October 4, 2022 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, October 4.
On this day, in 1537, the very first English Bible was published. It was called the “Matthew Bible”. That’s not because of the Gospel of Matthew, but because the translator’s name was Thomas Matthew. Except, there wasn’t a translator named Thomas Matthew. Thomas Matthew didn’t exist. So, why the fake name? The answer to that question makes this Bible a very special book indeed.
A man named William Tyndale was the actual translator of the Matthew Bible. And Tyndale was also a leader in the movement called the Protestant Reformation. One of the aims of this movement was to give the common man access to the Word of God. Martin Luther had translated the Bible into German in 1522 and Tyndale followed his lead. But he never saw his English Bible published. In 1536, a year before the Matthew Bible, William Tyndale was arrested for heresy and burned at the stake.
And so, the publishers of the Matthew Bible, to protect themselves, used the pseudonym of Thomas Matthew. In 1611, a British monarch commanded that a new translation should be created. But most of that Bible was lifted from the work that Tyndale had done 75 years before. We call that Bible the King James Version. And William Tyndale gave his life to bring it to us.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
