William Tyndale Quotes

“I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue.”

— William Tyndale

“And as the circumcised in the flesh, and not in the heart, have no part in God's good promises; even so they that be baptized in the flesh, and not in heart, have no part in Christ's blood.”

— William Tyndale

“Here is also to be noted, that the cause of the institution was to be a memorial, to testify that Christ's body was given, and his blood shed for us.”

— William Tyndale

“Many things there be in the scripture, which have a carnal fulfilling, even there where they be spoken or done; and yet have another spiritual signification, to be fulfilled long after in Christ and his kingdom, and yet never known till the thing be done.”

— William Tyndale

No more doth it hurt to say that the body and blood are not in the sacrament.

— William Tyndale

“Neither was there any heresy, or diversity of opinion, or disputing about the matter, till the pope had gathered a council to confirm this transubstantiation: wherefore it is most likely that this opinion came up by them of latter days.”

— William Tyndale

“I know divers, and divers men know me, which love me as I do them: yet if I should pray them, when I meet them in the street openly, they would abhor me; but if I pray them where they be appointed to meet me secretly, they will hear me and accept my request.”

— William Tyndale

My overcoat is worn out; my shirts also are worn out. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening; it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark.

— William Tyndale

“To see how Christ was prophesied and described therein, consider and mark, how that the kid or lamb must be with out spot or blemish; and so was Christ only of all mankind, in the sight of God and of his law.”

— William Tyndale

“Christ made the bread the sacrament of his body only: wherefore as the bread is no similitude of his blood, so am I not bound or ought to affirm, that his blood is there present.”

— William Tyndale

In the old covenants the people were sprinkled with blood of calves without, in their bodies, to bind them to keep the law; else we were bound to just damnation, for the breaking of it.

— William Tyndale

“The Law and the Gospel are two keys. The Law is the key that shutteth up all men under condemnation, and the Gospel is the key which opens the door and lets them out.”

— William Tyndale

To have a faith, therefore, or a trust in anything, where God hath not promised, is plain idolatry, and a worshipping of thine own imagination instead of God.

— William Tyndale

“Christ is with us until the world's end. Let his little flock be bold therefore.”

— William Tyndale

“We do not wish to abolish teaching and to make every man his own master, but if the curates will not teach the gospel, the layman must have the Scripture, and read it for himself, taking God for his teacher.”

— William Tyndale

“It is impossible to preach Christ, except thou preach against antichrist.”

— William Tyndale

“God's goodness is the root of all goodness; and our goodness, if we have any, springs out of His goodness.”

— William Tyndale

We had better be without God's laws than the Pope's." To which Tyndale passionately 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!

— William Tyndale

I will cause a boy who drives a plow to know more of the scriptures than the pope.

— William Tyndale

“For if God be on our side, what matter maketh it who be against us, be they bishops, cardinals, popes, or whatsoever names they will?”

— William Tyndale

“The Church is the one institution that exists for those outside it.”

— William Tyndale

“Marriage was ordained for a remedy and to increase the world and for the man to help the woman and the woman the man, with all love and kindness.”

— William Tyndale

Do you know who taught the eagles to find their prey? Well, that same God teaches His hungry children to find their Father in His Word.

— William Tyndale

“They go and set up free-will with the heathen philosophers and say that a man's free will is the cause why God chooseth and not another, contrary to all scriptures.”

— William Tyndale

“I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, that I never altered one syllable of God's Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.”

— William Tyndale

There is no work better than to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or an apostle, all are one; to wash dishes and to preach are all one, as touching the deed, to please God.

— William Tyndale

“Let every man of whatsoever craft or occupation he be of ... serve his brethren.”

— William Tyndale

Christ desires his mysteries to be published abroad as widely as possible. I would that [the Gospels and the epistles of Paul] were translated into all languages, of all Christian people, and that they might be read and known.

— William Tyndale

“Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word and signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that maketh a man's heart glad and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy.”

— William Tyndale

For we love not God first, to compel him to love again; but he loved us first, and gave his Son for us, that we might see love and love again, saith St John in his first epistle.

— William Tyndale

“In the beginning God created heaven and earth.”

— William Tyndale

“All that I do and suffer is but the way to the reward, and not the deserving thereof.”

— William Tyndale

“The Scriptures sprang out of God.”

— William Tyndale

“Be cold, sober, wise, circumspect. Keep yourself low by the ground avoiding high questions. Expound the Law truly and open the veil of Moses to condemn all flesh and prove all men sinners, and set at broach the mercy of our Lord Jesus, and let wounded consciences drink of Him.”

— William Tyndale

“The morality of clean blood ought to be one of the first lessons taught us by our pastors and teachers. The physical is the substratum of the spiritual; and this fact ought to give to the food we eat, and the air we breathe, a transcendent significance.”

— William Tyndale