CHAPTER 3.
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it,
Never in the tongue of him that makes it.
--Benedick
When the first edition of William Tyndale’s revolutionary translation of the New Testament,
published in Cologne and Worms, was smuggled to the shores of England in 1526, its eager
readers discovered an imposing enigma on the title page. In direct contravention of royal edict,
the Bible was not identified as the work of any known translator. It was, in effect, translated by
"nobody.” With good reason, Tyndale feared that acknowledgement of his agency as the translator
might cost him his life; Henry VIII was still known under his honorary title of “defender of the
faith,” and the English Bible was still effectively a contraband, outlawed publication. According
to English law, no Bible could be published without an identified translator. Only a flesh and
blood translator could be racked for misplaced word choices. English Bibles had been the curse
of the nation at least since John Wycliffe's (1320-1384) abortive attempt to launch a reformation
by means of his own translation during the late reign of Richard II.
Within a year of the publication of his English New Testament, however, Tyndale appears to
have reconsidered the advisability of his continued anonymity. Apparently, his association with
the satirical pamphleteer William Roye, whose 1525 Brief Dialogue
portrayed ecclesiastical
enemies of the reformation as Judas and Caiaphas plotting the crucifixion of Christ, had led to
dangerous speculation that Roye was directly involved with Tyndale's translation; Tyndale
apparently wished to disassociate himself from Roye’s extremism and also to lay unambiguous
claim to his own translation by affixing his name to it¹. In his 1527 Parable of the Wicked
Mammon, long before Henry's impending break with Rome and endorsement of an English Bible
could have been foreseen by most observers, Tyndale admits his “authorship” of the translation
and explains his reticence for public claim on the basis of scriptural precedent:
1
The 1534 edition bore his name for the first time.
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