"I perceived how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue"
- William Tyndale
About this Quote
This quote by William Tyndale talks to the importance of making the Bible accessible to the lay individuals, or the typical people. He believed that it was impossible to teach the fact of the Bible to individuals unless it existed to them in a language they could comprehend. He was a strong advocate for translating the Bible into the vernacular, or the language of individuals, so that they might check out and understand it for themselves. He thought that the Bible must be readily available to everybody, not simply those who were educated in Latin or Greek. He wanted to ensure that the common individuals had access to the truth of the Bible, which they could comprehend it on their own. His efforts to translate the Bible into the vernacular were instrumental in making the Bible available to the masses.
"What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things... it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface"