Tyndale Hope in Hampstead - 2nd March, 7:30pm

All Members and Friends are invited to attend a public lecture on William Tyndale to be given by Professor Andrew Hope in the Crypt of the Parish Church of St John, Church Row, Hamsptead, London NW3.

This evening event will begin at 7:30pm on 2nd March 2010.

(Nearest Tube: Hampstead)

Tyndale meeets Newton in Grantham - 29th March

US Secretary of The Tyndale Society and Newton expert Helen Martin will be visiting the UK in March to give a talk on The Classical Education of Sir Isaac Newton.

The lecture Event will be held at Newton's old school - The King's School in Grantham - on 29th March with a reception from 6.30pm onwards.

All Tyndale Society Members and Friends are warmly invited to attend.

Tickets cost £7.50 (£6 concessions) including wine and cheese and are available in advance from Sarah Brown at The King's School (numbers strictly limited to 120 people - so book well ahead!)

Poetic Translation in 'The Word Exchange'

Of interest to all students of the history of the English language 'The Word Exchange' is a new Norton compendium of 123 Anglo-Saxon poems which sit alongside modern English translations rendered by a line-up of 70 contemporary greats including Seamus Heaney (who also provides the foreword) and Paul Muldoon.

Read more in this Washington Post review.

Neil L. Inglis
Editor, TSJ

Tributes to Dorothy Daniell...

David Daniell and his family send sincere thanks to Tyndale Society Members and friends for the many tributes to David's late wife Dorothy which they have received after her sad death in November.

Dorothy was an expert in dance and art therapy and worked for over thirty years in the field of psychotherapy - latterly providing deeply caring support to trauma sufferers at the Refugee Therapy Centre.

She always gave David her utmost support throughout her career, and had a strong and thoughtful faith.

Keith Salway of The Tyndale Society wrote of her: 'It was a great privilege to have known Dorothy and I have no doubt at all that her contribution to the lives of many is built already as an enduring and living memorial.'

A full obituary is to be published in TSJ No.40.

Tyndale's Million Pound Bible...

Hear the inside story of the book the British Library calls "the most important printed book in the English language" - this rare surviving copy of Tyndale's 1526 New Testament...

The British Library's copy of this Bible - one of only two to survive intact from the original Worms print run of 3,000 - is thought to have belonged to a wealthy merchant - and is beautifully illuminated throughout.

The book was acquired in 1994 for a sum in excess of one million pounds, and since then has been a star attraction of the collection.

Click our podcast link below to follow the story of this powerful and beautiful work, as curator Moira Goff explores what was so different - and dangerous - about this ground-breaking - pocket-sized - translation.

You can zoom in for a closer look and also read more about this sacred text on the British Library's website - as well as access turn-the-pages online texts of other collection treasures such as the Lindisfare Gospels, the Luttrell Psalter and the Lisbon Bible.

Ramona Garcia

Tyndale on the Moon!

Tyndale's translations - as embodied in the form of the KJV - have carried the English Bible across the globe - but did you know his words had even made it into outer space?

Astronaut and author Jeff Williams - veteran of a combined 362 days in space after a trio of successful launches - will speak at Dunham Bible Museum in Houston, Texas on Wednesday 9th February about science, space, spirituality and the Book NASA took to the moon...

There is also a collection of rare 16th, 17th and 18th Century Bibles on show as part of a special exhibition to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the KJV.

For full details visit the Museum's website.

John Hellstern

Crystal Radio - on Tyndale, Idiom and the KJV

Today on New York's WNYC public radio 'Begat' author Dr David Crystal speaks to station host Brian Lehrer about the impact of Tyndale's idiom - 'as popularised in the King James Bible'.

For his latest research project, Crystal counted the number of current idioms which can be traced back to the King James Bible. Answer: 257 - as compared with only 100 in the whole of Shakespeare...

But few of the 257 originated 'by committee'...

To find out more, listen to the broadcast by clicking on the podcast icon below.

Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices

Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices is the title of the current exhibition at the British Library which should be a must for Tyndale Society members interested in the development of our language. Needless to say Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament is on display, alongside other iconic religious texts.

The British Library describes this as ‘the first ever exhibition exploring the English language in all its national and international diversity... This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see and hear the English language in all its forms, from 5th century runes to 21st century youth-speak’.

Audio ‘exhibits’ of great twentieth century speeches can be heard in between viewing such priceless manuscripts as the only early copy of Beowulf and Caxton’s printing of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

The exhibition is open daily until the 3rd of April and admission is FREE.

