Day 23 – Saint William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536, martyred)

Saint William Tyndale was born in England at the dawn of the Reformation, a time when the Bible was still locked away in Latin, out of reach for most ordinary people. Gifted in languages, Tyndale longed for every man and woman to be able to read God’s Word for themselves. He famously declared that if God spared his life, he would see to it that even the plowboy in the field would know more of Scripture than the learned clergy who opposed reform.

Denied permission to translate the Bible in England, he fled to the continent, where he produced the first English New Testament directly from the original Greek. His work was smuggled into England in bales of cloth, spreading the gospel like fire. Later he worked on the Old Testament, translating from Hebrew, laying the foundation for what would become the King James Bible.

Tyndale’s boldness came at great cost. Betrayed, arrested, and condemned as a heretic, he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. His last prayer was, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Within a few years, his prayer was answered as the English crown authorized the publication of English Bibles, many of which leaned heavily on Tyndale’s own translation.

For us today, Saint William Tyndale reminds us never to take for granted the gift of Scripture in our own language. His sacrifice challenges us to treasure the Word of God, to read it, and to let it shape our lives. Tyndale’s courage calls us to live boldly for Christ, even when obedience to God puts us at odds with the powers of the world.