William Tyndale

William Tyndale was an English scholar and a leading figure in Protestant reform. He is well known for his translation of the Bible into English. Tyndale's translation was the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to place God's name [Jehovah] in its rightful place, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, and first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation. It was taken to be a direct challenge to the Roman Catholic Church and the laws of England maintaining the church's position. In 1535, Tyndale was arrested and jailed outside Brussels. In 1536, he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. His dying prayer was that the King of England's eyes would be opened. Eventually, the Tyndale Bible, came to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English speaking world and, In 1611, the scholars who produced the King James Bible drew the majority of their work from the Tyndale Bible.