Secondary sourceBook1526

Tyndale New Testament (Worms, 1526)

William Tyndale · 1526

William Tyndale's English New Testament, translated from Erasmus's Greek text; the image shows an 1837 American reprint of its title page.

Shows how Erasmus's Greek New Testament text and his hope for lay scripture reading shaped Tyndale's English translation.

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Title page of a later 1837 Andover, New York reprint of William Tyndale's New Testament, stating it is the 1526 original edition, edited with a memoir by J. P. Dabney, printed by Gould & Newman. — William Tyndale, New Testament (Worms, 1526); image shows title page of an 1837 Andover reprint. British Library holds the 1526 edition.

About this source

What it is

This is a New Testament printed in English by William Tyndale and printed by Peter Schöffer in 1526. The British Library holds the original. The image, however, is the title page of a later 1837 reprint from Andover, New York, edited with a memoir by J. P. Dabney and printed by Gould & Newman. It is not the 1526 book itself.

Why it matters

Tyndale translated the New Testament into English from the Greek text that Erasmus had edited and published. Erasmus had hoped that ordinary people, even a ploughboy, could read scripture for themselves. Tyndale's version put that hope into English and became an important text in the English Reformation.

Look closer

What does the 1837 title page tell you about why this text was reprinted long after it first appeared?
How did Tyndale's use of Erasmus's Greek text connect the two men?
Who might have wanted ordinary readers to have the Bible in their own language, and who might have opposed it?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Desiderius Erasmus on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.