Did you know that as of today there are approximately 7,000 different languages in the world? And sad to say almost 2,000 of these languages have no portion of the Scriptures translated into these native tongues. This means that of the world’s eight billion population, 350 million people have no part of the Bible translated into their 2,000 different languages. It is estimated today that the full Bible has been translated into 700 languages, the New Testament into an additional 1,500 languages and Bible portions or stories into over 1,100 other languages. Thus, as far as Bible translation work goes a lot has already been accomplished; but there is a lot more work that still needs to be done globally.
With the advent of Gutenberg’s movable type printing press in the mid 1400’s you would have thought that it wouldn’t be long until England would have an English translation of the Bible to share with all of its citizens. After all what greater gift could England gives its people than the ability to read God’s Holy Word in their native tongue. Sadly, this was far from the case. Back in the late 1,400 and early 1,500 the established church in England taught that they alone should be the interpreters of God’s word and that the common man had no business reading the Bible for themselves. Yes, even in the church politics exists!
But, thankfully one man thought that every person should be able to read the Bible in their own native language. William Tyndale was driven by his passion to have the Bible translated into the English language even though the church in England strongly opposed him. Tyndale once commented: “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than the Pope himself!”1
Tyndale was born in 1494 and lived for only 42 years before his untimely death in 1536. A brilliant scholar, Tyndale spoke eight languages, but had to flee England to translate the New Testament into English because of the intense persecution he received there. He eventually was able to see his dream come true in the country of Germany.
According to the website, Got Questions: “Tyndale’s Bible is credited with being the first English translation to come directly from Hebrew and Greek texts and the first English biblical translation that was mass-produced as a result of new advances in the art of printing. In 1522, Tyndale illegally acquired a copy of Martin Luther’s New Testament in German. Imitating Luther’s work, but in English, the first recorded complete edition of his New Testament was published in 1526, with revisions following in 1534 and 1536. Since Tyndale’s death in 1536, his work has been revised and reprinted numerous times.”2
Even after publishing thousands of English New Testaments, Tyndale had to smuggle them into England. Sadly, church authorities bought up many of these copies and had them publicly burned because they felt only the church should be the one to interpret what the Bible said. Instead of being hailed for his great accomplishment Tyndale had to live the remaining years of his life in hiding from the church who sought to bring him to trial as a heretic. But two years before his death he was betrayed by a close friend and handed over to church authorities who imprisoned him and then tried him for heresy. Tyndale was charged with the crime of translating the Bible into English. In October, 1536, after his conviction of heresy, Tyndale was led outside to a stake where he was given one last chance to recant from what he had done. Instead he was reported to say right before he was strangled and burned at the stake: “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”3
Thankfully, within three years after Tyndale’s death, that prayer was answered and England required every parish in the country to have a copy of the Bible in English!
1 https://www.gotquestions.org/Tyndale-Bible.html