The Bold Departure
“Christ is with us until the world’s end. Let His little flock be bold, therefore. For if God be on our side, what does it matter who is against us – be they bishops, cardinals, popes or whatsoever names they will.” – William Tyndale, 1535. William Tyndale stood at the bow of the ship as she raised her sails and gained wind in the English Channel. Behind him lay the rocky shores of his beloved England, a land that had become increasingly hostile to him in recent years. There was no room for him anywhere in England to fulfill the passion of his heart which was to place an English New Testament into the hands of every person in the land – from the wealthy merchant to the poor ploughboy. Landing on the shores of the continent, Tyndale traveled into central Europe until he reached Hamburg and then on to Wittenberg, Germany. With great anticipation, he met Martin Luther for the first time. Safely hidden among the Lutheran supporters of Europe, Tyndale traveled to Antwerp, Holland, where he could complete his lifelong dream – the translation of the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrews to English language.
God Prepares a Scholar
There are amazingly gifted Bible translators who are blessed with the ability to write and speak in multiple languages; and, William Tyndale was one of those men. He was born in 1494, just south of Gloucestershire, England and became a student at Oxford University as a young man, receiving his master’s degree in 1517 at the early age of twenty-one. He attended Cambridge University as well, studying for the priesthood with the great scholars of England. Even as a young man, Tyndale was fluent in eight languages: Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, English and German. Since he was so gifted academically, Tyndale could have risen to a high rank within the Catholic hierarchy except for one thing – as he read the Latin Scriptures at Oxford, he was awakened by the Holy Spirit to the true gospel message which was that Christ’s gift of eternal salvation was not earned by anything that the church offered or any indulgence a man purchased.
To be continued…
Date: 21st September 2024
Martyr: William Tyndale
Location: Pakistan
Source: God’s General-The Martyrs
Author: Robert Liardon
Suffering Saturday 109
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