William Tyndale

William Tyndale was born in Gloucestershire, England, and studied at Oxford and Cambridge, becoming a gifted linguist. Working as a tutor, he grew frustrated with clergy who knew little of the Bible and reportedly told one that, if God spared his life, he would cause a boy who drives the plough to know more of the Scripture than he did. English translations of the Bible were then forbidden without a bishop's approval, and when the bishop of London refused to support him, he left England in 1524. In Germany he translated the New Testament from Erasmus's Greek text, and it was printed at Worms in 1526 and smuggled into England in bales of cloth; the authorities bought and burned many copies. Moving between hiding places in the Low Countries, he translated the first books of the Old Testament from Hebrew and wrote books defending Reformation teaching, which brought him into dispute with Thomas More. In 1535 he was betrayed by a man he had befriended and arrested near Antwerp. He was strangled and burned at Vilvoorde in 1536.

Faith: Translator of the Bible into English who wanted even 'a boy that driveth the plough' to know the Scriptures. Source: Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) (via Wikisource)