The Rejected Translation That Became the Cornerstone

In October 1536, William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake near Brussels, his final words a prayer: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." The English church establishment had rejected his life's work — a Bible translated into the common tongue. Bishops called it heretical. King Henry VIII declared it illegal. Every copy authorities could find was publicly burned at St. Paul's Cross in London.

Tyndale died believing he had failed.

Yet within three years of his execution, Henry VIII authorized the Great Bible — printed in English, placed in every parish church in England. Its text drew heavily from Tyndale's translation. Seventy-five years later, when forty-seven scholars assembled to produce the King James Version, they kept roughly eighty-four percent of Tyndale's original phrasing. The words one generation condemned as dangerous became the sacred language millions would memorize, cherish, and pass to their children.

The Psalmist knew this pattern well: "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." What religious authorities cast aside, the Almighty lifted up. What powerful men tried to silence, God wove into the very foundation of English-speaking faith.