There is also an entertaining online quiz for those who can't make it to London for a visit.

Brian Buxton

Gone but not forgotten!

I'm currently reading a book on unsung heroes and uncredited visionaries of science, and the following paragraph reminded me of you know who!

"In truth, the vision which is carved in stone cannot be ruined. There it remains. Let those who study and devise their twisting way plot. Plan, scheme, bend and turn. None will stop the day. The bright sapphire, a pure night vision, remains. Starpoints in the great radiant blackness, from which come all things. The dream seas surge, asking no permissions and giving gifts liberally. In a land not far off, where dreams and dreamers walk as one, there the love reigns, and waits."

LOST SCIENCE
Gerry Vassilatos
Pubs.: Borderland Sciences Research Foundation

Neil L. Inglis, Editor, TSJ

The bookend of the publishing era?

A few days ago I went into a well-known books and records chain in Washington DC; funereal atmosphere, few if any customers, dwindling choice, Peter Frampton concert videos and other inventory nobody wants.

Hard-copy publication really is a dying business model, and nobody loves bookstores more than I do! The reason I bring up this topic is--what does this mean for us? The Tyndale Society is an organization about books in various forms, and the future of the book seems uncertain.

Neil Inglis
Editor, TSJ

Tyndale's new lease of 'Everlasting Life' at Economist

Thanks to Books & Arts Editor Flammetta Rocco at The Economist, for flagging up The Tyndale Society's forthcoming Ohio conference...

"it’s the story of the King James Version of the Bible, which celebrates its 400th anniversary on May 2nd, that is likely to provide the greatest spread of cultural events (in 2011).

Produced during the lifetime of William Shakespeare and John Donne, it has long been viewed as the most elegantly written and poetic of the many English translations, and has given the language some of its best-known phrases: “lamb to the slaughter”, “skin of our teeth”, “chariots of fire”.

The King James, also known as the Authorised Version, remains one of the most frequently used Bibles in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States.

Barack Obama took the oath of office on the same King James Bible that had been used by Abraham Lincoln in 1861.

Everlasting life

In Britain more than 70 celebratory events are planned, starting with an exhibition at St John’s College, Cambridge, and including lectures, reading marathons, symposia, concerts and conferences as far afield as Plymouth and Aberdeen.

The Royal Mail will bring out a series of commemorative stamps and the BBC plans to broadcast a one-hour documentary.

Oxford University Press, which has published King James Bibles since the 17th century, will bring out a 1,520-page special quatercentenary edition.

Houston Baptist University’s Dunham Bible Museum kicks off the celebrations in America. Further events will follow in, among other places, Kentucky, Louisiana and Columbus, where a conference at Ohio State University (in collaboration with The Tyndale Society) will study the enduring literary and cultural influence of the King James Bible on writers such as William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison.

More Scriptures from the Stars released...

23 Further episodes in the BBC's audio series to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible have now been released in Podcast form as follows:

To listen to these audio recordings simply click on the blue episode titles below (each podcast opens in a new window).

Introduced by author Kamila Shamsie
Toby Stephens reads Moses in the Bulrushes
Henry Goodman reads The Escape of Moses
Niamh Cusack reads Samson and Delilah
Olivia Williams reads Ruth

Introduced by playwright Howard Brenton
Rory Kinnear reads David and Bathsheba
Miriam Margoyles reads Solomon
Hugh Quarshie reads Job
Bill Paterson reads Ecclesiastes

Introduced by The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams
Adjoa Andoh and Rory Kinnear read The Song of Solomon
Miriam Margoyles reads Daniel
Emma Fielding reads The Birth of Jesus
Samuel West reads The Baptism of Jesus

Introduced by novelist Joanne Harris
Toby Stephens reads The Temptation
Emilia Fox reads Jesus' Miracles
Niamh Cusack reads Death of John The Baptist


Introduced by novelist and columnist Will Self
Dan Stevens reads Entry into Jerusalem
Adjoa Andoh reads The Last Supper
Rory Kinnear reads The Crucifixion
Olivia Williams reads Road to Emmaus

Introduced by screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce
Henry Goodman reads Pentecost
Bill Paterson reads Conversion of Paul
Hugh Quarshie reads First Letter to The Corinthians
Hugh Bonneville reads Revelation

Email us by clicking here to let us know what you make of the readings and their introductions - we always welcome your feedback!

Word on the Street - NY Times Talks Tyndale...

Thanks to US-based TSJ author Ramona Garcia, who spotted this gem in this week's New York Times...

