Author Description

If you could envision King James I and William Tyndale and add this one important line: which of these two great men deserves the title, "Fidei defensor" ("defender of the faith")? The answer is William Tyndale. William Tyndale gave his life (he was strangled and burned at the stake), so that we could read a Bible that previously didn't exist. William Tyndale erased the difference between the scriptures and the people, and he gave the masses what God intended, "a book for the people". This means that William Tyndale gave the people a book that they could understand. William Tyndale succeeded. King James I gave the Bible "the ring of establishment authority", and he wanted to reestablish "a safer distance between the scriptures and the people". In other words, King James I wanted the Bible to have a law and order tone, and he wanted the Bible to be over the heads of the people. King James I wanted the Bible to be a monkey on the backs of the people. King James I wanted the Bible to control the people. King James I failed.