The scholar who first translated the Bible into English from the original tongues, and was executed for it — his words later filling the King James Version.
Life
William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536) defied church and crown to translate the New Testament and much of the Old into English directly from Greek and Hebrew, printing them abroad and smuggling them into England. Hunted for heresy, he was betrayed, imprisoned near Brussels, and strangled and burned in 1536, praying that the king's eyes might be opened. Much of his vivid English passed almost unchanged into the King James Bible, making him a father of English scripture and prose.