William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tindall or Tyndall; pronounced /ˈtɪndəl/) (c. 1494 – 1536) is a 16th century scholar and translator who becomes a leading figure in Protestant reformism towards the end of his life.
He is influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who makes the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and Martin Luther.
Tyndale is the first to translate considerable parts of the Bible into English, for a public, lay readership.
While a number of partial and complete translations had been made from the seventh century onward, particularly during the 14th century, Tyndale's is the first English translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the first to take advantage of the new medium of print, which allows for its wide distribution.
This is taken to be a direct challenge to the hegemony of both the Catholic church and the English church and state.
Tyndale also writes, in 1530, The Practyse of Prelates, opposing Henry VIII's divorce on the grounds that it contravenes scriptural law.
In 1535, Tyndale is arrested and jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) outside Brussels for over a year.
In 1536 he ,s convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body ,s burnt at the stake.
His dying prayer that the King of England's eyes would be opened seemed to find its fulfillment just two years later with Henry's authorization of the Great Bible for the Church of England—which ,s largely Tyndale's own work.
Hence, the Tyndale Bible, as it is known, continues to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world and, eventually, to the British Empire.
The fifty-four independent scholars who revised extant English bibles drew significantly on Tyndale's translations to create the King James Version (or final "Authorized Version") of 1611 (still in mainstream use today).
One estimation suggests the King James New Testament is 83.7 % Tyndale's and the Old Testament 75.7 %.
