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The Tyndale New Testament (Hardcover): 1526 Edition
A facsimile of William Tyndale's New Testament, produced for the 450th anniversary of its first publication in 1526, with an afterword by F.F. Bruce.
720 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2008
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414 people want to read
About the author
William Tyndale
262 books30 followersWilliam Tyndale (/ˈtɪndəl/; sometimes spelled Tynsdale, Tindall, Tindill, Tyndall; c. 1494–1536) was an English scholar who became a leading figure in Protestant reform in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known for his translation of the Bible into English. He was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and by Martin Luther. While a number of partial translations had been made from the seventh century onward, the spread of Wycliffe's Bible resulted in a death sentence for any unlicensed possession of Scripture in English—even though translations in all other major European languages had been accomplished and made available. Tyndale's translation was the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English one to take advantage of the printing press, and first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation. It was taken to be a direct challenge to the hegemony of both the Church of England and the laws of England to maintain the church's position. In 1530, Tyndale also wrote The Practyse of Prelates, opposing Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon on the grounds that it contravened Scripture.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 15, 2022
Loved it.
A little hard to figureout some of the words being that it is old English but it was very much worth reading.
A little hard to figureout some of the words being that it is old English but it was very much worth reading.
October 23, 2024
Wonderful! Beautiful!
William Tyndale`s is my favourite New Testament, if not book of all time. I will treasure William Tyndale`s New Testament forever. Medieval and early modern facsimiles are infinitely better, more interesting and more adventurous than modern printed bibles, as you gain a sense of history or the history of writing. Reading a facsimile is like learning the easiest language in the world, all you do is cross-reference with a modern bible if you are stuck. I cannot overstate how much I recommend William Tyndale`s New Testament 1526 facsimile.
William Tyndale`s is my favourite New Testament, if not book of all time. I will treasure William Tyndale`s New Testament forever. Medieval and early modern facsimiles are infinitely better, more interesting and more adventurous than modern printed bibles, as you gain a sense of history or the history of writing. Reading a facsimile is like learning the easiest language in the world, all you do is cross-reference with a modern bible if you are stuck. I cannot overstate how much I recommend William Tyndale`s New Testament 1526 facsimile.
January 3, 2016
Hendrickson's facsimile edition of Tyndale's 1526 New Testament is a lovely little book. When I first got it I had a few doubts because it doesn't have the feel of a true facsimile - instead of being made to feel like an exact reproduction of the original book, you have a book of photographed images of the original pages. The margins around the images were initially a bit off-putting, especially after I had seen a copy of the David Parradine facsimile produced in 1976 which reproduced the original text and illuminations onto fresh clean paper, so that you had a facsimile that felt very much like Tyndale's New Testament must have felt when first printed. But actually, once I started reading, the page margins ceased to bother me - I stopped noticing them.
This photographic reproduction is of one of the only three surviving copies of Tyndale's 1526 New Testament, and comes complete with all the marks and handwritten notes which have been added in the margins down the centuries. Not that these deface it, and maybe they will prove useful as they mostly seem to be cross references for the corresponding passages in the different gospels (written very elegantly). The quality of the images is excellent.
On first glance the text appears very heavy and dark, and the pages small, and it could look daunting to read, but once you start reading you soon grow accustomed to it and realise that the text is actually a good size, and very comfortable to read.
In terms of the language, it's not significantly different to the King James Version, and most of the time, if you are familiar with the KJV, or even the NASB, the language of Tyndale will be extremely familiar to you and you will know what words are coming even before you've read them. I don't know anything of the original Greek, but when one hears all the debates from commentators and scholars over what a word means and how a phrase should be interpreted precisely, it seems incredible that the translation Tyndale produced should have had such a lasting impression on subsequent translations, and his phraseology become that in common acceptance today. It would seem like he did an excellent job, and a beautiful and memorable one too, and subsequent translators have never been able to get his wording out of their heads and have only been able to make minor modifications and improvements, but never felt the need to give it a complete re-write. It's as though our minds have been saturated with Tyndale's language and we have never been able to think in any other terms. The words feel right, they flow naturally.
