Last words of the faithful
William Tyndale
Died 1536 · strangled and burned for translating the Bible
William Tyndale, who first translated the Bible into English from the original languages, was strangled and burned near Brussels in 1536. Foxe's Book of Martyrs records his dying prayer: 'Lord, open the King of England's eyes.' Within a few years an authorized English Bible was placed in every parish.
The last words
The story behind them
Tyndale wanted to do a simple, dangerous thing: put the Bible into ordinary English so a plowboy could read it. He is said to have told a learned man that if God spared him, he would cause a boy who drives the plow to know more of Scripture than the man did. For this he was hunted across Europe, betrayed, imprisoned in a cold cell, and finally condemned. Much of the phrasing in the King James Bible people still quote today is his.
Foxe records that at the stake he was strangled and then burned, and that he cried out his last words 'with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice.' They were not a curse on his enemies. They were a prayer for the one man most responsible for opposing him: 'Lord, open the King of England's eyes.' It reads like a wasted breath. It was not. Within about three years, Henry VIII authorized an English Bible to be placed in every parish church in England, much of it Tyndale's own translation. He prayed for his persecutor, and God answered by opening the very eyes he had asked about.
His last breath was a prayer for the king who killed him, and within three years the prayer was answered.
What they died for, you can meet
None of these people died for an idea. They died holding onto a Person, convinced that death was not the end because he had already walked out of a tomb. The Living Bread is a quiet place to meet that same Jesus, read the Gospels for yourself, and ask your honest questions.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- What were William Tyndale's last words?
- According to Foxe's Book of Martyrs, William Tyndale cried out at his execution in 1536, 'Lord, open the King of England's eyes.' He was praying for Henry VIII, who had opposed his English translation of the Bible.
- Why was Tyndale killed?
- Tyndale was executed in 1536 for translating the Bible into English from the original languages, which was then illegal. His translation shaped the later King James Bible, and within a few years an authorized English Bible was placed in every English parish.