Saints & Seasons - ‘The boy that driveth the plough

‘The boy that driveth the plough . . .’

by Mike Oettle

SPARE a thought for William Tyndale (7 October) next time you open your own Bible and read the English words printed there. For without him, you might never have been able to own one, nor to read or hear the Scriptures in any language besides Latin, Greek or Hebrew.

Born in 1494, Tyndale was ahead of his time in many respects, although he was not the first to translate the Bible into English – this had been done in the mid-14th century by John Wyclif (1329-1384), who rose to prominence as one of England’s leading philosophers at Oxford University and became a controversial figure when he backed the right of the Government to seize the property of corrupt clergy. This led him to oppose some of the central doctrines of the mediæval Church. He began and inspired the translation of the Bible into English from the Latin of St Jerome’s Vulgate version, and attracted a group of followers called Lollards. After his death they became an organised group, with its own ministers, which was often suppressed by the Church authorities. They were in many ways forerunners of the Reformation, and prepared the way for the coming of Lutheranism in the next century.

Tyndale, too, was an Oxonian, and might also have studied at Cambridge. While serving as tutor in a knight’s household, Tyndale noticed the ignorance of the local clergy, and is said to have declared to one cleric: “If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost” – which, indeed, became his life’s work.

The inaccuracies of the Wyclif Bible – as well as the activities of the Lollards – had led to its banning in 1408. Tyndale set out to make a translation from Hebrew and Greek. Although he hoped to obtain the support of the bishops, they were not interested because they were afraid of the spread of Lutheranism (Luther had begun the Reformation in 1517), and although he had obtained financial support from a group of leading London merchants, Tyndale found England unsafe and left for good in 1525. He narrowly escaped arrest in Cologne, but managed to see his translation of the New Testament published at Worms in the same year. (Like Wyclif, Tyndale was regarded as a heretic, and he was responsible for a theology which later gave form to English Puritanism.)

Tony Lane, writing in The History of Christianity, says:

“Tyndale’s translation has had an immense influence, and rightly earned him the title of the ‘father of the English Bible’. It could almost be said that every English New Testament until this century[1] was simply a revision of Tyndale’s. Some 90% of his words passed into the King James Version and about 75% into the Revised Standard Version. Tyndale also translated parts of the Old Testament, including the first five books. He was unable to complete the Old Testament because he was betrayed and arrested near Brussels in 1535. In October 1536 he was strangled and burnt. It is reported that his last words were: ‘Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.’”

It took just two years for his prayer to be answered.

Miles Coverdale took up the work of translation and published the first complete English Bible in 1535. A 1537 edition carried an inscription that it was published under the King’s licence, and in 1538 Henry VIII commanded clergy to install in a convenient place in every parish church “one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English”. This gave authority to a translation edited by a friend of Tyndale’s named John Rogers, using both Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s work. The large edition printed under Henry’s orders became known as the Great Bible.

Back to top of page

This article was originally published in Western Light, monthly magazine of All Saints’ Parish, Kabega Park, Port Elizabeth, in October 1989.

Back to saints index

Back to chronological index