One Catholic scholar was so exasperated by talking to Tendail, that he blurted out,

oh, we would be better without God's law than the Popes.

Tendail replied,

I defy the Pope and all his laws.

And if God spare my life, air many years,

I will cause a boy that drives the plow to know the Scriptures better than you do.

That was no idle boast by this fine young linguist.

And Tendail then set about his life's work of translating the Bible

from its original Greek and Hebrew into English.

I have a shelf filled with Bibles at home and perhaps you do too,

not to mention my smartphone that can give me instant access to faithful Bible teaching.

But for the English-speaking world, this was not always the case.

Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham and thanks for joining us today on renewing your mind.

Getting to know Church history for the Christian is really getting to know our family history.

And that's what we'll be doing all week as Dr. Michael Reeves introduces us

to some significant figures from the English Reformation.

To stay with us as we meet William Tendail, the father of the English Bible.

Welcome everyone to this teaching series on the English Reformation and the Puritans.

My hope is that this will bring great glory to God and great joy to you as we look at this.

Now we're going to be doing two things really through this series.

We're going to be getting to know, getting to appreciate,

getting inside the skin and head of some great Christian thinkers,

...