William Tindal

God’s Outlaw

By Cole Norstad

William Tindal, Tyndale or Tindale. Historians actually don’t know how to spell his last name was born in 1494 and he pasted away in1536, William was an English biblical translator and Protestant martyr. He was probably ordained shortly before entering the household of Sir John Walsh of Gloucestershire as chaplain and tutor in 1521. His sympathy with the new learning led to disputes with the clergy, and he moved to London, determined to translate the New Testament into English. Finding that publication could not be accomplished in England, Tyndale went to Hamburg in 1524, visited Martin Luther in Wittenberg, and at Cologne began the printing of the New Testament in 1525. Interrupted by an injunction, he had the edition completed at Worms. When copies entered England, they were denounced by the bishops and suppressed in 1526; Cardinal Wolsey ordered Tyndale seized at Worms. Living in concealment, Tyndale pursued his translation, issuing the Pentateuch in 1530 and the Book of Jonah in 1536. His work was later the basis of the King James Version of the Bible. His tracts in defense of the principles of the English Reformation, The