No Tyndale, No Shakespeare

"No Tyndale, No Shakespeare"
Tyndale and the English Language
We all quote Tyndale's words without knowing it. He was a master of the pithy phrase, near to conversational English, but distinct enough to be used like a proverb. In his Bible translations, Tyndale coined suchphrases as:
"let there be light," (Genesis 1)
"the powers that be," (Romans 13)
"my brother's keeper," (Genesis 4)
"the salt of the earth," (Matthew 5)
"a law unto themselves," (Romans 2)
"filthy lucre" (1 Timothy 3) and
"fight the good fight"(1 Timothy 6).
We use these phrases because they are well formed. Their alliteration, rhyme and word repetitions say what we need to say, with the force we need, so even those who never read the Bible still use them. Tyndale's sense of rhythm and poetic proportion gives force to such classic sentences as these:
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7)
"In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17)
"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26)
Besides phrases and sentences, Tyndale coined or revived many words that are still in use. He constructed the term "Jehovah" from an odd Hebrew construction in the Old Testament, and we frequently hear the word spoken on our doorsteps. It was he who named the Jewish holiday Pesah "Passover." We use his word when we say that someone is being made a "scapegoat." Tyndale was a pioneer in the use of ordinary language for poetic aphorism. His phrases are as widely used as Shakespeare's "the milk of human kindness," or "to be or not to be," and it well may be that he made Shakespeare possible.

webpage contributed by Christina and Matthew DeCoursey