Process Paper

I chose my topic, William Tyndale and his translation of the Bible, based on my personal study of the Bible and after seeing a commercial for the BYU TV documentary, Fires of Faith: The Story of the Coming Forth of the King James Bible. This piqued my interest as I realized that I knew little to nothing of how the King James Bible came into being and who was behind the work. A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to pick a topic for National History Day that was a turning point in history. After searching on the internet for potential topics, I remembered the commercial for the documentary and through some further research, I noticed how momentous a turning point in religious history the creation of an English Bible was and how the effects of putting a Bible in the hands of the ploughboy resulted in lasting cultural changes. After picking my topic, I spent considerable researching online about the different people who were instrumental in bringing about an English translation of the Bible. I also watched the BYU documentary and read the associated book. Based on what I learned through these, I found my interest was mainly in learning more about William Tyndale, who had given his life to bring an English translation of the Bible to the people of England. After his death, his words were used as a principal component of the language in the King James Bible. Through a visit to Harold B. Lee library at Brigham Young University and the special collections there, I found an assortment of books on William Tyndale and the creation of the King James Bible. While there was a great deal of overlap between many of the books, the different details and conclusions were very helpful and interesting as I moved forward on my project. The next phase of my project was to learn how to create a website on Weebly. I truly enjoyed learning how to create a customized background template for my website by importing images of Bible passages. I also did research to learn how to adjust settings and link to music appropriate to the topic. I was able to include text from my research and conclusions along with pictures to help make the topic come to life. William Tyndale translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek, which were the original languages of the Bible text, to English for the common man of England, which was illegal at the time. The Catholic Church, which exercised considerable power and control at the time, had said that only people of the Church like monks or priests should be able to study the Bible in Latin. Tyndale felt strongly that creating an English translation was the work of God and pursued the work no matter the cost. He was martyred for his work and beliefs, but his work led to revolutionary changed in religion, government and the beliefs of the common man. The lifes work of William Tyndale to create an English translation of the Bible was a turning point in history because he brought the Bible to the average man of England, he helped make changes to religion that were an integral part of the Reformation, and he made a farreaching impact on the English language.