Hebrews – what the English translator thought 475 years ago

Do you know what William Tyndale wrote as he translated Hebrews into English, around 475 years ago?

 . . . Now therefore to come to our purposes again, though this epistle (as it saith in the sixth) lay not the ground of the faith of Christ, yet it buildeth cunningly thereon pure gold, silver and precious stones, and proveth the priesthood of Christ with scriptures inevitable.  Moreover there is no work in all scripture that so plainly declareth the meaning and significations of the sacrifices, ceremonies and figures of the old testament, as this epistle: in so much that if wilful blindness and malicious malice were not the cause, this epistle only were enough to weed out of the hearts of the papists that cankered heresy of justifying of works, concerning our sacraments, ceremonies and all manner of traditions of their own invention. . . .

One comment

  1. Yes, well, but Tyndale was a proto-Protestant whose opinion cannot be justified either theologically or historically and a priori does not take into account Chapter 13 as well as 6:4 which is clearly a reference to baptism, partaking of the Eucharist, and confirmation/chrismation.

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