"Tyndale" by David Teems

Consider the source of the following familiar lines: I am the way, the truth, and the life; In my father’s house are many mansions; For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory; Seek, and ye shall find; Let not your hearts be troubled; With God all things are possible; The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

The source is the Bible – but it’s the English Bible, the English Bible translated by William Tyndale (1494-1536). Those lines, so familiar, did not exist in English until Tyndale translated them. He’s rarely mentioned in the same breath as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and the King James Version of the Bible, but he should be; he had a huge influence upon shaping the English we speak today, and a direct influence on both Shakespeare and the KJV Bible.

David Teems, in Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice, tells the story of Tyndale (pronounced like kindle). Very little of his early life is known – there’s a rather large gap between his birth in Gloucestershire in England near the Welsh border and receiving his degrees from Oxford in 1512 and 1515; even his birth date is guessed from the date of the Oxford degrees.

What is told in this lively and highly readable biography is what is known about Tyndale – his writings, not only his Bible translations (starting with the New Testament in 1526) but his pamphlets, letters, and the record of written debate, conducted long distance, between him and Sir Thomas More. (Teems points out that more, the “man of conscience” when it came to his conflict over faith with Henry VIII, denied that Tyndale had that same right of conscience.) The author puts Tyndale in the context of his times, both the Reformation which began with Luther and the Reformation in England.

David Teems

Teems received a B.A. in psychology from Georgia State University. He was a professional musician before turning to writing in 2005. He is the author of To Love is Christ (2009); Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible (2010); And Thereby Hangs a Tale: What I Really Know about the Devoted Life I Learned from My Dogs (2010); Discovering Your Spiritual Center: The Power of Psalm 119 (2011); and Godspeed: Voices of the Reformation (2017). He and his family lived in Franklin, Tennessee.

Tyndale spent his last years in Antwerp, where he was eventually arrested, imprisoned, tried, and then executed (he was strangled and then his body burned at the stake). Tyndale reminds us that we English-speaking peoples owe much to this man, whose risked and ultimately gave his life for the Scriptures he so dearly loved. It’s a wonderful biography.

Top illustration: the execution of William Tyndale. He was first strangled and then burned at the stake.

Chaucer and The First Great English Poem

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour,

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne…

Geoffrey Chaucer

Thus begins the first great English poem. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1343-1400) wasn’t the first poem in what we call Middle English, nor did it cause English to become the official language of the British Isles. What it did do, says author Peter Ackroyd in his modern English prose translation, was mark the emergence of English as the language that was becoming what most people spoke. The royal court still conducted its business in French, but that, too, was changing.

It is a work that stopped as a work in progress. Chaucer completed the General Prologue and less than a third of the planned 120 tales, stories told by a group of pilgrims traveling to and from St. Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrims represent virtually all levels of society – merchants, knights, religious figures, tradesman, lawyers, doctors, and more. Chaucer didn’t confine himself to men – in fact, the Wife of Bath is one of the most memorable characters in the entire poem, and with a prologue that is the longest of any of the tales.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Saturday Good Reads

One rainy day last October in London, I made my way from the Temple tube station to the Samuel Johnson House, walking through windy alley ways and streets of the area known as Temple. I peeked into courtyards and caught a glimpse of the Temple church. It’s an area known for solicitors and law firms (like Rumpole’s – I passed several pubs which could easily pass for Pomeroy’s Wine Bar). BBC has a story about the area.

Last Sunday was the 70^th anniversary of the death of writer and novelist Charles Williams. The Englewood Review of Books posted video commentaries on Williams – one by C.S. Lewis and one by Malcolm Guite. Williams, the author of several rather strange novels (think “magic surrealism”), was one of the Inklings with Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Pew Research Center did a study, and found that, yes, indeed, the American middle class is shrinking (the fuel of the presidential candidacies of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump).

And good poetry, good advice on writing (like when to ignore advice), a conversation with poet Dana Gioia, a beautiful photograph of the city of York, and a video about how far back in time could you go and still understand English?

British Stuff

London Stone in seven strange myths – Museum of London.

The hidden world of the Knights Templar – BBC.

Writing

When to Ignore Writing Advice – Mike Duran at deConpose.

The Second Golden Rule of Writing – Mick Silva.

Faith

The Greatest Miracle in History – Richard Scott at  Plough Magazine.

C.S. Lewis and Malcolm Guite on Charles Williams (videos) – Englewood Review of Books.

Letter to the Church at Market Street – Jay Cookingham at Soulfari.

Arriving Where We Started – Leilani Mueller at Curator Magazine.

Poetry

Yesterday’s News – Darlene at Simply Darlene.

Why Poetry Matters: Dana Gioia at Trinity Forum – via C-Span.

Cold Can Be Beautiful – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

End of School Year – Chris Yokel.

The all-new buick enclave -- Aaron Belz.

Life and Culture

The Myth of Progress – Victor Davis Hanson at the Hoover Institution.

America’s Shrinking Middle Class – Pew Research Center.

Art and Photography

Autumn’s Stripes – Tim Good at Pixels.

All Saints Across the River Ouse – Stephen Candler.

Pompeian Quality – M. Laine Wyatt at Oxford American.

How far back in time could you go and still understand English?

Painting: Girl in Grey, oil on canvas by Louis le Brocquy (1939).