The Condemned Man Whose Words Became the Cornerstone

In October 1536, William Tyndale was led to a stake outside Brussels, strangled, and burned as a heretic. His crime was translating the Bible into English so that, as he once told a clergyman, "the boy that driveth the plough" might know Scripture better than the clergy themselves. The religious authorities of his day rejected him utterly. They banned his books, hunted him across Europe, and finally executed him at Vilvoorde Castle. His last recorded words were a prayer: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

Within three years, Henry VIII authorized the Great Bible for every parish church in England — a translation built overwhelmingly on Tyndale's work. Today, scholars estimate that roughly 84 percent of the King James New Testament carries Tyndale's phrasing. The man the builders rejected became, quite literally, the cornerstone of English-language Scripture.

Psalm 118 declares, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." This is the pattern of God's steadfast love — what human powers discard, the Almighty raises up. What seems destroyed, He makes foundational. Tyndale did not live to see his vindication, but his work endures because God's mercy endures forever. The Lord's doing is always more lasting than the world's rejection. This is the day the Lord has made. Even from the ashes, He gives us reason to rejoice.