On January 1st every year, people from around the world make a resolution to change something about their life. Most Christians promise to pray more or read the Bible more.
This year, 2026 is an important year, because it is the 500 year anniversary of when the Bible was first printed and distributed into the English language and it changed the world forever. Perhaps, reading about it can change your life forever.
To mark the 500-year anniversary of the Bible being translated into the English language, BTJ has published a 30 day devotional, Bibles Not Bombs, available now!
To remember what happened 500 years ago, I first traveled to Tyndale House at Cambridge University and I found myself just across the river from the long gone White Horse Tavern where William Tyndale secretly met with other Christian theology students to discuss the rebellious teachings of a German priest named Martin Luther.
Tyndale, fluent in German, and the small secret group of fellow students became known as the “Little Germany” of Cambridge, because of their discussions about the reformation by Martin Luther. By 1522, Martin Luther illegally printed a Bible into the German common language, which was immediately banned by the Holy Roman Empire. Possessing Luther’s Bible or even reading passages from it could lead to maximum punishment, but the Christian revolution was spreading and caught the attention of fellow believers in the small tavern in England.
The secret White Horse Tavern discussions helped inspire Tyndale to preach the Gospel to the common man of England in a language that they understood. It was not long before Tyndale found himself walking in the footsteps of the fellow Englishman, John Wycliffe, who first illegally translated the Bible into the English language.
Soon after his ordination, Tyndale fled England for Germany where he eventually landed in Worms, the same place where Martin Luther was summoned by the Holy Roman Empire to recant his teachings. Luther refused to do so, famously stating his conscience was captive to God’s word and he could not and would not recant unless shown to be wrong by scripture. The Edict of Worms declared Luther to be an outlaw.
It was in this powerful shadow of defiance that Tyndale began secretly working on an English Translation of the Bible writing, “I have here translated (brothers and sisters most dear and tenderly beloved in Christ) the New Testament for your spiritual edifying, consolation and solace.”
In 1526, Tyndale prepared the New Testament to be secretly loaded onto merchant ships and hid them within bales of cloth and crates. They were smuggled across the English Channel where eager believers waited to unload them and distribute them throughout England.
When Tyndale was confronted for breaking the laws of the Holy Roman Empire, he responded, “I defy the Pope and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!”
Once the operation was discovered, Tyndale became a hunted man and had a bounty placed on his head. Betrayed by an English spy, Tyndale was arrested on May 21, 1535, and imprisoned near Brussels. Early in August 1536, after he had been in his cell for 450 days, he was formally condemned as a heretic, degraded from the priesthood, and publicly executed. The anger against him burned so strong, that his executors first strangled him before burning his body at the stake.
This year, take time to think about how the most sold book in the history of the English language was once so illegal that anyone caught reading it could be punished and those caught distributing it could be executed, but the necessity for God’s Word is a human right. Just like the need for water, food, and shelter, having access to God’s Word is an absolute necessity for all people.
Bibles Not Bombs is available now! The ebook is linked below, and the paperback is available on Amazon.