The spelling does differ to the King James Version, though if you have the two versions side by side it might help you decipher a word if ever you get stuck. But I haven't generally found it a problem. The Bible language being so familiar, you do, as I said, often know what word is coming before you've even read it, and you will soon get used to recognising the different letters and understanding the abbreviations. I'd read facsimiles of the 1599 Geneva Bible and the 1579 edition of Calvin's Sermons on Timothy and Titus before reading this, so I had always had a bit of practice. But still, I think it should be straight-forward enough for most readers to get to used to.
Initially when I started reading it the old lettering and irregular spellings did slow me down a bit, which was an advantage in making me take in each word, whereas once you get used to it your eye may once again begin just flowing over them all. But it's always useful to read two Bible versions simultaneously, reading a chapter in one version and the same chapter in another immediately afterwards, as sometimes it makes you aware of some significant differences in terms of different words being used, or parts of verses missing entirely from one version or another.
Tyndale's translation doesn't have verse numbers (which weren't added until the Geneva Bible of 1560) but it does have the chapter divisions, and it is divided into paragraphs - something often lost in other translations. I find it an advantage not having the text cluttered up with verse numbers, and it is nice to have the text in clear paragraphs and not have sentences divided up in all sorts of ways as is the case in most editions where they make each verse start on a new line.
I'd warmly commend this facsimile edition to any Christians who enjoy reading. It is a beautiful book and a real pleasure to read. Though we ought never to grow tired of reading the Bible, sometimes we can grow too accustomed to it, and it's nice to have a different translation which makes us look at it afresh. I'm not keen on the modern spelling edition which is available. I can't see the point in it when the facsimile edition is available and easily readable. To my mind it is easier to decipher the meaning of a word in its original setting than trying to decipher a word transcribed into a modern type-face which simply looks wrong. The original spellings in their original form and in their original context make much more sense to me. If you are going to all the trouble of transcribing what is already eminently readable, you might as well update the spelling in order to make it accessible to readers who wouldn't read the original.
But this facsimile edition is definitely one for Christians to read, and shouldn't simply be bought as a curio and a collector's item to put upon the shelves. Men died to bring it to us. Treasure it and cherish it!
(31st December 2015: I spent 2015 using this New Testament as a companion to my usual Bible for my daily Bible reading, reading each day's passage in each version in turn, which I found helpful and stimulating. Sometimes I would question the meaning of a verse in my usual Bible, as it's wording seemed rather ambiguous, and I would wonder in what sense I was meant to take it. And often in such instances I would find Tyndale's wording to be much more precise and unambiguous. It was a thoroughly pleasurable time reading this translation, and I would warmly recommend it to anyone (though dyslexics might struggle with the archaic font). The best Book I have read all year.)
This photographic reproduction is of one of the only three surviving copies of Tyndale's 1526 New Testament, and comes complete with all the marks and handwritten notes which have been added in the margins down the centuries. Not that these deface it, and maybe they will prove useful as they mostly seem to be cross references for the corresponding passages in the different gospels (written very elegantly). The quality of the images is excellent.
On first glance the text appears very heavy and dark, and the pages small, and it could look daunting to read, but once you start reading you soon grow accustomed to it and realise that the text is actually a good size, and very comfortable to read.
In terms of the language, it's not significantly different to the King James Version, and most of the time, if you are familiar with the KJV, or even the NASB, the language of Tyndale will be extremely familiar to you and you will know what words are coming even before you've read them. I don't know anything of the original Greek, but when one hears all the debates from commentators and scholars over what a word means and how a phrase should be interpreted precisely, it seems incredible that the translation Tyndale produced should have had such a lasting impression on subsequent translations, and his phraseology become that in common acceptance today. It would seem like he did an excellent job, and a beautiful and memorable one too, and subsequent translators have never been able to get his wording out of their heads and have only been able to make minor modifications and improvements, but never felt the need to give it a complete re-write. It's as though our minds have been saturated with Tyndale's language and we have never been able to think in any other terms. The words feel right, they flow naturally.
