"FED UP AT LAST with his rant about the authority of the Scripture and of God’s law, one of the guests said to Tyndale, 'We were better to be without God’s law than the Pope’s.' With one of the greatest comebacks of all time, Tyndale said:
I defy the Pope and all his laws, and if God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the scripture than thou dost.
It has magnificent backbone. We cannot know for sure when the notion of translating the Bible into English began to press Tyndale, but this challenge rose from him with such clarity, it is not unlikely that the issue was long settled in his mind. He seems to have given Eramus’s call for a vernacular Scripture a great deal of thought.
He is young. He is equipped. His blood is up. And in a single blast of defiance and epiphany, the English Bible is born."
[pp. 38-39]
*January 3, 2012 was the official publication date. For a few more days we will offer Tyndale at the economy-is-still-suffering-somewhat-of-a-droop price. See below. Godspeed [a Tyndale innovation]
