Let There Be Light

The “Let There Be Light” exhibition was originally put together by the British Museum to celebrate the 500th Anniversary birth of William Tyndale (1494 – October 6, 1536) the first to translate the Bible into English from the original languages of Greek and Hebrew. In so doing Tyndale not only gave us our English Bible but also gave us our English language. Only two complete examples of Tyndale’s 1526 English New Testament exist. The exhibit explores Tyndale’s role in producing the first English Bible translated from Greek and Hebrew, and the legacy he left to the language through such phrases as “Let there be light,” “the powers that be,” “Fight the good fight,” “Eat, drink and be merry,” “the fat of the land,” “signs of the times,” “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” and “Am I my brother’s keeper?” What Tyndale did affects the lives of all English-speaking people. For his efforts Tyndale was tied to a stake, strangled with a rope and burned outside a castle near Brussels on October 6, 1536. His crime: Translating the scriptures from Greek and Hebrew into vernacular English so that commoners could read the Bible for themselves.

Tyndale’s 1526 translation into common English was simple, direct, and had dignity and harmony. The King James “Authorized” Version of 1611 was taken almost entirely from Tyndale’s translation. According to Dr. Daniell, “83 percent of the King James New Testament is Tyndale exactly.”