The spelling does differ to the King James Version, though if you have the two versions side by side it might help you decipher a word if ever you get stuck. But I haven't generally found it a problem. The Bible language being so familiar, you do, as I said, often know what word is coming before you've even read it, and you will soon get used to recognising the different letters and understanding the abbreviations. I'd read facsimiles of the 1599 Geneva Bible and the 1579 edition of Calvin's Sermons on Timothy and Titus before reading this, so I had always had a bit of practice. But still, I think it should be straight-forward enough for most readers to get to used to.
Initially when I started reading it the old lettering and irregular spellings did slow me down a bit, which was an advantage in making me take in each word, whereas once you get used to it your eye may once again begin just flowing over them all. But it's always useful to read two Bible versions simultaneously, reading a chapter in one version and the same chapter in another immediately afterwards, as sometimes it makes you aware of some significant differences in terms of different words being used, or parts of verses missing entirely from one version or another.
Tyndale's translation doesn't have verse numbers (which weren't added until the Geneva Bible of 1560) but it does have the chapter divisions, and it is divided into paragraphs - something often lost in other translations. I find it an advantage not having the text cluttered up with verse numbers, and it is nice to have the text in clear paragraphs and not have sentences divided up in all sorts of ways as is the case in most editions where they make each verse start on a new line.
I'd warmly commend this facsimile edition to any Christians who enjoy reading. It is a beautiful book and a real pleasure to read. Though we ought never to grow tired of reading the Bible, sometimes we can grow too accustomed to it, and it's nice to have a different translation which makes us look at it afresh. I'm not keen on the modern spelling edition which is available. I can't see the point in it when the facsimile edition is available and easily readable. To my mind it is easier to decipher the meaning of a word in its original setting than trying to decipher a word transcribed into a modern type-face which simply looks wrong. The original spellings in their original form and in their original context make much more sense to me. If you are going to all the trouble of transcribing what is already eminently readable, you might as well update the spelling in order to make it accessible to readers who wouldn't read the original.
But this facsimile edition is definitely one for Christians to read, and shouldn't simply be bought as a curio and a collector's item to put upon the shelves. Men died to bring it to us. Treasure it and cherish it!
(31st December 2015: I spent 2015 using this New Testament as a companion to my usual Bible for my daily Bible reading, reading each day's passage in each version in turn, which I found helpful and stimulating. Sometimes I would question the meaning of a verse in my usual Bible, as it's wording seemed rather ambiguous, and I would wonder in what sense I was meant to take it. And often in such instances I would find Tyndale's wording to be much more precise and unambiguous. It was a thoroughly pleasurable time reading this translation, and I would warmly recommend it to anyone (though dyslexics might struggle with the archaic font). The best Book I have read all year.)
March 1, 2025
My book has a different cover, even though 'with an introduction by David Danielle'. 17cm x12cm x6 cm width
2023 cloth edition. The cover picture isn't on here.
A treasure to have.
I have to make pencil markings just for ease of reading in the back for certain letters, as the word ' spirit reads like lp2ete' the first character letter resembling an upside down letter j without the dot. The letter 'r,' reads like a number 2 or a z in some cases, it becomes natural when you continue reading. eg (that thou come with a pure mynde....vnto the wo2des of health)
and I mark certain chapters and verses for quickness.
2023 cloth edition. The cover picture isn't on here.
A treasure to have.
I have to make pencil markings just for ease of reading in the back for certain letters, as the word ' spirit reads like lp2ete' the first character letter resembling an upside down letter j without the dot. The letter 'r,' reads like a number 2 or a z in some cases, it becomes natural when you continue reading. eg (that thou come with a pure mynde....vnto the wo2des of health)
and I mark certain chapters and verses for quickness.
August 31, 2023
My favorite translation. The most elegant and driving translation I've yet read. The font really made this difficult (how did people read this as the norm back then??) but one does get accustomed to it.
December 12, 2022
Beautiful prose. A joy to read.