"To modern readers, the English of the King James Version sounds archaic, much as Shakespeare does. But there would have been an archaism for readers even in 1611 because the King James Bible draws heavily from a version of William Tyndale’s New Testament published in 1534 and from translations by Miles Coverdale also published in the 1530s.

Tyndale’s aspiration was to make his New Testament accessible to “the boy that driveth the plough.” Though readers often talk about the majesty of the King James Bible, what has made it live is in fact the simplicity of its language.

Scholars have often debated just how much the King James Bible has influenced the English language. They count the number of idioms — “the powers that be,” for instance — that entered the language from the Bible. They look at how often it’s cited in the Oxford English Dictionary.

T. S. Eliot and C. S. Lewis deplored the idea of considering the secular literary or linguistic influence of the King James Bible. Eliot said it had such a profound effect because it was “the Word of God.” Lewis went further. He argued that the King James Bible had little influence on the rhythms of English and that many of the Bible’s characteristic rhythms were simply “unavoidable in the English language.”

But Lewis missed the point. The King James Bible has had an enormous impact on English for the very reason that it captures and preserves — and communicates down through the centuries — the unavoidable rhythms of good English. Its words are almost never Latinate, and its rhythms are never hampered by the literalism that afflicts other translations.

It would have been so easy to get that wrong, to let scholarship overwhelm common sense, to let theology engulf plainness. We owe an enormous debt to William Tyndale’s imaginary plowboy."

To read the full piece online click here.

Scripture from Brit Stars of Stage and Screen...

Today the BBC has broadcast a series of Bible readings recorded by British stars of stage and screen. To listen online, just click on the podcast icons below (podcast files open in new windows).

The distinguished readers include:

Samuel West (winner of the London Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for 'Hamlet'). West begins the series of readings with some of the most well known stories from the Book of Genesis - the Creation, Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. With an introduction by the historian, Simon Schama.

Emilia Fox (star of the BBC's 'Silent Witness' who began her TV career playing Mr Darcy's sister Georgiana in 'Pride and Prejudice' and went on to play Jane Seymour in 'Henry VIII') reads the dramatic story of Noah and the Ark.
With an introduction by the historian, Simon Schama.

Dan Stevens (star of 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Downton Abbey'). Stevens reads from the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Introduction by the historian, Simon Schama.

Hugh Bonneville (veteran of The National Theatre and RSC and BAFTA nominated for his role as the young John Bayley in 'Iris'). Bonneville reads from the stories of Abraham and Isaac and the birth of Isaac’s children Jacob and Esau, who fought even in their mother’s womb. With an introduction by author David Lodge.

Emma Fielding (fellow veteran of The National and RSC and winner of a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut performance in 'Private Lives'). Fielding reads from the story of Joseph and his multi-coloured coat with an introduction by author David Lodge.


Email us by clicking here to let us know what you make of the readings and their introductions - we are always keen to receive your feedback.

Tyndale set to save Anne Boleyn

The nation's much-loved portrait of Anne Boleyn is in dire need of a medieval makeover...

Custodians The National Portrait Gallery have raised the alarm after discovering the dire straits of this picture - with vertical cracking across the panel causing paint-loss.

The painting has had to be removed from public view until £4000 can be raised to pay for vital conservation work.

The Gallery has already raised £1096 during the first three weeks of the appeal.

To help them achieve their target The Tyndale Society will make a contribution for every copy of Howard Brenton's 'Anne Boleyn' which we sell to our Members and Friends in our New Year Special Offer.

Top billing at last - thanks to Beeb's Jim Naughtie

Thanks be to James Naughtie of BBC Radio 4 for his morning broadcast today on 'The Story of the King James Bible'.

The following passages were recorded in the Chapel at Hertford College Oxford - home to The Tyndale Society - in front of the famous Whitefriars window image of William Tyndale:

"Tyndale revolutionised English as a language. It is as big as that. He changed the way the English spoke and thought.

"It is extraordinary and one of the great mysteries of this story that a man in his late 20s, early 30s, in a garret on the continent, on the run, hunted by the establishment, eventually dying as a martyr for translation could do this.

"The whole story of The Bible in English is unthinkable without him."

To listen to the entire broadcast (available on BBC iPlayer for the next six days) click here.

(Note: Fast forward to 2.06 to skip the news broadcast at the beginning of the recording)

Thank you Radio 4!

A new Tyndale-free era? No going back to the bad old days!

