Tyndale by David Teems

This book is a good read for anyone who knows very little about William Tyndale - be sure you read the prologue (I sometimes skip that part)as it has a lot of fascinating info about Tyndale - such as: did you know that had Tyndale not been the person he was and come up with words we use today (such as godspeed or network), there would have been no Shakespeare as we know him? Shakespeare used phrases (similar to or the same as) that Tyndale concocted years before. For example: "he hath eaten me out of house and home" (Henry IV, part one) is like Tyndale's "eat the poor out of house and harbor" (The parable of the wicked mammon). Also in the prologue, you learn the background history of the culture surrounding Tyndale's era, the religious culture mostly. The rest of the book lets you learn about the man himself, what he did, and what he believed in. At the end of the book is a William Tyndale timeline so you can more easily see what happened when in his life along with other major events that have occurred during the time. There is also a First usage of words by William Tyndale - words introduced into the English language by him. It is interesting to note that this list points out a number of words that were credited to other people but that Tyndale himself is the first person to have used those words (such as: fig leaves, birthright, sin offering...). We also have William Tyndale's letters to John Frith while Frith was confined in the tower. Overall, this book is a good introduction to the man most known for his translation of the Bible into English.

I received this book thru the Book-sneeze program of Thomas Nelson.