In all my years as a Christian I have often heard the name William Tyndale spoken in conversation or referenced in printed material, yet it was difficult to really pinpoint who this man really was. Â Yes, I knew he was a man of God, but who really was he, what was his life like is what I really wanted to get to the bottom of.
For those of us involved in social media networking you’ll be surprised to find that it was Tyndale who coined the term network.  Who knew that word would or could arise in 1530?  I certainly would not have expected it, but it happened.  It is safe to say that without Tyndale we probably would not have had the English we know today.  The man who translated the Bible into the tongue of the common man for all to know the word of God.
Prior to that it was only in the hands of the church in Latin and the rich who could read Latin.  In the days of Henry VIII you were required to attend church but couldn’t understand the “magical seeming†words being said.  Along came Martin Luther who translated the Bible into German giving boldness to Tyndale to do the same for the people of his country England.  Both gave the church such a fit that it would lead to death and destruction for those who possessed, read, or harbored these individuals in the way of burnings reminiscent of witch trials.  In fact only 3 known copies of Tyndale’s original work are in existence today.  Just a few of the amazing facts you’ll glean from reading this book.
I highly recommend reading Tyndale by David Teems who has managed to put together the life and times of this great man without the fantasy prone additions that others have used when writing about Tyndale based on what little records are available from that time period.  I give it 5 stars for it’s historical account, literary knowledge, and reading interest.
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 7
In a sense, it's like a computer company having one copy of a programme and you can only have it if you pay lots to get it. Only, the tool used in this case is religion's ability to play with your mind by interpreting the metaphors and stories within a group of ancient documents, specially selected by, including others, none other than Emperor Constantine Inc., a real human being.
In spite of what some people might believe, the bible is not free of a chequered history which involves the pushing and shoving of various people wanting to keep various myths ambiguous and mysterious; the power. What is equally interesting, however, is how that power was used during the varous Inquisitions. David Kertzer has done a lot of research in vatican documents (http://davidkertzer.com/books/kidnapping_of_edgardo_mortara.html), about which the catholic church is tight-lipped and, it could be said, ashamed.
What a curious and studious person might want to seek, beyond the words of people like Tyndale, is the truth behind all religions, why some groups believe in the repetition of rituals and the words originating in times when ordinary people were not aware of the wider world, not knowledgable in the ways of physics, geology and natural phenomena, astronomy, psychology, medicine or even biology. Handing down by an older generation a set of 'truths' is no guarantee that they will be accepted, or even logical, to a younger, more curious generation.
What seems difficult to weigh up is the ability of some of the human race to believe everything they are told, with regard to 'god inc.' without studying where the bible came from, how it evolved, who wrote it, who chose and translated it and whether it is fact or fiction; it is known, for example, that Genesis was written from a collection of old legends told round camp fires, which, themselves, probably originated long before when people were naive and fearful. 'Adam and Eve', for example were maybe stories invented to try to explain the beginning of everything. Try that story on modern experts and you'll get little in return. Nevertheless, there are some who claim that dinosaurs roamed the Earth with humans, yet, they disbelieve physical evidence in the geology. Science drifted away from religion with Copernicus and Galilleo and others when the repeated old stories and myths began to be insufficient. Scientists search and research, often changing their theories; religious 'experts' cannot.
This explains some of the origins of religion, but you don't have to take my word for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgT1SRcrKE