In Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice, David Teems take us through a period in history when translating the Bible into the English language was considered a criminal act. He follows the life of William Tyndale who put together the first English Bible translated from the original Greek and Hebrew texts.
Not much is known about Tyndale on a personal level but there is lots of speculation surrounding his personal life. Most of what we know to be factual is based upon his work with the translation of the Bible. While the book is not written in a chronological timeline like you would expect with most biographies, this book skips around a lot in the storyline. In the back of the book, there is a chronological timeline if you want to visually piece together the different chapters and how they actually played out in the life of Tyndale.
Tyndale grew up in a normal childhood setting and later attended college. In 1515, he was ordained a priest (not uncommon for graduates of Oxford/Cambridge). He returned to his native land of Glouchestshire and became a tutor to a wealthy landowner's children. He preached and studied deeply and was burdened that the scriptures must be translated into an English text. To escape being a heretic, he went into exile on the Continent and never saw England again. Over the next 10 years, he studied Hebrew and began translating the New Testament. What happened during this time and in the years to come after??? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out......
This book also does an amazing job of connecting you with people within the same time period of Tyndale such as Ann Boleyn, a crazy English king, Lord Chancellor, etc. Throughout the book, you can clearly see what an enormous amount of respect Teems has for Tyndale and it is evident through his writing. This book is packed full of historical content, time lines and really makes you appreciate Tyndale's dedication and sacrifice to bringing us the English Bible.
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes only from Thomas Nelson. No monetary compensation was received.
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