Day 221 -- Tyndale--The Man Who Gave God an English Voice

I have been reading a book on William Tyndall, a Christian martyr of the Middle Ages, who was determined to go against Thomas More and the entire Catholic Church by translating the New Testament into English in an age in which anything to do with religion was in Latin so that only the clergy could read the Bible and thus control and extort the common people through their made-up rules which required time, money and loyalty.  I learned so many things about Tyndale and his life of translation of the Bible so that the "plowman" could read for himself the Gospel.  It was a dense read but I learned so much about the fact that it is Tyndale's voice we read in the King James version of the Bible (which was changed very little from Tyndale's words).  There are phrase lists and word lists of the words that came into the English language due to his translation of the Latin and also from Thomas More as the two arch-enemies had an extensive correspondence during the years that each tried to justify his side of the argument.  Of course, while being enemies to each other, they both lost their lives in the reign of Kin Henry the 8th who is also such a colorful character.  If you have a fascination for that time period bridging the end of the Medieval Period and the start of the Renaissance, this is an interesting book to read.  It is somewhat a biography, but more a history of the development of language, of the turning point for Englishmen in their ability to read the Bible for themselves, and of course, how that affects us today.  He also translated parts of the Old Testament, the Pentatuch, Jonah (probably his fascination with a man arguing with God), and the Chronicles and others.  Interestingly, he did not think the book of James belonged in the New Testament and almost didn't translate it!  One of my favorite books--especially about bridling the tongue!!