Luther’s direct influence may be detected on almost every page of the printed edition issued by Tyndale, and there can be no doubt that it was prepared with Luther’s version of 1522 as a guide. From the general introduction of this German Bible, nearly half, or some sixty lines, are transferred by Tyndale almost bodily to his prologue, whilst he adopted and printed over against the same chapters and verses, placing them in the same position in the inner margins, some 190 of the German reformer’s marginal references. Besides this, the marginal notes on the outer margin of the English Testament are all Luther’s glosses, translated from the German. In view of this, it can hardly be a matter of surprise that Tyndale’s Testament was very commonly known at the time as “Luther’s Testament in English.”
In this work of translation or adaptation, Tyndale was assisted by another ex-friar, named Joye, with whom, however, he subsequently quarrelled, and about whom he then spoke in abusive and violent terms. At first it was intended to print the edition at Cologne, but being disturbed by the authorities there, Tyndale fled to Worms, and at once commenced printing at the press of Peter Schœffer, the octavo volume which is known as the first edition of Tyndale’s New Testament. Although the author is supposed to have been a good Greek scholar, there is evidence to show that the copy he used for the work of translation was the Latin version of Erasmus, printed by Fisher in 1519, with some alterations taken from the edition of 1522, and some other corrections from the Vulgate.
John Cochlæus, who had a full and personal knowledge of all the Lutheran movements at the time, writing in 1533, says: “Eight years previously, two apostates from England, knowing the German language, came to Wittenberg, and translated Luther’s New Testament into English. They then came to Cologne, as to a city nearer to England, with a more established trade, and more adapted for the despatch of merchandise. Here … they secretly agreed with printers to print at first three thousand copies, and printers and publishers pushed on the work with the firm expectation of success, boasting that whether the king and cardinal liked it or not, England would shortly ‘be Lutheran.’”[251]