February 1, 2017
The Paradine facsimile edition of 1976 (produced to mark the 450th anniversary of the first publication of Tyndale's New Testament) is a beautiful book. The purpose of this review is to compare and contrast it with the Hendrickson facsimile edition. The Paradine edition is often regarded as far superior, but it is also scarce and the price is also generally far greater. And I am just not sure that the extra expense is altogether worth it.
In its favour, the Paradine edition is of far greater quality, on good antique-style paper, and well bound. It also helps to replicate the appearance of how Tyndale's New Testament may have appeared when first published - on clean pages with clear margins. It has reproduced all the original print, leaving out all the handwritten marginal notes of subsequent centuries which are to be found in the copy from which both this and the Hendrickson facsimiles were reproduced. But in 1976 when this edition was produced there were only two 1526 Tyndale New Testaments known to exist, neither of which had a title page - the copy in Germany, with its original title page, hadn't yet been discovered. So this facsimile lacks a title page entirely.
The notes at the back of the Paradine edition could be understood to mean that the text itself has been enlarged to make it easier to read. In fact the text is identical in size to that in the Hendrickson edition. When the Paradine edition says that it has increased the page size, all it actually means is that they have increased the width of the margins. I'm not sure that this is an advantage. The increased page size, together with the greater thickness and weight of the paper, means that the volume is heavier and more unwieldy than the Hendrickson edition, and much less comfortable to hold.
The advantage of the Hendrickson edition, apart from its more wieldy size and weight, could be its marginal notes. The handwritten notes are old and interesting and useful in themselves and certainly don't detract from the book. It is useful having the cross-references in the margins to point to other related or parallel passages. The Paradine edition tries to replicate the appearance of Tyndale's New Testament as it would have been when new, Hendrickson have reproduced (high quality) images of the pages of the New Testament as it is now. Hendrickson is affordable. Paradine generally isn't. Is it worth spending significantly more to obtain the Paradine edition? I certainly wouldn't advocate anyone doing so. Collectors might want to, but for people just wanting to enjoy reading Tyndale's New Testament the Hendrickson edition is more than sufficient. And besides, in ten years time the 500th anniversary of its first publication will be upon us and who knows what fine facsimile may be produced to mark that event? Why waste money on the Paradine edition if something better may be coming along?
In its favour, the Paradine edition is of far greater quality, on good antique-style paper, and well bound. It also helps to replicate the appearance of how Tyndale's New Testament may have appeared when first published - on clean pages with clear margins. It has reproduced all the original print, leaving out all the handwritten marginal notes of subsequent centuries which are to be found in the copy from which both this and the Hendrickson facsimiles were reproduced. But in 1976 when this edition was produced there were only two 1526 Tyndale New Testaments known to exist, neither of which had a title page - the copy in Germany, with its original title page, hadn't yet been discovered. So this facsimile lacks a title page entirely.
The notes at the back of the Paradine edition could be understood to mean that the text itself has been enlarged to make it easier to read. In fact the text is identical in size to that in the Hendrickson edition. When the Paradine edition says that it has increased the page size, all it actually means is that they have increased the width of the margins. I'm not sure that this is an advantage. The increased page size, together with the greater thickness and weight of the paper, means that the volume is heavier and more unwieldy than the Hendrickson edition, and much less comfortable to hold.
The advantage of the Hendrickson edition, apart from its more wieldy size and weight, could be its marginal notes. The handwritten notes are old and interesting and useful in themselves and certainly don't detract from the book. It is useful having the cross-references in the margins to point to other related or parallel passages. The Paradine edition tries to replicate the appearance of Tyndale's New Testament as it would have been when new, Hendrickson have reproduced (high quality) images of the pages of the New Testament as it is now. Hendrickson is affordable. Paradine generally isn't. Is it worth spending significantly more to obtain the Paradine edition? I certainly wouldn't advocate anyone doing so. Collectors might want to, but for people just wanting to enjoy reading Tyndale's New Testament the Hendrickson edition is more than sufficient. And besides, in ten years time the 500th anniversary of its first publication will be upon us and who knows what fine facsimile may be produced to mark that event? Why waste money on the Paradine edition if something better may be coming along?
