March 17 - Publishing House

March 17 - Publishing House

If you've ever read a Christian book, you probably recognize the name Tyndale. It's a predominant force in Christian publishing.

Long, long ago during the reign of Henry VIII, a man named William Tyndale had the courage to speak out against things that he believed were wrong ... within the church and within the monarchy. He ended up dying for his beliefs, but not before he became a major force in the Reformation.

William Tyndale was an absolutely brilliant man. He had studied at both the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, spoke seven languages and then learned Hebrew and Greek. He got his hands on a copy of the Greek New Testament and realized that the people of England, in their ignorance of scripture, were living dark, miserable lives. He intended to give them back the light of the Word of God in their own language.

First things first, though. He applied for the proper permission to translate the New Testament from the original Greek into English and was flat out refused. But, while he was in London, he discovered copies of Martin Luther's German translation and was encouraged to move to Europe to create his English translation. The same smugglers would bring copies of his Bible back into England.

He left England, but believe it or not, there were spies and informers that were looking for him, so no one ever really knew where he was at any given time. In 1525, his translation was finished and the first copies began making their way to England.

Tyndale also spoke out against Henry's divorce, claiming that it wasn't scriptural. He had a written discourse with Thomas More, who accused Tyndale of heresy and of being a traitor. Cardinal Wolsey publicly accused him of heresy and set forth a motion for his arrest.

During this time, Tyndale revised his New Testament translation, began work on translating the Old Testament and wrote several other treatises.

The King was livid. He, Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas More all sent people to Europe to track Tyndale down and arrest him. Tyndale was finally betrayed by a friend, arrested and thrown in prison in 1535. In October of 1536, he was tied to a stake, strangled and then burned. His final words were, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes!"

Within the next four years, four English translations of the Bible were published in England, all based on Tyndale's work.