ABSTRACT
In the latter part of this chapter I intend to examine a sample of William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament to show why it is such an exciting translation, and has - through the medium of the King James Version - proved so enduring. First, however, I wish to discuss why the very fact of the translation was such a great and timely achievement. Because of the backlash against Lollardy, England was lagging behind in the matter of biblical translation; there was practically none. This has often been connected with a supposed underdeveloped state of literature in English. In any case, Tyndale's achievement was that the translation which has endured into the twenty-first century, and which remains the unavoidable basis for any new translation, sprang fully-fledged from him. He was in a unique position, at the joining of the ways, one coming from the Lollard tradition, that grumbling undercurrent of fourteenthcentury England, and the other from the burgeoning classical tradition. Each of these is represented by one of Tyndale's two great heroes, Wyclif and Erasmus.
