Celebrating the vision and legacy of William Tyndale

• New leaflet from The Christian Institute – ‘From princes to ploughboys: 500 years of Tyndale’s New Testament’ – explores the life and work of William Tyndale
• 2026 marks 500 years since Tyndale completed a translation of the whole New Testament into English

This year marks the 500-year anniversary of William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament.

The Gloucestershire clergyman’s radical vision, to lay before ordinary men, women, and children, the word of God with purity and clarity, would ultimately cost him his life.

The translator was strangled to death and then burned at the stake in 1536, but near contemporary biographer John Foxe records that “it is past description what a door of light” Tyndale’s endeavours “opened to the eyes of England”.

Commemorating his martydom and celebrating his remarkable vision and legacy, The Christian Institute has published a brief biographical guide to his life and work – ‘From princes to ploughboys: 500 years of Tyndale’s New Testament’.

The six-page leaflet charts the Bible translator’s early years, education, Protestant convictions, flight into exile, betrayal and death.

It also explores Tyndale’s immense influence on our language, noting that words and phrases, such as ‘castaway’, ‘scapegoat’, ‘beautiful’, ‘daily bread’, and ‘a law unto themselves’, were almost certainly coined by the translator.

Research Associate Dr Nathan Wallace, who co-authored the CI’s leaflet, explained:

“In February 1526, the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, all the Epistles, and the book of Revelation, were translated from the original Greek into a complete English language edition for the first time.

“With Tyndale’s translation, the living and active word of God broke forth in power in the English language.

“As a servant of Christ and Protestant martyr, he left a mighty legacy, worthy of commemoration by the Bride of Christ 500 years on – as the Scripture says, ‘he who honours me, I will honour.’”

Free copies of the leaflet may be requested from The Christian Institute: Tel: 0191 281 5664 | Email: info@christian.org.uk

END