answered that call with
39:01
his very life. He did.
39:03
But this story it. Isn't just history filed away in
39:05
a book. It really is for you.
39:07
It's for us. We've all been raised up by God
39:10
for such a time as this, for this moment in history.
39:13
Every single one of us has a purpose, a calling within God's
39:16
sovereign plan, however grand or seemingly humble it might appear
39:19
to us or to the world. So the question becomes.
39:22
What will you do with your life? What will you do with the life
39:24
that's been given to you? Redeemed?
39:26
If you're a believer by the precious blood of his son, will
39:29
you end up like the man in the parable saying, Lord, I was
39:31
afraid, so I buried my talent in the ground, fearful of risk
39:35
holding back? Or will you be able to say?
39:37
Lord, by your grace alone I have sought, maybe poorly, maybe
39:42
shamefully, at times, falling short constantly, but by Your
39:45
grace I have sought faithfully to give you back, even just a
39:48
little, of all that you have so generously given to me in your
39:51
Son Jesus Christ, putting your life, Your gifts, your resources
39:55
to use for His glory. The challenge really stands for
39:57
each one. Of us listening.
39:58
Will you be a one thing I do, man, woman, boy or girl?
40:02
Will your life be marked fundamentally by a singular
40:05
pursuit of God's glory and His purposes above all else?
40:07
Else. That's the question.
40:09
Tyndale's life. Leaves us with thank you for
40:11
joining us on this deep dive. Until next time, keep seeking to
40:13
know him more.