Five hundred years ago, a young scholar named William Tyndale dreamed of the day when even a simple farm boy could read, understand, and know the Word of God.
In Tyndale’s world, that dream was dangerous. The Scriptures were not easily accessible to ordinary English-speaking people, and translating them into English without authorization was illegal. Yet Tyndale was convinced that God’s Word was meant for everybody, including the common person.
According to John Foxe, who published Foxe’s Book of Martyrs in 1563, Tyndale once famously declared, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
Tyndale gave his life to this mission, and ultimately, he gave his life for this mission.
Five hundred years later, the day Tyndale dreamed about has come. We are living in it.
God’s Word is more accessible to us than Tyndale could possibly have imagined. We carry Bibles in our pockets. We have multiple translations on our shelves, Scripture apps on our phones, audio Bibles in our earbuds, and biblical resources available almost instantly.
Yes, the “plough boy” can now know Scripture.
The question is: What will we do with what we’ve been given?
A Scholar With a Passion for Scripture
William Tyndale’s story stands out to me here, as I sit in the Tyndale House Library. My husband Kelly and I are studying here in Cambridge, England, in this place named in Tyndale’s honor.
As I study his life, I find that Tyndale was born into a time that was troubled for anyone who believed God’s Word should be accessible to the common person. Wycliffe had already been posthumously condemned for his teachings about Scripture. Jan Hus was burned at the stake for affirming the authority of Scripture. Biblical literacy among many clergy was troublingly low, Latin was the language of the church, and the majority of ordinary English people could neither read nor understand it.
Into this world came William Tyndale.
While relatively little is known about his childhood and early years, Tyndale began studying at Oxford University as a young man. He earned his bachelor’s degree there in 1512 and went on to earn his master’s degree in 1515.
Tyndale became an exceptional linguist and scholar, eventually possessing the language skills that would enable him to work directly from the original language of the New Testament—Greek—as well as Hebrew for his Old Testament work.
Tyndale also spent time in Cambridge—the town where my husband and I are studying today—where ideas that would help fuel the English Reformation circulated. Such ideas were radical, dangerous, even life-threatening, but Tyndale did not turn away from them. Instead, his conviction about the authority and accessibility of God’s Word only deepened.
The Boy Behind the Plough
That plough boy Tyndale envisioned represented the very person he wanted to reach.
Tyndale was passionate about making the Bible accessible to common people—people without theological education, ecclesiastical position, or scholarly privilege. He wanted everybody, from the ordinary working laborer to the most esteemed person in society, to be able to read, understand, know, and apply God’s Word.
To Tyndale, the boy behind the plough mattered. The common person mattered. The next generation mattered.
That sounds remarkably similar to the mission of Family Disciple Me. For Tyndale, such a mission put a price on his head.
The Price of Making God’s Word Accessible
Unable to receive the support and permission he needed to undertake his translation work safely in England, Tyndale left his homeland. He spent the remainder of his life on the European continent, frequently moving as he pursued his work and sought safety.
All along, he kept translating Scripture.
Working directly from Greek, Tyndale produced his English New Testament. In 1526—exactly five hundred years ago as I write this—printed copies began making their way into England. For the first time, ordinary English-speaking people could possess a printed New Testament translated directly from Greek into words they could understand.
Authorities tried to stop it. Copies were confiscated and burned.
Still, Tyndale kept translating. He turned his attention to Hebrew and translated portions of the Old Testament, publishing the Pentateuch in 1530 and continuing his work on other books.
Eventually, Tyndale was betrayed and arrested near Antwerp. He was imprisoned at Vilvoorde for more than a year and ultimately condemned for heresy. In 1536, at approximately forty-two years old, William Tyndale was executed. He was strangled to death, his body was burned, and his ashes were scattered.
His earthly life was over, but his legacy was just beginning.
A 500-Year Spiritual Legacy
As far as history records, Tyndale never married or had children of his own, so he left no direct descendants. However, what a spiritual legacy he left. Because Tyndale was so purposeful about making God’s Word known to people who might otherwise never encounter it for themselves, his story echoes even today.
He was silenced, but the Word of God was not.
English Bibles continued to be printed. People continued to read and study Scripture. Tyndale’s translation lived on in subsequent English Bibles and ultimately profoundly influenced the King James Bible. Some of today’s most familiar phrases from Scripture actually spring from Tyndale’s translation work. Through the centuries, God’s Word continued to spread.
The English Bible Tyndale dreamed about became reality. Translation continued. Literacy spread. Bibles multiplied. Scripture traveled across continents and generations.
And eventually, the day Tyndale dreamed about became the day in which we live.
The plough boy can read the Bible now.
So can the farmer. The mother. The father. The grandparent. The teenager. The child. The neighbor. The friend.
So can you, and so can I.
We stand on the shoulders of people who sacrificed tremendously so that ordinary people like us could read, study, know, live, and share the Word of God.
And that is where Tyndale’s story becomes intensely personal for me—and deeply connected to the work of Family Disciple Me.
Biblical. Relevant. Easily Accessible.
At Family Disciple Me, we believe God’s Word is meant to be known.
Not just by pastors and scholars. Not just by people with theological degrees or shelves full of commentaries. Not just people who get access to elite biblical studies libraries like Tyndale House. We believe God’s Word is for ordinary people living ordinary lives—for moms and dads, grandparents and grandchildren, teenagers and children, friends and neighbors.
That’s why three of our core values for every Family Disciple Me resource are so important: our resources must be biblical, relevant, and easily accessible.
We want everything we create to lead people back to Scripture. We want biblical truth communicated in ways that connect to real life and real people. What’s more, we want our resources to be so accessible that ordinary Christ-followers can use them to Meet with God and Make Him Known wherever God has placed them.
In a way, Tyndale’s work and ours are connected by the same desire: to help ordinary people know and share the Word of God.
For Tyndale, discipleship started with translating the Greek into English. For us, discipleship starts with a conversation.
A conversation around God’s Word.
A conversation between a parent and child. A grandparent and grandchild. A friend and friend. One ordinary Christ-follower and another.
Because having access to Scripture is an extraordinary gift—but access was never meant to be the destination. We are meant to open God’s Word. Read it. Know it. Live it, and pass it on to others.
This is the heartbeat of Family Disciple Me: Seek Him Speak Him.
We want to encourage, empower, and equip ordinary Christ-followers to meet with God in His Word and then make Him known—to listen to Him, linger with Him, and then lead others toward Him. As God teaches us, we take what He is showing us and share it with our children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, and whoever He has entrusted to us.
The Day Tyndale Dreamed About Is Ours
Five hundred years ago, Tyndale dreamed of a plough boy knowing Scripture.
Today, we carry Scripture in our pockets. We have Bibles on our shelves, apps on our phones, audio Bibles in our earbuds, countless translations available with a click, and biblical resources beyond anything previous generations could have imagined.
The question for most of us is no longer whether God’s Word is accessible.
The question is what we will do with the access we’ve been given.
Will we open God’s Word? Will we read it? Will we know it? Will we live it?
And will we make it known to the people God has entrusted to us?
Much has been sacrificed for us and entrusted to us. Now we get to decide what we will entrust to others.
May we be people who faithfully receive the Word of God and pass it on to the next generation. May we Seek Him Speak Him, meeting with God in His Word and making Him known to those He has placed in our lives.
Our stories are different from Tyndale’s, but we have been given our own moment in history.
The day Tyndale dreamed about is ours. May we steward it well.
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Be encouraged! Tosha
