William Tyndale was born about 1490, at North Nibley, Gloucestershire, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford.
He planned to begin his studies in theology, when he discovered that the study of scripture was not included in the Oxford syllabus. He became convinced that the church was covering up the truth, and that people had the right to know what was contained in scripture, and that it should be translated into English.
Tyndale was burned at the stake at Vilvoorde, Belgium, on 6th October 1536. At the time of his death, several thousand copies of his New Testament had been printed, but only one intact copy survives at the British Library, London.
In 1525, he published an English version of the New Testament at Cologne, but the church establishment had it suppressed. An edition printed at Worms had more success and hundreds of copies were smuggled into England and Scotland.
His translation introduced numerous new words and expressions into the English language. Examples of Tyndale’s creations are ‘atone’, literally ‘at one’, ‘Passover’ and ‘scapegoat’. He also invented English idioms such as ‘the apple of his eye’, ‘filthy lucre’, and ‘the powers that be’.
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