The King James Bible Project: 25th October 2011

Tuesday 25 October 2011

25th October 2011

“William Tyndale gave us our English Bible. The sages assembled by King James to prepare the Authorised Version of 1611 […] took over Tyndale’s work. Nine-tenths of the Authorised Version’s New Testament is Tyndale’s. The same is true of the first half of the Old Testament, which is as far as he was able to get before he was executed outside Brussels in 1536.” from David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography, 2000.

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Welcome to the 2011 ‘Thought for the Week’, compiled by staff in the Department of Humanities

The blog was first conceived to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of the King James Bible and in particular, the life and work of one of its major translators, William Tyndale. It seemed particularly appropriate that the University of Gloucestershire, with its Christian Foundation, should celebrate, not just the impact of the King James Bible, but also the contribution of this famous Gloucestershire resident.

The Tyndale family resided in the Severn Vale, and a monument to William Tyndale (c 1494 – 1536) stands today at North Nibley in Gloucestershire. Tyndale was a Protestant reformer, scholar and eventually, martyr, who translated the Bible into the Early Modern English of his day. Tyndale’s contribution extended beyond the scope of theology and translation but rather, in the view of biographer David Daniell, amongst others, ‘he made a language for England’, which permeated a whole culture and was then exported across the world.

2011 is also the year in which the University of Gloucestershire celebrates the 10th anniversary of its university title. Throughout this year, this blog will feature a weekly entry on which to reflect – and to which you are also invited to respond. We hope you enjoy – and learn from – these contributions and wish you a very happy, peaceful - and thoughtful – 2011.