“Very many of the treasures which have enriched the lives and language of English speakers since the 1530s were made by Tyndale: a long list of common phrases like ‘the powers that be’ or ‘let there be light’ or ‘the spirit is willing’; the haunting phrasing in parables like the Prodigal Son, ‘this thy brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found’; the gospel stories of Christmas (‘there were shepherds abiding in the field’) […] came as something new to the men and women of Tyndale’s time in the 1520s and 1530s. That was because Tyndale translated them for the first time, from their original texts in Greek and Hebrew, into English […]”
from David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography, 2000.
Monday, 31 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.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
18th October 2011
In his preface to the Pentateuch, William Tyndale, called for a vernacular translation of the Bible. ‘ I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to stablish the lay people in any truth, except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text’. As quoted in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, when tried for heresy, he said: ‘I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou doest.’ Theodore Roosevelt was among those for whom this aspect of the translation is important. He claimed that: “the King James Bible is a Magna Carta for the poor and oppressed: the most democratic book in the world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/21/king-james-bible-english-language
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/21/king-james-bible-english-language
Monday, 10 October 2011
10th October 2011
Deuteronomy 6: 5. ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.’
That G-d alone can command love is surely one of the defining differences between G-d and human beings. For if a man had to command my love it would signal too little confidence in his power of attraction and too much confidence in his power to make me act against my natural inclination not to love him all that much.
Yet when G-d commands our love it does not diminish him in our eyes but precisely reveals him as G-d and us as those in a process of human becoming. To love G-d is the least we can do in so far as G-d has, literally, given us the world. And it is also the most we can do because it is supremely difficult to love a non-entity (in the strict sense of that word) like G-d.
That G-d alone can command love is surely one of the defining differences between G-d and human beings. For if a man had to command my love it would signal too little confidence in his power of attraction and too much confidence in his power to make me act against my natural inclination not to love him all that much.
Yet when G-d commands our love it does not diminish him in our eyes but precisely reveals him as G-d and us as those in a process of human becoming. To love G-d is the least we can do in so far as G-d has, literally, given us the world. And it is also the most we can do because it is supremely difficult to love a non-entity (in the strict sense of that word) like G-d.
Monday, 3 October 2011
3rd October 2011
In 1534, Tyndale moved to Antwerp (in modern Belgium) and began to live more openly. He was betrayed, arrested for heresy and imprisoned in Vilvoorde Castle. On 6 October 1536, he was strangled and then burned at the stake. His translation of the Old Testament remained unfinished at his death, but formed the basis of the 'King James' version of the bible.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/tyndale_william.shtml
From the BBC History site
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