Authorized—1611
Though I speake with the tongues of men and of Angels, and haue not charity, I am become as sounding brasse or a tinkling cymbal. And though I haue the gift of prophesie, and vnderstand all mysteries and all knowledge: and though I haue all faith, so that I could remooue mountains, and haue no charitie, I am nothing. And though I bestowe all my goods to feede the poore, and though I giue my body to bee burned, and haue not charitie, it profiteth me nothing. Charitie suffereth long, and is kinde: charitie enuieth not: charitie vaunteth not it selfe, is not puffed vp, Doeth not behaue it selfe unseemly, seeketh not her owne, is not easily prouoked, thinketh no euill, Reioyceth not in iniquitie, but reioyceth in the trueth: Beareth all things, beleeueth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charitie neuer faileth: but whether there be prophesies, they shall faile; whether there bee tongues, they shall cease; whether there bee knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesie in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part, shall be done away. When I was a childe, I spake as a childe, I vnderstood as a childe, I thought as a childe: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glasse darkely: but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know euen as also I am knowen. And now abideth faith, hope, charitie, these three, but the greatest of these is charitie.
[2] Buschius (Herman von dem Busche).
CHAPTER VII.
PERSONALITY
WE have cited the happy epigram of the historian that Tindale's work is his history and his epitaph is the Reformation. This is just and felicitous. When he seeks a telling phrase to set forth the personality of Tindale, however, he is not happy.
He calls him "a young dreamer". As if he were dissatisfied with this, he calls him elsewhere "a fiery young enthusiast." The second is no truer than the first.
Tindale had the dream of England's greatness if her people had the Bible in their mother tongue: and to use his own words, "he encountered poverty, exile, bitter absence from friends, hunger, thirst and cold, great dangers and innumerable, hard and sharp fightings, to make his dream come true."
But "dreamer" is not the word for a life like that.
"Enthusiasm and fire", yes, these undoubtedly Tindale possessed. When copies of Tindale's Testament were bought and burnt in Antwerp, London and Oxford, his remark was: "They did none other than that I looked for; no more shall they do if they burned me also. If it be God's will it shall so be."
At one of the burnings, Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, preached against Luther. Tidings of the scene having reached Tindale, he wrote some time afterwards: "Mark, I pray you, what an orator he is, and how vehemently he persuadeth it. Martin Luther burnt the Pope's decretals; 'a manifest sign', saith he (Fisher) that he would have burned the Pope's Holiness also if he had had him.
A like argument which I suppose to be rather true, I (Tindale) make: The Pope and his holy brethren have burned Christ's Testament: an evident sign verily that they would have burnt Christ Himself if they had had Him."
But this vehemency was only part of the man. The whole man kept these inner fires aglow year after year until he had finished the work assigned to him. Even by an adversary he was called "a learned, pious, good man": his keeper, and his keeper's daughter, and others of his keeper's household were won over by him to his belief.
His was a personality rich and brave, capable of great endurance because aglow with zeal that many waters could not quench, vehement indeed against the enemy, yet a very perfect knight; with a sympathy and tenderness and faith that brought him the trust and affectionate esteem of those who came to know the man himself.
Reduced Facsimile of the only known letter of William Tindale.
No, neither "dreamer" nor "enthusiast" holds the mirror up to this man. He was both dreamer and enthusiast, and a great deal besides. He was a man who loved. He deliberately gave his life to the accomplishing of one great task. He sacrificed everything to that. That nobleness of purpose, that fortitude in toil, that undeviating devotion to his single aim until he triumphed, call for some ampler phrase in bronze:
Lofty designs must close in like effects
Loftily lying
Leave him—still loftier than the world suspects
Living and dying.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONCLUSION
ON issuing his translation, and again when sending forth his translation revised, Tindale solicited the aid of scholars in amending his version wherever they could. This was not a mere fashion of speech. It was the expression of his sincerity and his modesty. This one thing he desired, as he cared for nothing else, that the Bible in English be as perfect as possible.
Succeeding generations of scholars responded to his invitation; in a spirit like his they labored. The Bibles of Coverdale, Matthews, the Bishops; the Geneva Version and the Authorized Version, are mile-stones by the way—evidence with what ardor the work of revising and perfecting the English version was carried on age by age.
NORTH NIBLEY, TINDALE'S MONUMENT.
To find on the one hand this devotion in rendering the Bible into English, it is most strange on the other to find the larger vision completely disappear, the larger vision of Erasmus that it should be rendered into every language. It is as if no such ideal had been conceived.
Now, three hundred years had to pass by before we find it being recovered, or before men were moved with any degree of sympathy for the ideal which the Dutch scholar had so bravely ventured to describe.
The universal destiny of the book had stirred his heart and fired his imagination: but not until the Evangelical Revival had deeply moved the people of England, and the modern Missionary Movement had come in its train did any men catch the vision of the Bible for every nation in the native speech.
"With the vision came the power". A group of men, God-fearing and very courageous, resolved to enter upon this vast enterprise, and thus in 1804 was born the British and Foreign Bible Society.
The undertaking was greater than they could foresee. It was decried as chimerical; but month by month, year by year, they pursued their high purpose: their successors continued it, and now, 1925, when a hundred and twenty-one years have sped, the Society has published or has had in circulation the Scriptures translated into five hundred and seventy distinct languages.
Moreover in other lands the establishment of independent Bible Societies was encouraged. In the United States of America, soon after the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1816, the American Bible Society was established. Noble service has been rendered by it. It has aided in the translation and circulation of the Scriptures in 175 languages; some of which are included in the total, 570, given above.
Translation seldom fails to exact great sacrifice. Often life itself succumbs. The roll of honor is a long one, nearly every language taking its toll in one form or another. Tindale's was the first English sacrifice.
But the end, is it not worthy even at so great a price? To spell out, in the tongue they understand, to those sitting in the land of the shadow of death the tidings of Truth and Grace; to set men free in the liberty of Christ; and to widen the bounds of His kingdom so that all nations may become His inheritance—what mission can be named so worthy of the uttermost devotion?
Much remains to be done; but if the morale of these men awaken admiration in us and we share their faith, great as is the undertaking that remains, it will be overtaken in the good providence of God.