Tyndale betrayed and strangled
William Tyndale's martyrdom
Tyndale has been living as a fugitive in Antwerp for years, completing his translation work while English agents try to find him. He has translated the New Testament twice, is working through the Old Testament — Genesis through Chronicles finished, the Pentateuch published — and writing theological treatises that circulate back into England alongside his translations.
In 1535 a young Englishman named Henry Phillips arrives in Antwerp, befriends Tyndale, borrows money from him, and then leads imperial agents to him at a dinner party. He is arrested and imprisoned in the castle of Vilvoorde, twelve miles north of Brussels.
He spends over a year in prison. One surviving letter — written in Latin, to the castle governor — asks for warmer clothes, a lamp, and a Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary. He is still working. He is still translating.
He is tried for heresy and condemned. On October 6, 1536, he is strangled and then burned at the stake.
His last recorded words, called out with a loud voice as John Foxe later recorded it: Lord, open the King of England's eyes.
Within a year Henry VIII authorizes the Matthew Bible — largely Tyndale's work — to be placed in every English church.
The king's eyes opened. One year too late for the man who prayed for it.
“Lord, open the King of England's eyes.”
— William Tyndale, final words, October 6, 1536 AD
“Elisha prayed, and said, the LORD, Please open his eyes, that he may see. The LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
Tyndale's last words were not for himself. They were for the king who had been hunting him.
He had every reason to die in bitterness — betrayed by a man he befriended, imprisoned for over a year, executed for the crime of putting the Bible in English. His last breath was a prayer for the man whose regime put him there.
One year later, the king whose eyes he prayed for ordered Tyndale's Bible into every English church.
The prayer worked. One year too late for Tyndale.
This is the hardest version of faithfulness: to die praying for the person whose blindness is costing you your life, without knowing whether the prayer will ever be answered.
Tyndale died not knowing. The answer came anyway.
Pray for the people whose blindness is costing you something. You may not live to see the opening. Pray anyway.