500 Years Since the Tyndale Bible Translation

The year 2026 is the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament, as reported in this BreakPoint article by John Stonestreet and Glenn Sunshine of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

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Tyndale (1494–1536) was an English Bible scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution.

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His Bible translations were

• the first English Scriptures 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 as God’s name.

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They were a direct challenge to the authority of the Catholic Church and to the laws of England that maintained the Church’s position. The work of Tyndale continued to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world.

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According to the BreakPoint article, “Tyndale coined common words and phrases used in translations such as Passover, scapegoat, mercy seat, atonement—a word with the etymological breakdown of “At one with God”—Let there be light, The powers that be, It came to pass, and The signs of the times.”

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“Tyndale’s work laid the foundation for virtually every English Bible translation of the past 500 years and left a major mark on the English language and our theological vocabulary. The 500th anniversary of his New Testament is an opportunity to be grateful for his work and its impact on the world.”

Read the full BreakPoint article here.

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Bible Translation Timeline

1400–400 BC	The original Hebrew Old Testament texts are written
250–200 BC	The Septuagint, the first major Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, is produced
AD 45–85	The Greek New Testament books are written
382–405	Saint Jerome translates the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages of the Bible into Latin
1380s	John Wycliffe inspires and helps lead the translation of the complete Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate
1456	Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, prints the first Latin Bible using movable-type
1521–1534	Martin Luther translates the Bible into German
1526	William Tyndale prints the first New Testament in English translated directly from Greek
1535	Myles Coverdale publishes the first completely printed English Bible, completing the translations of William Tyndale
1536	William Tyndale, convicted of heresy, is executed by strangulation and then burned at the stake
1537–1549	The Matthew Bible is published
1560	English Protestants in exile publish the Geneva Bible, featuring study notes
1611	The King James Version (KJV) is published and becomes the standard authorized English Bible for centuries
1782	The Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, approves the first complete English-language Bible printed in America, known as the Aitken Bible
1885	The English Revised Version updates the KJV using older Greek manuscripts
1901	The American Standard Version (ASV) is published as the American counterpart to the revised text
1952	The Revised Standard Version (RSV) updates the language for modern readers
1973	The New International Version (NIV) New Testament is released (complete Bible in 1978), balancing thought-for-thought accuracy
1982	The New King James Version (NKJV) updates KJV vocabulary while retaining its traditional style

Also see The Gospel Coalition article: ‘No Tyndale, No Shakespeare’: How the Bible Made Modern English

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