I was very excited when this book arrived - it is quite small (I think the guy in the bookshop was surprised at how much it cost!) and it is absolutely beautiful. It is a facsimile of the 1526 edition which is in the British Library. I was quite overcome by how gorgeous it is. It's amazing to look at the copy of the original parchment and think about all the people who would have read it in the sixteenth century and would have been reading the Bible in their own language for the first time. That is something that we take for granted now, but 500 years ago it was something that had never happened before and now people could actually read the Word of God for themselves and in English. This was something that Tyndale passionately believed in.
Tyndale eventually paid the ultimate price for his beliefs - he was martyred in Brussels in 1536. His reported last words were 'Lord, open the King of England's eyes.' In 1611, the King James Version of the Bible was published, and was heavily influenced by Tyndale's translation. There have been many translations of the Bible since. Some people disagree with more modern translations of the Bible, however I think that it is important to remember that Tyndale and other early translators of the Bible had a vision to make the Word of God available in English as it was spoken at time.
Sources: The New Testament 1526 edition translated by William Tyndale.
Introduction to the New Testament 1526 edition by David Daniell
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