# Tyndale, More, and the English vocabulary of the Bible

97.3 s · Narrator: Frederick Surrey; reader: Jane

William Tyndale translated scripture into English while church law forbade it. His New Testament, translated from the Greek, was printed at Worms in 1526 and burned in London; his Pentateuch of 1530, printed under a false imprint, is where the Oxford English Dictionary first records passover, scapegoat and mercy seat. Thomas More attacked his choice of congregation for church, the King James translators kept church, and a 1998 sampling study estimated how much of his wording the King James Version kept. He was arrested in 1535 and executed at Vilvoorde in 1536.

| Time | Voice | Line | On screen |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0:00.18 | Narrator | William Tyndale translated scripture into English while church law forbade it, and English still uses words first recorded in his translations. | The globe, a pin on Worms; then the only surviving title page of the 1526 New Testament (Stuttgart), its title lit, and the Latin of the constitution of 1409 set beside it. Heading: Words first recorded in his translations. |
| 0:09.24 | Narrator | He translated the New Testament from the Greek, and it was printed at Worms in 1526. | St John, chapter 1, in the Stuttgart copy: “IN the begynnynge / was that worde” lights and the Greek of John 1:1 sets beside it; on “printed” the camera eases back to the page. |
| 0:15.74 | Narrator | Copies reached England, and the Bishop of London had them collected and burned at St Paul's Cross. | The globe: an arc from Worms to London, a pin on St Paul’s Cross; the date line of Tunstall’s order of 24 October 1526, its date lit; on “burned” the globe pushes in on London. |
| 0:22.52 | Narrator | In exile he learned Hebrew, and in 1530 he published the five books of Moses under a false imprint. | The colophon at the end of Genesis (Princeton): the year lights, then “Malborow in the lande of Hesse” and “Hans Luft”. Heading: The five books of Moses. |
| 0:29.61 | Reader | playnly layde before their eyes in their mother tonge | The clause of the 1530 prologue “W. T. To the Reader” set as type, each word lit as the reader says it, under the caption “Why he translated scripture: his prologue to Genesis, 1530”. |
| 0:34.06 | Narrator | Where the Latin Bible had phase and explained it as the passing of the Lord, Tyndale wrote passover. | Exodus 12 in the 1530 print: the Vulgate’s “phase, id est transitus domini” and the Wycliffite “fase, that is, the passyng of the Lord” set beside it, then “passeouer” lights, and the verb “passe ouer” seven lines lower. |
| 0:41.20 | Narrator | The goat sent into the wilderness became the scapegoat, and Luther's German Gnadenstuhl became the mercy seat. | Leviticus 16: “another for a scapegoote” lights beside “capro emissario” and Luther’s “dem freybock”; then the woodcut of the ark, its lid lit, beside Luther’s “Gnaden stuel” (Exodus 25:17). |
| 0:47.82 | Narrator | The Oxford English Dictionary first records all three words in this book. | The three words as printed in 1530, passeouer, scapegoote and merciseate, over passover, scapegoat and mercy seat. Heading: All three words in this book. |
| 0:52.66 | Narrator | His New Testament has phrases still in use, such as the signs of the times and the powers that be. | Matthew 16:3 and Romans 13:1 in the 1526 print, each phrase lit over its Wycliffite reading. Heading: The signs of the times and the powers that be. |
| 0:59.22 | Narrator | Thomas More attacked his choice of congregation for church, and in 1611 the King James translators kept church. | Matthew 16:18 in the 1526 print, “my congregaciō” lit; More’s “the chyrch he calleth alway the congregacyon”; the King James “I will build my Church”, Church lit. |
| 1:06.92 | Narrator | A 1998 sampling study estimates that Tyndale's contribution to the King James New Testament is about 84 percent of the text. | A grid of 100 cells for the King James New Testament’s text fills to 84: about 84 percent of the text. |
| 1:15.96 | Narrator | In the Old Testament, about 76 percent of his words were retained. | A second grid, for Tyndale’s Old Testament words, fills to 76, and the first steps back to grey. |
| 1:21.52 | Narrator | He was arrested in Antwerp in 1535. | The globe, a pin on Antwerp. |
| 1:25.10 | Narrator | In prison he asked for his Hebrew Bible, grammar and dictionary. | His letter from Vilvoorde in Demaus’s facsimile: Bibliā hebraicā, grāmaticā hebraicā and vocabulariū hebraicū light on their words, then the signature. Heading: His Hebrew Bible, grammar and dictionary. |
| 1:30.76 | Narrator | In 1536 he was strangled and burned at Vilvoorde. | Vilvoorde castle, where he was held, in Harrewijn’s engraving of 1696; on “at” the close cuts in: the globe, the pin landing on Vilvoorde. |
| 1:33.35 | No voice |  | The globe, the pin on Vilvoorde, 1536, and the General Translation lockup. |

Times are where each line starts in the final, read from the film's own audio.