'Behold I stand at the door, and knock' (Revelation vij.)
'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' (Revelation vij.)
All these phrases, and many, (specially when it is direct, simply plain and strong,) and many other, were taken by the King James version translators directly from Tyndale.
B.) About the brave translator (William Tyndale 1494-1536 A.D.)
Pursuing a vision
Master Tyndale happened to be in the company of a learned man and, in disputing with him ... the man said, "We are better to be without God's laws than the pope's." Master Tyndale, hearing this, replied, "I defy the pope and all his laws;" and added, "If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost." (Foxe, Book of Martyrs)
At that time, printing had just been invented, although translating the Bible was considered heretical. These were dangerous times for Scripture translations. Even still, Tyndale said, "It is impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures be laid before their eyes, in their mother tongue." He fled to Germany in 1524, later to Belgium. He continued his work, translating the New Testament from the original tongue; and first began to print his first edition with marginal notes in a quarto edition at Cologne, but he was compelled to halt the printing and flee the city to avoid arrest. {Only a single copy of it (as far as Matthew chapter 22) survives, now in the British Museum.} Tyndale was forced to leave England and finish his work in Worms, Germany, and in the year of our Lord 1526, he printed the version (anonymously) in smaller octavo format. The shrewd religious authorities knowing that they could not stop this version from reaching England's shores, planned to buy up all the copies and burn them. It backfired, as they bought these copies from merchants, the money was given to Tyndale to print up even more copies. And because his enemies did so much carp at it, pretending it to be full of heresies, he wrote to John Frith, as followeth, "I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Iesus, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me."
In 1535, Tyndale had planned to complete the translation of the Old Testament, but was betrayed by a fellow Englishman feigning to be his friend who was really being paid to betray him. This man enticed Tyndale to venture into the streets of Antwerp, where he was ambushed and taken to the prison in the castle at Vilvorde, Brussels. Trials for heresy in the Netherlands were in the hands of special commissioners of the self proclaimed "holy roman empire". It took 16 months for the law to take its course. A letter from him during this time, in Latin, has survived:
'I believe, most excellent Sir, that you are not unacquainted with the decision reached concerning me. On which account, I beseech your lordship, even by the Lord Iesus, that if I am to pass the winter here, to urge upon the lord commissary, if he will deign, to send me from my goods in his keeping a warmer cap, for I suffer greatly from cold in the head, and am afflicted with a continual catarrh, which is much increased in this cell. A warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin: also cloth for repairing my leggings; my overcoat is worn out: the shirts also are worn out. He has a woolen shirt of mine, if he will please send it. I have also with him leggings of heavier cloth for overwear. He likewise has warmer nightcaps: I also ask to be allowed to use a lamp in the evening: it is indeed weariesome sitting alone in the dark.
But most of all I beg and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the commissary, that he will kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, and that I might employ my time with that study. Thus likewise may you obtain what you most desire, saving that it further the salvation of your soul. But if, before the end of winter, a different decision be reached concerning me, I shall be patient, and submit to the will of God to the glory of the grace of Iesus Christ my Lord, whose spirit may ever direct your heart. Amen.'
W. Tyndale
Tyndale was condemned as a heretic, degraded from the priesthood, and delivered to the secular authorities for punishment under the laws of the Inquisition.