Sixteenth Century · Delegate Authority · Part 2 of 2
William Tyndale: The Price
He finished the New Testament in hiding, was betrayed by a man he trusted, and never saw his work made legal.
William Tyndale, a series in two parts. Part 1: The Plowboy · Part 2: The Price
The moment
After 1526 Tyndale lived as a wanted man, mostly in Antwerp. English agents looked for him. Copies of his New Testament were seized and burned in England, and people were punished for owning them.
What he did
He kept translating. He learned Hebrew and published the first five books of the Old Testament in 1530. He revised his New Testament in 1534.
He wrote English that people could say aloud. Tyndale chose short, plain words and natural rhythms. Phrases that English speakers still use came from his pen, among them “let there be light,” “the salt of the earth,” and “the powers that be.”
He was betrayed. According to Foxe, an Englishman named Henry Phillips won his friendship in Antwerp and then handed him over in 1535. Tyndale was held in the castle of Vilvoorde, near Brussels, for well over a year.
He asked for his books. A letter survives from his imprisonment. He asks for a warmer cap and coat against the cold, and above all for his Hebrew Bible, grammar, and dictionary, so that he could go on working.
He died for the work. He was condemned for heresy and, on October 6, 1536, strangled and then burned. Foxe records his last words as a prayer that God would open the king of England’s eyes.
What came after
Within a few years, English Bibles drawing heavily on his translation were being read in English churches with royal approval. When the King James Version appeared in 1611, its translators kept a great deal of his wording. One widely cited study estimates that more than four-fifths of the King James New Testament is Tyndale’s. His English style remained the model for English Bibles for nearly four hundred years.
What leaders can take from this part
Plain words last. He wrote for the ear of ordinary people, and his sentences outlived every argument against him.
Keep working with what you have. In a cold cell, he asked for a dictionary.
The result may come after you. He did not live to see a legal English Bible. He did the part that was his.
He was not gentle. Tyndale’s written disputes with his opponents, Thomas More chief among them, were fierce on both sides, and he gave no ground. The same refusal to bend that produced the translation also made him enemies he might not have needed.
Try this week
- Read your last message to your team aloud. Replace every phrase you would not say in conversation.
- Name one piece of work you are doing that will mainly benefit people who come after you. Give that work an hour.
- Ask whether a fight you are in is necessary to the mission or only to your pride.
Sources
Consulted
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “William Tyndale.” Last updated October 2, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Tyndale.
Further reading
Daniell, David. William Tyndale: A Biography. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
Foxe, John. Actes and Monuments. London: John Day, 1563.
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