I grew up hearing and reading the King James version of the Bible, both at church and in the home (especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s). Years later, I learned it was William Tyndale who was the primary translator of the King James Bible (estimated at 80 percent).

I admire and appreciate the work done by William Tyndale. To any who take their English Bibles for granted, it would benefit you to learn about the struggles and sacrifices of William Tyndale and other early Bible translators — whose efforts helped to bring us the precious gift of God’s Word in the English language.

This website is dedicated to shedding light on the great debt owed to William Tyndale for his translations of the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew into English nearly 500 years ago. The most famous Bible translations being the New Testament published in 1526 and the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) published in 1530.

William Tyndale left England around 1524 to do this work. The 1526 New Testament was printed in Germany and smuggled into England. Only two (2) complete copies of this 1526 New Testament are known to exist in the world.  

One copy is owned by the British Library. They paid over one million pounds for it in 1994. The second copy was found in 1997 in a German library. There is a third copy that is missing quite a few pages. It is owned by St Paul’s Cathedral in London, England.

Interesting Facts

When William Tyndale translated the New Testament into English, there were approximately six (6) million native English speakers. It is now estimated there are around 400 million native speakers and more than a billion non-native speakers. (Source: Wikipedia).

About 80% of the King James Version (KJV) Bible comes almost directly from Tyndale’s Bible translation work in the Old and New Testaments.

In addition to the New Testament, in his lifetime, Tyndale published The Pentateuch (Five Books of Moses, i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) in 1530 and the Book of Jonah in about 1531.

He was arrested and spent over a year in prison. He was executed in 1536.

William Tyndale Quotes

“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy who drives the plough to know more of the scriptures than you do.”

“I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.”

“I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, that I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.”

“Christ is with us until the world’s end. Let his little flock be bold therefore.”

Page Updated: Wednesday, August 21, 2019