Tyndale’s legacy

 The distinction between Tyndale’s legacy and KJV authorship reveals how much English Bible culture credits the wrong translator. The memorable phrases embedded in the KJV—including “and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” “ask, and it shall be given you,” “with God all things are possible,” “in him we live, and move, and have our being,” and “the patience of Job”—came directly from William Tyndale with only slight modifications, with approximately nine-tenths of the KJV deriving from Tyndale’s Bible.[1]

Tyndale deserves credit for “filthy lucre,” “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,” “Am I my brother’s keeper?,” “fell flat on his face,” and “In him we live, and move, and have our being,”[2] all of which the KJV committees retained. Beyond these, the Tyndale foundation extends to phrases that now feel inseparable from English itself: “Be not weary in well doing,” “The salt of the earth,” “The signs of the times,” “A law unto themselves,” “Fight the good fight,” and “With God all things are possible.”[3] “Eat, drink, and be merry,” “clothed, and in his right mind,” and “there fell from his eyes as it had been scales”[1] similarly trace back to Tyndale’s choices.

The cultural irony cuts deeper: many phrases attributed to the King James Bible—like “by the skin of my teeth”—actually formed the minds and hearts of English-speakers through Tyndale’s earlier work, yet the KJV receives the credit because it reached a far larger audience.[2] Eighty percent of Tyndale’s translation entered the King James Version in the portions he had translated, and no one would mistake the KJV for everyday conversation.[3] The 1534 Tyndale edition became the foundation for the entire English Bible tradition, from the KJV through the NRSV.[4] Recognizing Tyndale’s foundational role corrects a persistent historical misattribution—the KJV perfected and popularized what Tyndale had already created.

[1] Stanley E. Porter, How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, Translation, ed. Lee Martin McDonald and Craig A. Evans, Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 162–163.
[2] Jon Sweeney, Verily, Verily: The KJV - 400 Years of Influence and Beauty (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011). [See here, here.]
[3] Leland Ryken, Understanding English Bible Translation: The Case for an Essentially Literal Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 39–40.
[4] Alec Gilmore, “Tyndale, William,” in A Concise Dictionary of Bible Origins and Interpretation (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 199.