Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice Explores Life and Work of William Tyndale

NASHVILLE, TN - (ANS)- Author and musician David Teems introduces readers to one of the most important, yet least celebrated, heroes of the Christian faith in his new book, "Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God An English Voice."

A news release for the book stated that in the early 16th century, an age of treachery and religious oppression, William Tyndale made the Holy Scriptures available to the English people at large by translating them into a language they could understand. An English Scripture in 1526 was against the law in England.

The news release said to possess and particularly to manufacture the Scripture incurred serious penalties, including death at the stake. Tyndale's courage and deep sense of calling birthed an easy to read Scripture that was revolutionary - not only bringing light and instruction to the English people, but changing an entire culture.

It was the age of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, of Thomas More and Martin Luther. The Reformation was ongoing, and ordinary people were eagerly seeking to learn what it really meant to be a Christian.

The news release said in an act of defiance against a clergy which rejected any Scripture but a Latin one, Tyndale, a young Oxford-trained scholar who spoke eight languages, endeavored to ensure that the average English believer knew more of the Scripture than they did. He made good on his promise.

To complete his translation, Tyndale was forced to write and publish in exile, hiding to avoid imprisonment. The Bible he offered the English-speaking world in 1526 was electric. It had to be smuggled into England in bales of cloth.

Within this contraband, the news release stated, were the expressions we grew up with and have treasured for 500 years such as "Give us this day our daily bread," "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory," "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; Let not your hearts be troubled, and countless others."

Indeed, for all its well-earned honors, the news release said, the praise given to the King James Bible (KJV) rightly belongs to Tyndale.

Scholars estimate as much as 90 percent of the New Testament and up to 50 percent of the Old Testament in the KJV, the number one selling Bible translation of all time, can be attributed to Tyndale.

In fact, the news release stated, Tyndale is credited with infusing the KJV with much of the poetic beauty that makes it so easy to memorize. Tyndale's was the original voice that most English Bibles have mimicked to this day.

The news release said any study of Tyndale must also include his single-word innovations such as behold, brotherly, evangelical, godly, Passover, peace offering, refused, servant, thanksgiving and zealous."

Even William Shakespeare used words coined by Tyndale. There is an old adage among scholars - "without Tyndale, no Shakespeare."

The news release reported that renowned literary critic and author Harold Bloom once said that William Tyndale is the "only true rival of Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Walt Whitman as the richest author in the English language."

Only Shakespeare's prose "is capable of surviving comparison with Tyndale's," said Teems.

In the end, Tyndale died a martyr, strangled and burned at the stake for heresy. His 1526 translation liberated the English tongue, and infused nobility and majesty into a language that at the time was considered crude.

The news release said that his Bible became the foundation of our finest prose thereafter. All modern translations, including the KJV, follow Tyndale's initial work. Only the very latest translations (including paraphrased versions) depart from Tyndale.

"Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God An English Voice" is already getting great reviews.

"When I laid down the book, Tyndale, I found myself overwhelmed by the thought that I had just been re-introduced to one of the truly great men in history," said Church Report's Jim Miller in the news release.

For more information go to www.davidteems.com/tyndale.html