The translation of Scripture is an ancient practice. Early on the Jews translated their Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek. Shortly after Christ the New Testament is brought into various languages like Coptic, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Latin.[1] Bringing the Bible into the vernacular became a uniquely Protestant task in the Reformation, and we still enjoy those fruits today. However, if you stopped and asked many congregants in the western world, “Why do we have an English Bible?” Or “Could you tell me, from Scripture, why we should care about Bible translation?” I suspect that many would not have a thought through answer. Since we have enjoyed the benefits of the Bible in our mother tongue, and we are not actively having to defend this privilege, we do not think through the question. With this issue in mind, I want to present to you William Tyndale’s reasons for translating the Bible. There will be three sections to this article. First, I want to set the historical scene, so that you might better understand the English-speaking world in Tyndale’s day. Second, I want to summarize the five reasons for Bible translation that Tyndale gives. Finally, I want to call you to action with some reflections and applications for our own day.

The Historical Setting

When William Tyndale was born in Gloucestershire in 1494 the idea of an English Bible was not far off. John Wycliffe (1320–1384) had led a group of Christians who would become known as Lollards, and they had the English Bible, translated from the Latin vulgate.[2] When Wycliffe died in 1384 the Roman Catholic Church responded with the Synod of Oxford, which published a declaration in 1408.[3] This statement declared that it was illegal to translate the Bible into English unless it was commissioned and authorized by the Pope and his Bishops.

Because of this, translation of the Bible into English remained illegal until after Tyndale’s death in 1536. Nevertheless, there were men, prior to Tyndale, calling for a vernacular English Bible. John Trevisa (1342–1402) defended this effort in two particularly important publications. These found their way into Tyndale’s hands when he was a young boy, and he would go on to cite one of them in his later theological works.[4]

Desiderius Erasmus, a Roman Catholic humanist, was also a loud voice advocating for the Bible in the common language. In fact, this priest had the audacity to write things like,

Christ wishes his mysteries to be published as widely as possible. I would wish even all women to read the gospel and the epistle of St. Paul, and I wish that they were translated into all languages of all Christian people, that they might be read and known, not merely by the Scotish and the Irish, but even by the Turks and the Saracens. I wish that the husbandman may sing parts of them at his pillow, that the weaver may warble them at his shuttle, that the traveller may with their narratives beguile the weariness of the way.[5] [Emphasis added]

Two details are noteworthy about this Erasmus quote. First, this is found in Erasmus’ Enchiridion, which was the first work which Tyndale ever translated into English.[6] Second, Tyndale seems to be echoing Erasmus when he says to that Bishop in Sir John Walsh’s home, “I defy the pope and all his laws. . . If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, to know more Scriptures than you do!”[7] As you can see, when Tyndale comes on the scene, the Lord had been stirring the waters in the English-speaking world for a long time.

If you were an average congregant in England in those days, the whole church service would have been in Latin, except for the English “curses.” You would also have likely seen the burning of Lollards who were found in possession of pieces of the Bible in English. For instance, on April 4, 1519, six men and one woman were brought up on charges for teaching their children the Lord’s Prayer in English. As they released the woman from prison, a scroll rattled in her sleeve which was the Lord’s Prayer, Apostles’ Creed, and the Ten Commandments in English. For this they were all burned together.[8] And it is into this world that William Tyndale is called by God to work, and he knew the costs.[9]

Why Translate the Bible?

In The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528), by far Tyndale’s most important theological work, he writes to those who suffer because they want to read the Bible for the good of their souls. In the preface he is attempting to encourage them so that they are not discouraged, but that they might realize, “forasmuch as thou art sure, and hast an evident token through such persecution, that it is the true word of God; which word is ever hated in the world, neither was ever without persecution, neither can be, no more than the sun can be without his light.”[10] A large portion of this preface is dedicated to his five reasons why “the Scripture ought to be in the mother tongue.”[11] We will rehearse each of these in turn.[12]

1. “God gave the children of Israel a law by the hand of Moses in their mother tongue; and all the prophets wrote in their mother tongue, and all the psalms were in the mother tongue.” God has set the first pattern, ensuring that those recipients of the Old Testament were able to hear and understand. Tyndale cites Deuteronomy 6:4-9 from his own translation. The logic is sound—“How can we whet God’s rod upon our children and household, when we are violently kept from it and know it not?” Certainly, God did not give the Law, Prophets, and Writings so that they would never be understood. He gave them to be read, taught, and obeyed.
2. We have all through the Bible, commands to search the Scriptures, as well as examples of men who examined by God’s revelation. Tyndale appeals to the Bereans in Acts 17. “How can I,” asks Tyndale, “your interpretation be the right sense, or whether thou jugglest, and drawest the scripture violently unto they carnal and fleshly purpose; or whether thou be about to teach me, or to deceive me?” In order to test any teacher, or to search the Scriptures, I must have access to them in a language that I can understand.
3. The sermons that we read in the book of Acts (i.e. 2:14–36, 3:12–26, 7:2–53) are all “preached in the mother tongue.” When Tyndale translates the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:5–12) he is careful to show the reader that Luke uses the phrase “his own tongue” three times (2:6, 8, 11).[13] If the Apostles preached in for the crowds to understand, Pastors in 2025 should do likewise.
4. We should translate for the love of souls. Tyndale alleges that the Roman clergy does not love your soul. The proof for this fact is that they will translate all kinds of works like “Robin Hood, and Bevis of Hampton, Hercules, Hector and Troilus, with a thousand histories and fables of love and wantonness,” but they will not give you what is best for your immortal soul—the Scriptures and the Gospel. He says, “[T]hat this threatening and forbidding the lay people to read the scripture is not for the love of your souls (which they care for as the fox doth for the geese), is evident, and clearer than the sun.” Do you love the souls of those who are near you or who are lost? Then we must give them the Scriptures for them to understand!
5. The last reason Tyndale gives is, that even other Roman Catholics want to translate the Bible! He cites especially Erasmus’ Paraphrase of Matthew. Most likely he has in mind quotes like, “Indeed, if I had my way, the farmer, the smith, the stone-cutter will read him, prostitutes and pimps will read him, even the Turks will read him. If Christ did not keep these away from his spoken words, I will not keep them away from his written words.”[14]

