We Australians have sadly forgotten the only reason refugees head to our shores in leaky boats is that we have a culture based on the principles of God's word. This may never had ocurred were it not for brave translators like William Tyndale, who made it possible for every Englishman to read it for himself.

William Tyndale (1490-1536) of Gloucestershire was born in a family of privilege and position. His father, Edward, was a Receiver of lands and his uncle a knight. He was educated at Oxford, gaining his Master of Arts in July 1515. Soon after he was ordained into the priesthood and allowed to study theology, a course which, at that time, did not include the scriptures.

He was a gifted linguist; fluent in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish, in addition to his native English. During his days in Oxford he came under the influence of Thomas Bilney.

Bilney was converted after reading 1 Timothy 1:15 “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief”. He would later write: “I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leapt for joy. After this, the Scripture began to be more pleasant unto me than the honey or the honeycomb; wherein I learned that all my labours, my fasting and watching, all the redemption of masses and pardons, being done without truth in Christ, who alone saves his people from their sins; ..to be nothing else but a hasty and swift running out of the right way".

He would be dragged from his pulpit whilst preaching at Ipswich and imprisoned in the Tower on the orders of Cardinal Wolsey. He was later burned at the stake.

Tyndale developed a passion for the scriptures and as Chaplain to Sir John Walsh attracted considerable opposition to his Biblical preaching—especially his insistence that man is saved by faith alone.

After hearing an angry priest in argument proclaim; “We are better to be without God’s laws than the Pope’s” He sharply replied; ‘I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you!” And thereafter resolved to translate the Greek New Testamentinto English.

After facing tremendous opposition in England he fled to Germany in 1524 where he found a friend and supporter in Martin Luther. His dedication to the work of translation was such that the first quarto sized New Testament began to roll off the printers in the summer of 1525. He also began, with the help of Miles Coverdale, to translate the Old Testament.

In addition, he wrote a number of commentaries and tracts arguing against the heinous doctrines of the Catholic Church and encouraging a healthy Christian life. Perhaps his best known book was The Obedience of the Christian Man written in 1528.

The Church in England resolved to end Tyndale’s life when it discovered that his New Testaments and books were being smuggled into the country in wool packs and wheat bags. Many involved in the smuggling were burned at the stake and though Tyndale narrowly escaped capture in Europe on a number of occasions, he was eventually betrayed, arrested , strangled then burned at the stake in 1536 at Brussels. His last words were a loud prayer: “Lord open the King of England’s eyes!”

Within four years that same king, Henry VIII, would put his signature to the Great Bible, a translation based mostly on Tyndale’s work, and order that every church in England place a copy on its lectern.

The British Library paid over 1 million pounds to obtain the last remaining Tyndale Bible in 1994. It’s curator said at the time, “it was the most important book in the English Language”.

Its real value though, lies in the transformation in the culture, the governments and the individual lives of the English people who would in turn transform much of the world’s thinking, freeing humans from the dark and deadly doctrines of Catholicism and allowing them to investigate God’s Word for themselves.

What did you pay for your Bible? How much is it worth to you? Something to think about when next you sit down to read it.