From princes to ploughboys: 500 years of Tyndale’s New Testament
2026 marks the 500-year anniversary of William Tyndale’s New Testament. Published in February 1526, it was the first complete English translation from the original Greek.
A majority of the public believe that abandoning our Christian heritage would harm future generations, a new poll has revealed.
More than half of those surveyed (52 per cent) agreed that if Britain “continues to move away from its Christian roots, it will be to the detriment of future generations”, while 58 per cent thought Christianity “has something positive to offer the way Britain is governed”.
Whitestone Insight interviewed 2,095 UK adults online on behalf of Oxford’s Pusey House, the Danube Institute of Budapest, and the International Reagan-Thatcher Society.
‘Revolutionised’
Whitestone Insight CEO Andrew Hawkins told Premier Christian News: “People are often not aware of the contribution Christianity has made to the world around us. When they understand that contribution, it does make them sit up and take notice.”
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, British historian Dr Bijan Omrani observed that “great developments in British social justice and environmental care have come directly from Christianity”.
“It was likewise for other great 19th-century charities that revolutionised the care of the poor, children, orphaned, prisoners, sick and disabled.”
He added: : “Even British ideas of religious tolerance grew out of Christianity, with the post-Reformation concept that freedom of conscience – even to follow other faiths provided one obeyed the law – was fundamental for honest Christian adherence”.
Vision and legacy
In her book How Christianity Transformed the World, the Institute’s Dr Sharon James demonstrated how religious liberty, justice, healthcare, education, the sanctity of life, women’s rights, the emancipation of slaves, the environment, and even animal welfare have all been transformed for the better by Christianity.
She noted how men and women such William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury and Josephine Butler – to name but a few – were driven by their deep Christian faith to change the world around them for the good of others.
The Institute has recently published a leaflet celebrating the vision and legacy of William Tyndale to mark the 500-year anniversary of his translation of the New Testament.
The six-page leaflet explores Tyndale’s immense influence on our culture and language, noting that words and phrases, such as ‘castaway’, ‘scapegoat’, ‘brokenhearted’, ‘daily bread’, and ‘a law unto themselves’, were almost certainly coined by the translator.