William Tyndale Judging by this picture, how long ago do you think it was taken? How do you know? This quote sums up Tyndale’s life by explaining that he spent his life helping others, including young children, to know the scriptures or God’s word.

Who is William Tyndale? William Tyndale Born in England, ~1494 Died on September 6, 1536 He was an English writer Loved the word of God and is known for translating the bible into English. 42 yrs when died. Went to university and studied to become an English writer. He had such a love and passion for God and the bible and believed that God’s word needed to shared with everyone. So he was known or became famous for being the first person to translate the bible into the English language for you and I to read today.

Languages he learnt French Italian Latin Greek Spanish Hebrew English William Tyndale Languages he learnt French Greek Hebrew German Italian Latin Spanish English Not only did he translate it into English, but also into many different languages for others to read and understand. In order to translate the bible he had to learn many different languages. Put your hand up if you can fluently speak another language? Do you think you could translate a whole book into another language?

The Bible William Tyndale King did not see a need for anyone to be able to read Tyndale saw the need for peasants and the noble to be able to read the Bible It was illegal to translate the bible The authorities hunted him down to arrest him for what he did. When William was an adult, the king at the time did not think that everyone needed to be able to understand the bible. At this time the bible was only written in Hebrew and Greek and only the priests or rabbi’s could read it and understand it. So in church times, everyone would sit down and just listen to the Priest read out the scriptures, even though they had no idea what he was saying. Listen to this scripture. Who can tell me what this lady is saying? What verse is it? Language? How did that make you feel….not understanding the scripture? Well this is how it would have felt back in this era every time you heard the bible being read. It was not fair on the normal people and so William saw the need for peasants and the noble to be able to read and understand the bible as well as the Priests. The bible verse was read in Spanish and it was Genesis 1:1. Went to Germany to translate. When he was over in Germany, someone had found out that he was there translating the bible so he came back to England to hide out at a friends place for safe keeping. While he was there he made a friend…who turned out to be a bad friend. The authorities put out a want sign for William and said they would give anyone a certain amount of money if they can tell them where William is hiding out. So this new friend of William’s was greedy and thought the money was better than his friendship with William. He betrayed him.

Later… William Tyndale Prison & later killed He was able to translate the whole new testament and some of the old testament. Smuggled thousands of bibles back into England It was only later after William was killed that the King read his translation of the bible and decided that it was a good idea and everyone deserved to read it. So in the end, William did not die for nothing, he died providing us with the ability to read and understand God’s word to us.