Issue 2

In this issue...

Tyndale House was named after the man who produced the first English Bible based directly on Hebrew and Greek texts, so it’s no surprise that we have a very high view of Bible translation. William Tyndale understood that Scripture isn’t confined to particular languages, and looked forward to a day when swathes of ordinary people could explore the Bible for themselves in their own tongue.

So why produce an entire magazine exhorting the benefits of reading the Bible in its original languages? At Tyndale House we affirm wholeheartedly that the meaning of a passage can be conveyed in different languages, but we also recognise that translated Bible texts lose something of the poetry and idiom of the early sources. To access the Bible at this level means doing the linguistic hard yards.

In this issue we speak to people who have taken the plunge to familiarise themselves with biblical Hebrew or Greek, and why they’re glad they did. Dr Peter J Williams explains some of the verses where having a bit of familiarity with Hebrew can bring a passage to life in new ways, and Kay Carter speaks to Dr David Instone-Brewer – a man on a mission to open up original-language word meanings to non-original-language readers.