A Call to Action

The great goal of missions is to see innumerable saints before the throne and the Lamb singing their new song, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (NKJV). In order for these tongues to sing His praise, they must hear His name. And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will the preacher reach them unless they can be understood? In our day there are approximately 7,359 languages on this planet. The current statistic shows that only 687 of those languages have a whole Bible.[15] Friends, we need Bible translators. We need seminaries who will train Bible translators in the Biblical languages, linguistics, exegesis, and orthodox theology. And we need churches who will raise up and send Bible translators into the nations. Let us not simply enjoy the benefits and privileges of our English Bibles, but send, support, and go to bring the Scriptures to the nations.

[1] If the reader is interested in a full history of Bible translation I would recommend that they see Flora Ross Amos, Early Theories of Translation (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1920); Paul D. Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origins and Development of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1999); Bruce M. Metzger, The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001).

[2] William Tyndale himself was thoroughly influenced by the Lollards and their teaching. In fact, there is some evidence that his family had a deep sympathy with the Lollards. For a thorough examination of this topic see Donald Dean Smeeton, Lollard Themes in the Reformation Theology of William Tyndale, Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies VI (Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1986).

[3] You can read a full transcript of their declaration here: https://www.bible-researcher.com/arundel.html

[4] Ralph Werrell has suggested several ways that perhaps even Trevisa’s translation style is echoed in Tyndale. Ralph S. Werrell, The Roots of William Tyndale’s Theology (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2013), 27–47. In his work Obedience of a Christian Man, Tyndale explicitly refers to Trevisa when he says, ““Yea, and except my memory fail me, and that I have forgotten what I read when I was a child, thou shalt find in the English chronicle, how that king Adelstone caused the Holy Scripture to be translated into the tongue that then was in England, and how the prelates exhorted him thereto.” William Tyndale, The Works of William Tyndale, 2 vols. (Carlisle: Banner of Truth Trust, 2010), 1:149.

[5] As cited in David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 67.

[6] Tyndale translated this after returning to Gloucestershire from Cambridge in 1521 while living in the house of Sir John Walsh known as “Little Sodbury Manor.” Walsh appears to have had some “Reformation sympathies.” Thus, this would have made a safe place for the Lutheran leaning Tyndale to live, work, and teach. Smeeton, Lollard Themes in the Reformation Theology of William Tyndale, 51.

[7] John Foxe, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, ed. Stephen Reed Cattley (London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1830), V:117.

[8] Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers, 25th Anniversary Edition. (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2013), 329–30.

[9] Now, we should be careful here. Tyndale was not condemned to be burned because he translated, but because of his anti-papist doctrine. Nevertheless, I do not think Tyndale made a distinction between his theology and translation. The latter flowed out of the former. He knew well the costs. I have no doubt that he was well aware of the risk and his possible fate when he wrote, “’They will kill us then,’ sayest thou. Therefore, I say, is a Christian called to suffer even the bitter death for his hope’s sake, and because he will do no evil.” Tyndale, The Works of William Tyndale, 1:332.

[10] Tyndale, The Works of William Tyndale, 1:131.

[11] Tyndale, The Works of William Tyndale, 1:144.

[12] I will not cite every individual page number. The reader can go see Tyndale, The Works of William Tyndale, 142–62.

[13] His translation of that paragraph reads, “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men which were of all nations under heaven. ⁶ When this was noised about the multitude came together and were astounded because that every man heard them speak his own tongue. ⁷ They wondered all and marveled saying among themselves: Behold are not all these which speak of Galilee? ⁸ And how hear we every man his own tongue wherein we were born? ⁹ Parthians Medes and Elamites and the inhabiters of Mesopotamia of Jury and of Cappadocia of Ponthus and Asia ¹⁰ Phrygia Pamphylia and of Egypt and of the parties of Libia which is beside Syrene and strangers of Rome Jews and converts ¹¹ Greeks and Arabians: we have heard them speak with our own tongues the great works of God.”

[14] Desiderius Erasmus, Paraphrase on Matthew, Collected Works of Erasmus (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 2008), 22.

[15] These numbers come from Missio Nexas and Progress.Bible. The full numbers are published in an article that I was privileged to publish in “The Acts 14 Report” put out by Disciple the Nations. My article is Bible Translation and the Church, 7–10, https://issuu.com/disciplethenations/docs/acts_14_report_issue_no?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=disciplethenations.org

Jared Ebert

Jared Ebert is married to Mykala, and is the father of Micah and Trinity. He received a BA in Pastoral Studies and Bible from Baptist Bible College, and a MDiv with an emphasis in Biblical Languages from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a ThM from Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, researching New Testament Textual Criticism. He currently serves as the Senior Pastor at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Williamstown, KY, and as the Ministry Coordinator for Bible Translation at Disciple the Nations. He is the author of Reading for Joy: A Handbook for Bible Reading.