William Tyndale

Translator of the Scriptures, Martyr

The passion of William Tyndale's life was the translation of the Bible into contemporary English. As one strongly sympathetic to the ideas of reform circulating in Europe, church leaders viewed his work with suspicion. He encountered church opposition and left England in 1524 settling in Hamburg, The Reformation having already begun in Germany.

1525 - The 1st edition of Tyndale’s English New Testament was printed in Cologne and completed in Worms. Tyndale learned Hebrew in order to translate the Old Testament. By the time of his death, he had published the Pentateuch and Jonah, leaving in manuscript form his version of the historical books from Joshua to Chronicles.

His versions was the basis of the King James Version. Thousands of copies of his New Testament and some Old Testament books were secretly circulated in England. Tyndale also wrote commentaries and expositions of various books, including Romans, 1 John and the Sermon on the Mount. His theological works dealt with such topics as justification by faith alone, the after-life, and the authority of Scripture. At last his enemies had him arrested, and he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536, not for his work of translation, but for doctrines considered heretical. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”

BORN: 1494, Gloucestershire, England

DIED: 6 October 1536, Duchy of Brabant

Sukkot - The Feast of Tabernacles

The Feast of Tabernacles is a festival commanded by God, an annual commemoration of the wandering of the Jewish people in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land and also a Harvest festival.

While the 1st day is the most important, by tradition the 2nd day used to be just as important, especially to Jews outside of Israel. It had to do with the Hebrew calander's connection to moon sightings. In ancient times in Israel there was no fixed calendar. The beginning of the festival was determined by a witness telling the religious court they had sighted the new moon. Then messengers and bonfires would signal throughout the land announcing the beginning of the festival.

Distance and communication challenges, meant communities outside of Israel had a higher chance of missing the official start of the holiday. So they allowed them to celebrate the rituals a 2nd day in case they were late getting the communication. With date/time adjustments including the extra day is not a bad thing to ensure that one of them at least is going to be right. So today we repeat the Shehecheyanu and other prayers at Dinner (Vespers).

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Sukkot - The Feast of Tabernacles