September 27, 2023
What a great little Bible! This is my second or third time reading it. In 1526, the conventions for spelling did not exist yet, so you have to sound out the words sometimes. Also, there are a few 16th century words that are not much in use now, like habbergions (habergeon - a chain mail armor suit of the 12th to 14th centuries - think Richard the Lionhearted), or debite (a deputy or official). Another word was gasyngstock, or gazingstock, which is easy to get from the context. I have an unabridged dictionary which helped me with a few words, but once or twice I used an online Tudor and Stuart Words dictionary. Mostly though, there were not many words difficult to determine. One in every several chapters, if that. Tyndale has a few quirks in his translation, too. Instead of using the word “salvation” he most often uses the word “health.” Also most of the time he translates Christ’s name as “Jesu” instead of “Jesus.”
Technically, this is not in the Old English language. It’s Modern English with archaic spellings, so once you get the hang of reading the weird spellings, you’re okay. There are some old publishing tricks in it too, as when they put a line over a letter which indicates that the next letter is an m or an n. They did this to fit more text on a line of print. But really, it’s not hard to get the meaning as you read. I liked that this Bible slowed me down a bit. You pick up different things when you slow down. There are no verse numbers in this Bible either. Verse numberings did not come till later.
Imagine reading the New Testament the first time it was translated into your own language. The small size of this book made it easier to conceal. For a while there in English history, if you got caught with it, you could be hung or burned at the stake. William Tyndale, the translator of this New Testament, was himself executed. His last words were, Lord, Change the heart of the King of England. In the US, we can read this Bible with no thought to that level of persecution. Its small size makes it perfect for travel or to put in a purse. I liked it because, imagining the 16th century English readers, it gave me the feeling that I was reading the Bible for the first time again.
Technically, this is not in the Old English language. It’s Modern English with archaic spellings, so once you get the hang of reading the weird spellings, you’re okay. There are some old publishing tricks in it too, as when they put a line over a letter which indicates that the next letter is an m or an n. They did this to fit more text on a line of print. But really, it’s not hard to get the meaning as you read. I liked that this Bible slowed me down a bit. You pick up different things when you slow down. There are no verse numbers in this Bible either. Verse numberings did not come till later.
Imagine reading the New Testament the first time it was translated into your own language. The small size of this book made it easier to conceal. For a while there in English history, if you got caught with it, you could be hung or burned at the stake. William Tyndale, the translator of this New Testament, was himself executed. His last words were, Lord, Change the heart of the King of England. In the US, we can read this Bible with no thought to that level of persecution. Its small size makes it perfect for travel or to put in a purse. I liked it because, imagining the 16th century English readers, it gave me the feeling that I was reading the Bible for the first time again.
December 30, 2012
Being one who love calligraphy and Middle English with its odd spellings, this was a delightful treat for me! I have come to appreciate this in Kindle format as well, so I can take lots of Bible translations with me to men's meetings and such!
The chapters are in Roman Numerals, which I know up to a million. For those that like verse numbers, this will not suit you. There are no verse divisions. Also, if you are not used the the interchangeable v and u and the J's are I's as in Latin, and the many odd spellings, you will not like this version. So John may be spelled thus: Ihon, or Iohn. Jesus is Iesus. Hebrews is: Ebrewes, Hebrewes, etc.
For me, this was a challenge and pure delight! I found that in reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and in my love of calligraphy, it was easy to figure out what was being said! Maybe not for all, but worth a challenging try! :)
The chapters are in Roman Numerals, which I know up to a million. For those that like verse numbers, this will not suit you. There are no verse divisions. Also, if you are not used the the interchangeable v and u and the J's are I's as in Latin, and the many odd spellings, you will not like this version. So John may be spelled thus: Ihon, or Iohn. Jesus is Iesus. Hebrews is: Ebrewes, Hebrewes, etc.
For me, this was a challenge and pure delight! I found that in reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and in my love of calligraphy, it was easy to figure out what was being said! Maybe not for all, but worth a challenging try! :)
October 19, 2012
I loved reading this translation that predated the KJV by 75 years. The spelling definitely differs and so did the wording, but the size of the print and the books format definitely made it a pleasant experience.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews