Fluent in at least 7 languages, by the grace of God, William Tyndale
translated much of the Bible into English from the Hebrew and Greek
original tongue sources. In doing so he gave the English language many
of its best known phrases.
'In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was void and
empty, and darkness was upon the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon
the water.
Then God said: Let there be light, and there was light. And God
saw the light that it was good: and divided the light from the
darkness, and called the light day, and the darkness night: and so
of the evening and morning was made the first day.' (Genesis j.)
Through the years many English speaking believers in the Word adopted
and loved the 'Authorised' version of the New Testament, and surely it
includes Phrases of lapidary beauty that have been admired :
'heat of the day' (Matthew xvj.)
'They made light of it, and went their ways: one to his firm place,
another about his merchandise,' (Matthew xxij.)
'And he put forth a similitude unto them saying: The lands of a certain
man brought forth fruits plenteously, and he thought in himself saying:
what shall I do? because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And
he said: This will I do. I will destroy my barns, and build greater,
and therein will I gather all my fruits, and my goods: and I will say
to my soul: Soul thou hast much goods laid up in store for many years,
take thine ease: eat, drink and be merry. But God said unto him: Thou
fool, this night will they fetch away thy soul again from thee. Then
whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is it with him
that gathered riches, and is not rich in God.' (Luke xij.)
'filthy lucre' (First Timothy iij.)
'in the morning: ye say, today shall be foul weather, and that because
the sky is tremulous and red. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the
fashion of the sky: and can ye not discern the signs of the times?'
(Matthew xvj.)
'scales fell from his eyes' (Acts ix.)
'The powers that be' (Romans xiij.)
'For where ij or iij are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them.' (Matthew v.)
'the salt of the earth' (Matthew v.)
'Ask and it shall be given you: Seek and ye shall find, knock and it
shall be opened unto you.' (Matthew vij.)
'clothed and in his right mind' (Luke xviij.)
'Iesus beheld them, and said unto them: with men this is unpossible,
but with God all things are possible.' (Matthew ixx.)
'For in him we live, move, and have our being' (Acts xvij.)
'Full of good works' (Acts ix.)
'A law unto themselves' (Romans ij.)
'Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life.' (First
Timothy vj.)
'Be not weary in well doing' (Second Thessalonians iij.)
'Let brotherly love continue' (Hebrews xiij.)
'Looking unto Iesus, the author and finisher of our faith' (Hebrews
xij.)
'The patience of Job' (James v.)
'Behold I stand at the door, and knock' (Revelation vij.)
'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' (Revelation vij.)
All these phrases, and many, (specially when it is direct, simply plain
and strong,) and many other, were taken by the King James version
translators directly from Tyndale.