In the first (but not the last) of many Tyndale-free speeches, columns, and media segments on the King James Version in 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth discussed the KJV in her annual Christmas address (watch in full here).

Now, the Queen did acknowledge that the KJV owed a debt to the learned scholars of the time. However, she neglected to mention that the scholar who deserves the bulk of the credit - for translating 80% of the text - is of course William Tyndale.

Now is not the time to criticize the Queen or her staff, who simply perpetuated a common misconception, that the KJV was 'written by committee'.

But if Tyndale were alive to hear his name systematically airbrushed out of the historical record, his sense of professional humility might be strained to its limits.

We dare not lose any further ground; and that is why I am calling on readers of the Tyndale Society Journal and this blogspot to write in with gracious but firm clarifications when they come across press articles like the one we link to here.

Neil L. Inglis
Editor, TSJ

Brenton treads the boards at Lambeth

Playwright Howard Brenton played to a packed house at Lambeth on Thursday night...

...with a diverse audience which encompassed students, professional historians, politicians, clergymen and also included Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe - Dominic Dromgoole.

Brenton's enthusiasm for his subject was mesmerising as he explored the research that had led him to write the part of Tyndale into his play 'Anne Boleyn' and also read dramatic excerpts from the text.

He definitely whetted our appetites for next year's revival of the play at The Globe, and - by popular demand - we will post performance dates here as soon as these are announced.

Thanks once again to Lambeth Palace for providing such lovely and historic surroundings for our annual lecture; as this event usually takes place in the autumn it was a rare treat to see the Guard Room decked out in all its Christmas finery.

For those who were not able to make it to the lecture, this year we're pleased to be able to offer members the chance to listen at home via our lecture Podcast (opens in a new window).

We'd love to get your feedback on this brand new feature - so please feel free to comment below (click on 'comments' then write your comment and select 'Anonymous' from the list of users next to 'comment as' if you are not a Blogger subscriber. Then to finish click 'Post Comment').

A Tyndale Christmas

Thank you to the many members who braved the cold to join us this year - some from as far afield as Switzerland - at St. Mary Abchurch in the City of London.

Thank you also to David Ireson for conducting the service, to our excellent readers - who brought Tyndale's words so brilliantly to life - and to The English Chamber Choir who all made this year's service of lessons and carols such a wonderful occasion.

For anyone who was not able to get to this year's service in person, we recorded a short taster so you can enjoy hearing the Choir in festive action (cue the mince pies)...

Memorials and the Tyndale story

In future issues of the TSJ we shall be investigating the theme of memorials and commemoration.

To initiate an assessment of this topic, I herewith reproduce a quote from the memoirs of a WWII Resistance fighter:

"In a simple building in the depths of the woods stands an altar in the middle of a square base. At each corner, a column supports the dome where the names of our lost friends are engraved. They are remembered there, among the singing birds and the quivering leaves. They are remembered and visited by the few who still remember. I am glad they are honored in that secluded place, a place resembling the place where they fell, the places they knew, the places that had offered them [shelter]. They did not fight for ribbons or honors; they fought for an ideal so great and so pure it could not be remembered in a busy place."

["Agent for the Resistance," Herman Bodson].

Neil L. Inglis
Editor, TSJ

Tyndale 'On a par with Shakespeare'

Speaking for The King James Bible Trust, Former Laureate Andrew Motion recently praised the poetry of the KJV on BBC Radio 4's 'Today' Programme...

However - not one one word of William Tyndale, whom the Trust confirms was responsible for 80% of the content of the KJV...

(To listen to the programme excerpt, click on the image above).

Unaccountably, on the King James Bible Trust's website, Tyndale - the Gloucestershire scholar who taught himself Hebrew and Greek, became an outlaw of his own country, was hunted down by the authorities and strangled before being burned at the stake for his translation of '80% of the KJV' - does not merit a mention under 'Bible Heroes' (unlike Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale, Cecil B. DeMille, J.R.R. Tolkein and the vicar who founded the RSPCA).

However, Tyndale does get two sentences under 'Music'...

Come on King James Bible Trust - we think you can do a little better than that!

To encourage the Trust to say a little more about Tyndale - a true Bible hero - please email them here to add the weight of your opinion: info@kjbtrust.com

Click here to read Mary Clow's letter to The Today Programme.

Thomas Cranmer on the Bible in English

"And yet, if the matter should be tried by custom, we might also allege custom for the reading of the Scripture in the vulgar tongues, and prescribe the more ancient custom.

