Tyndale Bible
The ‘Tyndale Bible’ usually refers to the translations of various books of the Bible by William Tyndale in the 1500s. Translating the Bible into English was still regarded as heresy and a very dangerous occupation as there is no mention of the ‘Pope’ in the Bible or Bishops or vicars, the Bible in English was still a banned in the 1500s. William Tyndale told the Church leaders of the day about his desire to translate the Bible into English, and of course he was met with hostility as no one wanted to lose their position/job in the Catholic Church the prominent organised religion of that time, so of course he suffered from great animosity and bitter hatred. Tyndales work is credited as being the first English translation from the original 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.
Tyndale’s translation of the Bible came as a massive challenged to the positions in society held by the Catholic Church, for example, Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into a simple language that even the plough boy could understand was a great threat to the Latin speaking organisation of the Catholic Church, this was a Bible which could be made available and understood in plain English, to the common everyday person.
Tyndales Bible/translation was such a threat to the Catholic church at the time, that when printed abroad in 1526, as the Tyndale’s English New Testament it had to be smuggled into England. The book was referred to as the “pirate edition,” these books, printed smaller than conventional books, made them easier to hide in bales of cotton and containers of wheat being shipped into England.
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