The Translator They Burned Whose Words Became the Foundation

In 1525, William Tyndale smuggled the first printed English New Testament out of Cologne in bales of cloth. The Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, bought up every copy he could find and burned them publicly at St. Paul's Cross. Church authorities called Tyndale a heretic. King Henry VIII's agents hunted him across Europe for years. In October 1536, outside Brussels, they strangled him at the stake and set his body ablaze. His final words were a prayer: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

The religious establishment had done everything in its power to destroy Tyndale's work. They rejected it utterly. Yet within three years of his death, Henry VIII authorized an English Bible to be placed in every parish church in England. That Bible drew heavily from Tyndale's translation. When the King James translators sat down in 1604, scholars estimate they retained nearly 84 percent of Tyndale's New Testament phrasing. The very words the builders rejected became the cornerstone of English-speaking Christianity for four centuries.

Psalm 118 declares, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." God has always delighted in taking what the powerful discard and making it foundational. What human hands throw on the fire, the Almighty weaves into the bedrock of His kingdom. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.