Inspired by Luther, William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536), an English scholar, decided to embark on his own translation project. Under English law, vernacular Bible translations were prohibited unless they had the approval of the local diocese, so Tyndale approached the bishop of London for official endorsement. When his application was rejected, Tyndale moved to Germany and began translating the New Testament into English from Erasmus’ Greek and Luther’s German texts. This translation went to press in Cologne in 1525, but the printing shop was raided by local authorities and Tyndale had to flee. Tyndale resumed work in the city of Worms and was able to publish a full translation of the New Testament the following year, and the book was smuggled into England.
Tyndale then began an English translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. He published the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) in Antwerp in January 1530. Shortly after Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church, Tyndale moved to Antwerp to continue his translation project, where he published a revision of his New Testament in 1534. However, in May 1535, he was arrested. Charged with heresy and fomenting sedition in England, Tyndale was convicted and executed in August 1536.
Despite Tyndale’s fate, English Protestants still attempted to translate the Bible in their own language. In 1535, a Cambridge-educated scholar living on the Continent, Myles Coverdale, published the first complete Bible in English. His translation was based on Martin Luther’s German Bible and the Vulgate, and carried a prologue and dedication supporting Henry VIII and the Church of England. Two years later, in defiance of English law, Coverdale’s translation was being printed in London.
In 1538, reversing over a century of English policy towards vernacular translations of the Bible, Henry VIII ordered that copies of the Bible in English should be placed in churches throughout the nation. A Bible translation was endorsed by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and published the following year. Known as the Great Bible because of its size, this translation was based on the work of Tyndale and Coverdale. Cranmer also produced an English-language prayer book with scriptural text and readings for various services and rites of the new Church of England, the Book of Common Prayer, in 1549.
Fragment of Tyndale’s 1525 English New Testament (facsimile, 1926).
Facsimile of the only surviving fragment of Tyndale’s first translation, comprising Matthew 1-22:12.
The Coverdale Bible, 1535 (facsimile, 1975).
Great Bible. London: Edward Whitchurch, 1549.