William Tyndale: Lesson 2 - Dinner at Little Sodbury Manor

Introduction:

Who can tell me how many languages William Tyndale had learned?

7 languages!

How many college degrees had William earned?

2: a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree

Wow! He had a lot of education

Last time when we had talked about William Tyndale, he had just made the big decision to believe in Jesus as His Savior and to leave Cambridge University.

What would he do now?

How will God use that great learning to glorify the Name of the Lord?

If you were William Tyndale, how would you use learning like this to please the Lord?

After leaving Cambridge, William Tyndale became a teacher to the children of Sir John and Lady Anne Walsh.

The Walshes were a nice family who treated William very well.

They lived in a small castle known as Little Sodbury Manor (picture).

You can visit Little Sodbury Manor even today.

If you were to visit, you would be able to go to the room that is believed to be the room where William Tyndale both slept and studied (picture).

Some students go to a different place other than their home to get schooling in a classroom.

Still other students get their schooling in their own home!

William Tyndale did not teach the Walsh children in a classroom that was in a building away from Little Sodbury Manor.

William Tyndale taught the Walsh children right in their very own home!

For the Walsh children, their teacher wasn’t their parent.

But, their teacher did live with them and would even eat meals with them!

At one dinner, the Walshes invited a priest from the Roman Catholic Church to eat with them.

William Tyndale was also invited to eat this dinner with the Walshes and this Roman Catholic priest. (picture of Great Hall)

Now, it’s important for us to understand that the Roman Catholic Church was the dominant church in all of England.

The Bible that they used was in a language called Latin.

Some of you in here have taken Latin classes at your school.

However, this translation of the Bible into Latin was not as good as it could be.

Plus, no one in England knew Latin, except for people like William Tyndale who studied a lot.

What ended up happening was that people did not know God’s Word because the Roman Catholic Church used the Latin translation of the Bible as a barrier to understanding God’s Word.

So, what do you think that William Tyndale and this Roman Catholic Priest talked about during dinner that night?

William Tyndale began talking with the priest about the need for the people to have God’s Word in their own language, English!

Do you think the priest said, “Oh yes, William. That’s a great idea!”

No!

The priest told William that the Bible needed to be kept in Latin so as to protect it from being misunderstood.

William told the priest that God has given His Word authority over all things and everyone needs to understand it.

How do you think that the priest responded?

The priest told William that the church had the pope, the only authority that was needed.

The pope was and is the human leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Whoa, whoa, whoa … Let’s think about this!

The pope is only a man.

As a man, the pope is sinful, just like you and me.

How can a sinful man have authority over God’s Word?

No one has authority over God’s Word!

Psalm 138:2 “2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.”

Do you think that William was satisfied with the priest’s answer?

No!

William then said to the priest something that would forever mark his life.

“If God grant me life, ere many years pass I will see that the boy behind his plow knows more of the Scriptures than thou dost!” (CHM 16)

What did William Tyndale mean saying this statement?

He was committing before the Walsh’s and this priest that he was going to teach God’s Word to others.

The way that he was going to do that was to get God’s Word translated into English and distributed into the hands of the people, everyone.

The priest responded to this by storming off but not before remarking to William that his effort to translate the Scriptures into English would cost him his life.

You see, at this time, it was actually illegal to own any portion of God’s Word in the English language.

Remember from last week that I shared how some people were punished just for saying the Lord’s Prayer in English!

Conclusion:

If you were William Tyndale and the priest had said this to you, how would you respond?

Would you be tempted not to go through with what you had just committed to do?

Next week, we’re going to learn what William Tyndale did after this dinner was finished.