Celebrations for the quincentenary - 500th anniversary - of the English New Testament got underway in Antwerp in July. This is the story …
William Tyndale
It was John Wycliffe and his followers who had translated the Bible into English from Latin in the late 1300s. This led to the Lollards, who were England’s first evangelical movement. From that movement came a man called William Tyndale, who had the drive to translate the New Testament into English from Greek, using Erasmus’s printed Greek New Testament.
Printed New Testament
He completed the New Testament 500 years ago in 1525. He had been forced to flee England to complete his enterprise, because he had been refused permission to translate by the English Church authorities, which alerted them to what he was doing.
He fled to what is now Germany, and he completed the New Testament in Cologne in 1525. Sadly he got betrayed and only the first 22 chapters of Matthew survived, known today as the Cologne Fragment. Later he went to Worms and started again and published his New Testament which was recorded coming into England and Scotland in late 1525 - which due to the change in the calendar is now considered early 1526.
Later he revised it and printed a new version in Antwerp, which is now in Belgium. There will be events to mark the quincentenary of the English New Testament through 2025 and 2026.
William Tyndale effectively gave us the modern English Bible, because what he did led to the King James Version and modern revisions or revisions of it like the RSV, NRSV and ESV.
The Tyndale Society
The Tyndale Society was founded in 1995 to research and foster scholarship into William Tyndale. From 8-11 July 2025, the Tyndale Society kicked off celebrations for the quincentenary of the English New Testament with a conference in Antwerp. This was held with the University of Antwerp, the Plantin-Moretus Print Museum and Louvain University.
The title of the conference was “Tudor England and the Antwerp Book Trade” and there were nearly a hundred people learning and giving papers about William Tyndale and the print world in which he inhabited which helped to produce the English Bible. This also marked the thirtieth anniversary of the Tyndale Society.
Antwerp
Antwerp has particularly strong links to the English Bible, as both William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale worked on their translations in the city, and saw several of their works through the press there.
Concerts
Concerts were given during the anniversary celebrations by the Tyndale Singers, consisting of former and current members of the English Choral Society, including one at Antwerp Cathedral. They sang pieces of music which Tyndale himself is likely to have heard in his day, both in England and in Flanders.
Surviving copies
For those lucky enough to make the Antwerp event, also included exhibits of 16th century books, including the only pristine surviving complete copy of the 1526 New Testament. The copy normally resides at the Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, but was loaned to the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp for July. This unique item was on display next to an actual letter written by William Tyndale which he wrote from prison in Vilvoorde as he awaited trial or execution. Another copy of the 1526 New Testament is at the British Library but it is missing its front cover, and a partial copy exists at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Celebrations
Churches and groups around the world will be marking the quincentenary in different ways. It is a great way to raise awareness of the Bible and discuss it. For more information, you can connect with the Tyndale Society via its website.
