William Tyndale

Born around 1494 in Gloucestershire, William Tyndale studied at Oxford and later at Cambridge before dedicating himself to translating the Bible into English. At a time when that work was fiercely opposed, he left England for the Continent, where he could continue translating and publishing more freely.

Tyndale produced the first printed English New Testament from the original Greek and went on to translate parts of the Old Testament from Hebrew. His language was direct, memorable, and deeply influential; much of the wording later heard in the King James Bible echoes his phrasing.

His work made him a target of church and political authorities. He was arrested in the Low Countries, tried for heresy, and executed in 1536. Though his life was cut short, his translation work had a lasting effect on English Christianity, Bible reading, and the development of English prose.