The Last Prayer of William Tyndale

On the morning of October 6, 1536, guards led William Tyndale from the damp stone cells of Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels to a wooden stake in the courtyard. For over a year he had been imprisoned there, convicted of heresy for a singular crime: translating the Bible into English so that common plowboys could read it for themselves.

Tyndale had spent more than a decade in exile across Europe, working by candlelight to render the Greek and Hebrew scriptures into the language of his people. He was betrayed in Antwerp by Henry Phillips, a man he had trusted as a friend. Now, as the executioner fastened the chain around his neck, Tyndale lifted his voice in a final prayer: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes!"

He was strangled and his body burned. But his prayer was answered. Within three years, Henry VIII authorized the Great Bible of 1539 — a translation built largely on Tyndale's own work. The light he had labored to kindle could not be extinguished.

The Psalmist wrote, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105). Tyndale believed that truth so deeply he gave his life to place that lamp in the hands of ordinary people. Some lights cost everything to carry. But the sacrifice of those who bring God's Word into the darkness ensures that the path remains illuminated for generations who follow.