1537 - Matthew-Tyndale Bible

The Matthew-Tyndale Bible was printed in 1537. A royal license had been obtained from Henry VIII to print this Bible, which allowed it to be sold and read. It was largely Tyndale's version of the first five books and also his translation of the historical books, which he had never been able to print during his lifetime. Coverdale's version of the remaining books and the Apocrypha completed the Old Testament. Tyndale's version of the New Testament, 1535, completed the Bible. Thus, his dying wish, that the King of England's eyes should be opened was granted.

This Bible is, therefore, the first complete English Bible translated mainly from Hebrew and Greek sources. John Rogers edited the text under the pen name of Thomas Matthew. He included many marginal notes and parallel references, a practice which was continued in later editions of the English Bible.

Even though the Matthew-Tyndale Bible had been printed with "the Kinges most gracious lycence'' many copies were collected and burnt after 1546. John Rogers, who had been a former associate of William Tyndale was the first of the Marian martyrs to be burnt at the stake in 1555. He was a commoner and did not have the influential family connections that saved Myles Coverdale from the same fate.

Source: F. F. Bruce, The English Bible, A History of Translations, Oxford University Press 1961. 234 pp