This Day in History: Reformation Bible translator William Tyndale was burned at the stake on this day in 1536. Tyndale's work in Bible translation was so effective that Bible versions today work on a foundation that he started. One study found that Tyndale's words account for 84% of the New Testament and for 75.8% of the Old Testament in the King James Bible.
As well as individual words, Tyndale also coined such familiar phrases as:
fall flat on his face
go the extra mile
my brother's keeper
knock and it shall be opened unto you
a moment in time
fashion not yourselves to the world
seek and ye shall find
ask and it shall be given you
judge not that ye be not judged
the word of God which liveth and lasteth forever
let there be light
the powers that be
the salt of the earth
a law unto themselves
it came to pass
the signs of the times
filthy lucre
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak
There were words that Tyndale used in his Bible that the Church in his day disapproved of. Words such as "overseer", instead of "bishop", "elder" for "priest", and "love" rather than "charity". Tyndale, citing Erasmus, contended that the Greek New Testament did not support the traditional readings. More controversially, Tyndale translated the Greek ekklesia as "congregation" rather than "church". It has been asserted this translation choice "was a direct threat to the Church's ancient – but so Tyndale here made clear, non-scriptural – claim to be the body of Christ on earth. To change these words was to strip the Church hierarchy of its pretensions to be Christ's terrestrial representative, and to award this honour to individual worshipers who made up each congregation." ~Brian Moynahan
Tyndale's translation was also the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation, and the first English translation to use Jehovah ("Iehouah") as God's name.
Bible translations were also a threat to Church authorities, for it made people question church doctrines:
"Wyclif's manuscript translations of the Bible had been widely circulated from about 1380 on, and it is said that some of his followers were tinged with Antitrinitarianism; but this Bible had to be read in secret, as did Tyndale's first printed New Testament of 1525, for fear of the law. In 1535, however, the English Bible began to be accessible to all, and many were reading it for the first time. First and last the influence of this book, when read in comparison with the creeds, has underlain all others leading men to reject the doctrine of the Trinity. Some of the most notable of the early English Unitarians declared they had never read nor heard the Unitarian doctrine, but had come to it solely through reading their Bibles."~Earl Morse Wilbur
It is tempting to say that Tyndale was killed for translating the Bible into the vernacular English, but that is only partially true. Tyndale also criticized King Henry VIII’s annulment and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn. In the previous year, the same fate befell Thomas More for the same reason.
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