William Tyndale: A Biography [Hardcover]

David Daniell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 1994

William Tyndale (1494-1536) was the first person to translate the Bible into English from its original Greek and Hebrew and the first to print the Bible in English, which he did in exile. Giving the laity access to the word of God outraged the clerical establishment in England: he was condemned, hunted, and eventually murdered. However, his masterly translation formed the basis of all English Bibles including the "King James Bible", many of whose finest passages were taken unchanged, though unacknowledged, from Tyndale's work. This book, published in the quincentenary year of his birth, sets the story of his life in the intellectual and literary contexts of his immense achievement and explores his influence on the theology, literature, and humanism of Renaissance and Reformation Europe. David Daniell, editor of "Tyndale's New Testament" and "Tyndale's Old Testament", describes the dramatic turns in Tyndale's life. Born in England and educated at Oxford, Tyndale was ordained as a priest. When he decided to translate the Bible into English, he realized that it was impossible to do that work in England and moved to Germany, living in exile there and in the Low Countries while he translated and printed first the New Testament and then half of the Old Testament. These were widely circulated and denounced in England. Yet Tyndale continued to write from abroad, publishing polemics in defence of the principles of the English Reformation. He was seized in Antwerp, imprisoned in Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels, and burnt at the stake for heresy in 1536. Daniell discusses Tyndale's achievement as biblical translator and expositor, analyses his writing, examines his stylistic influence on writers from Shakespeare to those of the 20th century, and explores the reasons why he has not been more highly regarded.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Several popular histories of the King James Bible are available to interested readers, including works that concentrate on the book's political influence Wide as the Waters) and its theological import (In the Beginning). Perhaps the most readable survey of the language of the King James Version, however, comes in the form of a biography of its primary translator. William Tyndale: A Biography by David Daniell (a University of London scholar and chairman of the William Tyndale Society) reveals all that is known of Tyndale's life, but its primary interest is in Tyndale's rhetorical style. Daniell asserts, convincingly, that Tyndale "made a language for England," in the same way that Martin Luther is acknowledged having united Germany's dialects in his German translation of the New Testament. The biography recites many widely known facts (Tyndale wrote nine-tenths of the King James Version's New Testament (the gospel Christmas stories--"there were shepherds abiding in the fields"--are Tyndale's), and half of its Old Testament ("Let there be light" is another of Tyndale's phrases). More importantly, Daniell's biography describes the development of Tyndale's skills as a linguist (he commanded eight languages, including Hebrew, at a time when Hebrew was virtually unknown in England) and parses Tyndale's adaptation of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin syntax into English. In the first sentence of his introduction to this book, Daniell states that "William Tyndale gave us our English Bible." The verb in that sentence is the key to this biography: it is a work of gratitude. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

This biography of the first translator to render the Hebrew and Greek biblical texts directly into English is twice timely: the last definitive biography is over 50 years old, and 1994 is the quincentenary of Tyndale's birth (as far as that date can be established). Daniell (English, Univ. of London), the editor of Tyndale's Old and New Testaments, is well suited to his present task. This work is simultaneously an intellectual biography and a history of Tyndale's life and times. Daniell effectively sets the historical stage, anticipating the Church of Rome's hostility to Tyndale's efforts, and also clearly prepares the reader for Tyndale's translation decisions. A special strength of this study is the revelation that Tyndale's childhood in Gloucestershire, as much as his Oxford education, prepared him for the task of translation and, by extension, of uniting the disparate dialects of 16th-century England. In addition, Daniell prudently refuses easy speculation where previous biographers have succumbed. Thoroughly researched by one who knows Tyndale the person as well as Tyndale the translator, this book supersedes previous biographies and is stongly recommended for biography and religion collections.
W. Alan Froggatt, Bridgewater, Conn.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 458 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1st ed edition (November 30, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300061323
• ISBN-13: 978-0300061321
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, January 1, 1999

By 

Tom Munro "tomfrombrunswick" (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: William Tyndale: A Biography (Hardcover)

St Thomas More is a man who is still remembered today and is the subject of plays and films. William Tyndale was his opponent. It was Tyndales ambition to translate the bible into English. To do this he learnt Greek and Hebrew. It is said that as he left England he told a cleric that if god spared him to do his work " even a boy driving the plough shall know as much scripture as you." Tyndale did not complete his work but his new testament and his first five books of the old testament formed the basis of the King James Bible. His translation contains phrases of sublime beauty which have become part of the language. (For example "the sale of the earth" and "there were Shepherds abiding in the fields".)

Tyndales achievement in making a bible available in English has been of enormous importance in the history of England and America. The family bible was a proud possession of families, it was a tool by which children could be taught to read and write. On Sundays families could read it to sustain their faith and to learn.

At the time Tydale undertook his project it was illegal in England to have a vernacular copy of the bible. He had to travel to Europe to undertake his work. Tyndale was in life a kind man who never advocated violence and was regarded as of high character even by his enemies.

He has in modern times been largely forgotten. Ironically his enemy Thomas More is nowadays remembered rather than Tyndale. The book by Daniell illustrates why this is ironic. More was in reality a much less sympathetic character. He was involved in the suppression of the bible, the arrest and punishment of heretics and strongly advocated execution of his religious opponents.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and learned, March 8, 2001

By 

S. Gustafson "Holy Roman Emperor" (New Albany, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Tyndale: A Biography (Hardcover)

This excellent biography brings William Tyndale to life.

Tyndale was perhaps one of the most sympathetic characters to arise out of the religious controversies of the English Reformation. This book paints him as a warm, sympathetic character, slow to react angrily in the face of gross provocation, and always replying with more genial wit than vehement heat. A man of monumental learning for his day, he was also a prose stylist of the first water.

It truly is a shame that Thomas More, one of the least saintly saints ever to be named to that company, is well known from stage and screen productions, while Tyndale remains in the dark. As this book reveals, Tyndale was the true hero of human freedom, and his behaviour in the midst of heated controversy sets a fine Christian example for us all.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A biography and more than a biography, August 31, 2001

By 

A. Gilmore (Lancing, West Sussex) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Tyndale: A Biography (Nota Bene) (Paperback)

A paperback edition of a 1994 publication to mark the quincentenary of Tyndale's birth and the first major study since Mozley's biography in 1937. With a useful summary of the state of Hebrew knowledge at the beginning of the 16th century in England ('virtually unknown') and the rest of Europe ('gathering pace'), Daniell affirms Tyndale as a remarkable Hebrew scholar, who mastered Greek and six other languages, distinguished himself a theologian, and in translating the Bible not only laid the foundations for the KJV but also demonstrated his capacity to write good English.

Attention to his non-biblical books is covered alongside OT, NT and Matthew's Bible and Daniell's scholarly but popular style tells a fascinating story of his sufferings and the ecclesiastical polemics of his day with intrigue and heresy, charge and counter charge.

The Introduction refers to the purchase of his Worms 1526 NT by the British Library for a million pounds as 'the only complete survivor of Tyndale's original print-run', the only other extant copy already in the BL being incomplete, but fails to note the discovery of a third copy in 1996 in the Wuerttemberg State Library, claimed to be 'the only really complete copy' because it has the title page which is absent in the other two.