William Tyndale

William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tynsdale, Tindall, Tindill, Tyndall; c. 1494 – October 1536) was an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He translated much of the Bible into English and was influenced by the works of prominent Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther.

Tyndale's 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 ("Iehouah") as God's name. It was taken to be a direct challenge to the authority of the Catholic Church and of those laws of England maintaining the church's position. The work of Tyndale continued to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world.

In The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528), Tyndale argued for Caesaropapism, the idea that the monarch rather than the Pope should control a country's church. This was the first instance of advocating the divine right of kings in England (sometimes mistakenly attributed to the Catholic Church). The book came into the hands of King Henry VIII, providing a rationale for breaking the church in England away from the Catholic Church in 1534. In 1530, Tyndale wrote The Practice of Prelates, opposing Henry's plan to seek the annulment of his marriage on the grounds that it contravened Scripture. This work made him enemy of both the state and the church, therefore he fled England and sought refuge in the Flemish territory of the Catholic Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1535 Tyndale was arrested and jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) outside Brussels. The following year he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake.

Tyndale's translation choices of biblical phrases were substantially also adopted by subsequent English editions.