c. 1494 – 1536

William Tyndale

Worth knowing

An Oxford scholar who set out to translate the Bible so that, as he put it, a boy driving a plough would know more Scripture than the priests.
His New Testament, the first printed in English and translated from the Greek, came off the press at Worms in 1526 and was smuggled into England.
He was betrayed in Antwerp and strangled and burned at Vilvoorde in 1536. Much of the King James Bible's New Testament keeps his wording.

In Scholar’s Dream, William Tyndale has one book

Tyndale’s TestamentThe New Testament in English, translated from the Greek (Worms, 1526)BibleExegesis

William Tyndale’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from William Tyndale that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
William Tyndale, as reported in John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1563). FOXE IS THE SOLE WITNESS and is an interested one — see research/SECONDARY-SOURCES.md §3. Public domain; no snapshot on hand.public domain

How it works in the game: the move A Boy That Driveth the Plough

BibleArgument · power 88 · 95% accurate

In the gameTyndale said this to a learned man who claimed the church’s law mattered more than God’s. It explains why he translated the Bible, and he was strangled and burned for doing it.

Learned byTyndale’s Testament (Lv 1)

Strong against

×4Nothing Outside the Textan argument · why?

Tyndale swore that a boy at the plough would know more Scripture than the learned men who said it could not be read. That is a claim that meaning is plain enough to reach a farm. Derrida wrote books and expected them to be understood, and every reader who has followed him has assumed the same.

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
William Tyndale, as reported in John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1563). Foxe is the sole witness and an interested one — see research/SECONDARY-SOURCES.md §3. Public domain; no snapshot on hand.

from Tyndale’s Testament

“The first edition of Tyndale’s New Testament had to be smuggled into England and was publicly burnt by order of Tunstall, bishop of London, in St. Paul’s church-yard near the spot from which Bibles are now sent to all parts of the globe.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII (1888), on the Bible in the vernacular, public domain.

from Tyndale’s Testament

“…the latter furnished the text from which, with the aid of Jerome’s Vulgate, the translations of Luther and Tyndale were made.”
Of Erasmus’ Greek Testament, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII, on the Bible in the vernacular (1888), public domain.

from Tyndale’s Testament

Words William Tyndale’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“The first edition of Tyndale’s New Testament had to be smuggled into England and was publicly burnt by order of Tunstall, bishop of London, in St. Paul’s church-yard near the spot from which Bibles are now sent to all parts of the globe.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII (1888), on the Bible in the vernacular, public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Smuggled in Bales of Cloth

HistoryArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameSmall octavo, so it hid in a sleeve. Down the Rhine in cloth, into English ports, and out of the bales into houses — and burnt in St Paul’s churchyard by order of a bishop.

Learned byTyndale’s Testament (Lv 46)

“…the latter furnished the text from which, with the aid of Jerome’s Vulgate, the translations of Luther and Tyndale were made.”
Of Erasmus’ Greek Testament, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII, on the Bible in the vernacular (1888), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Into Their Own Tongue

ExegesisArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameEleven weeks in a castle under a false name, turning the Greek into German a ploughman could read out loud. The scholarship is real; the audience is the argument.

Learned byTyndale’s Testament (Lv 48)

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: ‘Repent ye’ … intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.”
Ninety-Five Theses 1, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Whole Life of Believers

SoteriologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThesis 1, and it is a translation argument. The Vulgate said DO PENANCE; the Greek says REPENT. One word, and either repentance is a sacrament you complete or it is a life you live.

Learned byTyndale’s Testament (Lv 51)

Strong against

×2The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

One word in the Latin, and the whole trade is standing on it.

Who else was alive

William Tyndale against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window