Wednesday 7 October 2020

William Tyndale, Translator of the Scriptures, Reformation Martyr, 1536

We begin today’s reflection with a morning prayer:

Blessed are you, creator of all,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As your dawn renews the face of the earth
bringing light and life to all creation,
may we rejoice in this day you have made;
as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep,
open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will,
that the world may rejoice and give you praise.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God for ever.

after Lancelot Andrewes (1626)

For each of us, a new day brings a new opportunity to choose how to live our lives in both attitude and action. The words of this ancient prayer, regularly prayed at the start of the Church of England’s Morning Prayer, invite us to open our hearts and minds to the Lord, and to all sorts of possibilities for our day:

‘Open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will,
that the world may rejoice and give you praise.’

I should imagine that William Tyndale, whose life and work we remember on 6 October, would have prayed a similar prayer at the start of each day, although he lived almost a century before Lancelot Andrews penned this prayer. He would have needed eyes to behold God’s presence and strong hands to do the work of patiently and painstakingly translating the Scriptures from Greek to English. 

He was born in Gloucestershire in about 1494. He studied first at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford, and then at Cambridge. He became determined to translate the scriptures from Greek directly into contemporary English so they could be widely read, but he was thwarted by the Bishop of London. So William settled in Hamburg in 1524, never returning to England. When the first copies of his translation arrived in England, it was bitterly attacked as subversive by the church authorities. He spent the rest of his life making revisions of his work and writing many other theological works. At the start of the following century, his translation of the Bible was used to produce the Authorised Version. In 1535 he was arrested in Brussels and accused of heresy. He was strangled and burned at the stake on 6 October 1536. His last words were, ‘Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.’ 

Tyndale’s passion was to make available the Holy Scriptures to every man and woman to read, meditate on and inwardly digest, that each of us may find sustenance and guidance. As the Psalmist writes: ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.’ (Ps 119:105)

We live in an age and a country where almost everybody has learnt to read. We also have the privilege of many different versions of the Bible available to us, including the New Revised Standard Version which we use in St Albright’s Church. If you would like to follow the daily prayer and readings in the Church of England’s Morning Prayer, they can be found online here: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-daily-prayer  If you would rather use a written guide to daily Bible reading and prayer, speak to Tony or me, Wendy.

Let us each take the opportunity to read, to meditate on and to live by the Scriptures daily, for ‘All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.’ (2 Timothy 3.16,17)

Collect 

Lord, give to your people grace to hear and keep your word
that, after the example of your servant William Tyndale,
we may not only profess your gospel
but also be ready to suffer and die for it,
to the honour of your name;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.