As the first translator of the Bible into modern English, being the first to translate both the entire New Testament from the Greek and parts of the Hebrew Scriptures from their original language, William Tyndale has a justified preeminence among the first generation of English Protestants. His biblical translations--80 percent of which survive essentially unchanged in the 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible--have had an enduring effect on the understanding of the essential Christian text. They have shaped the religious language, and even the very phrasing of religious thought, of Christian believers and nonbelievers alike for more than four hundred years. In addition to the biblical translations, Tyndale wrote ten pamphlets and edited several others that set the agenda for theological controversy in England. He established a standard of verbal expression against which others would be measured, and his style was arguably unmatched, even by his principal theological opponent...