For it is not much above one hundred years ... since Scripture hath not been accustomed to be read in the vulgar tongues within this realm; and many hundred years before that it was translated and read in the Saxons’ tongue, which at that time was our mother tongue; whereof there remaineth yet divers copies found lately in old abbeys, of such antique manners of writing and speaking that few men now [are] able to read and understand them.

And when this language waxed old and out of common usage, [so that] folk should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated in the newer language. Whereof yet also many copies remain and be daily found."

[From Cranmer’s "Prologue or Preface to the Bible," April 1540. See the “Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer”, edited for the Parker Society (Cambridge: The University Press, 1846), pp. 118-125. Also see “The Protestant Reformation” (ed. Lewis W. Spitz, pubs. Prentice-Hall, 1966), p. 166].

Ohio KJV Conference Opens for Bookings...

Booking has now opened for 'The King James Bible - and its Cultural Afterlife' - a major international conference, co-sponsored by The Tyndale Society, to be held at Ohio State University, Columbus, USA between 5-7th May 2011.

The conference will focus on the making of the KJV in the context of Reformation Bible translation and printing as well as on the KJV’s long literary and cultural influence from Milton and Bunyan to Faulkner, Woolf, and Toni Morrison.

Speakers are to include: David Norton (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), author of 'A History of the Bible as Literature' and long-time contributor to Tyndale Society conferences; J. Philip Arthur (Independent Scholar, UK) outstanding speaker on Tyndale's work, especially remembered for our Worcester conference; Dr Gergely Juhász (K.U. Leuven, Belgium) Antwerp collaborator of Dr Guido Latré in his presentation 'Tyndale's Testament' and Dr Leland Ryken (Wheaton College, USA) distinguished writer and teacher.

Our special guest speaker will be Edward P. Jones, 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning author of the novel 'The Known World'.

Events will include plenary lectures and discussions, scholarly panels, roundtable seminars, and readings by contemporary writers.

An accompanying exhibit will be mounted by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

As co-sponsor of the event, The Tyndale Society has obtained a special 50% registration discount for all Members. To obtain your discounted registration DOWNLOAD OUR SPECIAL BOOKING FORM HERE.

PS - If you are not yet a member of the Tyndale Society, it is worth noting that the $45 subscription fee will save you $50 on the price of conference registration...

Email us for more details...

Letter from Lindos...

"Every autumn I spend some weeks in Lindos, on the Greek island of Rhodes.

It is believed locally that the Apostle Paul landed here in 43AD to preach Christianity. The almost landlocked cove below the village is named St Paul's Bay in his honour, and on his Saint's Day the villagers dance in his honour.

Concerning St Paul's final missionary journey Tyndale translates:
'And it chanced that as soon as we had launched forth, and were departed from them, we came with a straight course unto Coos (Cos), and the day following unto the Rhodes...'
( Acts 21, 1534 translation )

Paul was never shy of preaching in a pagan holy place, as shown by the riot he caused at Ephesus, and his great sermon in Athens on 'Mars street' (Tyndale's phrase). Lindos then was as old as London is today, and surely would have had a Jewish community, probably Paul came with introductions from friends.

Today Rhodes is both the name of the capital and of the island, but in ancient times the older city of Lindos was the artistic, religious and intellectual centre. The Horses at St Mark's in Venice were fashioned in the School of Sculpture. The Temple on the Lindos Acropolis was second only to the Parthenon in its dedication to Athena. The School of Oratory educated young men from all over the Roman world - Mark Anthony improved his Greek here, later to woo Cleopatra.

Romance is an enduring theme here in Lindos: during WWII a pious mother vowed that if her sons survived she would restore the old church above the beach. They all lived and she fulfilled her vow, rebuilding the tiny 'St. Paul's chapel' - now a mecca for British couples who meet here on holiday and return to marry in this beautiful spot.

Brides in billowing dresses traverse the steep path down the cliff, watched by amused swimmers and sunbathers.

I wonder - what does St. Paul make of it?"

May Clow, Chairman of The Tyndale Society

Cuisine for Conservation at Merton...

British Heritage site Merton Priory is calling all cooks in the cause of conservation...

Tyndale Society Members and friends are asked for their recipe contributions for a new charity cookbook to be produced by the Friends of Merton.

The new book - featuring the favourite feasts of Merton's many celebrity supporters - will focus on healthy, cheap eats which are simple to make.

Sheila Fairbank of supporters' group The Friends of Merton says 'The project is hoped to raise awareness of the charity as well as provide inspiration to budding cooks.'

To submit a contribution, email Sheila here.