The Matthew Bible was the combined work of three individuals, working from numerous sources in at least five different languages. The entire New Testament (first published in 1526 and later revised in 1534), the
Pentateuch,
Jonah and in
David Daniell's view, the
Book of Joshua,
Judges,
Ruth,
First and Second Samuel,
First and Second Kings, and
First and Second Chronicles, were the work of
William Tyndale. Tyndale consulted
Luther's
German Bible,
Erasmus’
Latin version, and the
Vulgate for the biblical text, prefaces, and marginal notes, and worked directly with the
Hebrew and
Greek. The use of the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew" resulted possibly from the need to conceal from
Henry VIII the participation of Tyndale in the translation. A theory exists from Dr. Harding that indicates the name
Thomas Matthew, which in Greek means "A twin to the original gift from God", may have been chosen to indicate that the largest contributing author was indeed William Tyndale and that his writings were preserved by Coverdale and Rogers. The remaining books of the Old Testament and the
Apocrypha were the work of
John Rogers and
Myles Coverdale. Coverdale originally translated primarily from
German and Latin sources and in the Matthew Bible they used the original language texts to translate. Historians often tend to treat Coverdale and Tyndale like competitors in a race to complete the monumental and arduous task of translating the biblical text. One is often credited to the exclusion of the other. In reality they knew each other and occasionally worked together. Contemporary historian
John Foxe states that they were in
Hamburg translating the Pentateuch together as early as 1529. The
Prayer of Manasseh was the work of
John Rogers. Rogers translated from a French Bible printed two years earlier (in 1535). Rogers compiled the completed work and added the preface, some marginal notes, a calendar and an almanac. Of the three translators, two met with martyrdom. Tyndale was strangled to death and his body burned on 6 October 1536 in
Vilvoorde,
Belgium. John Rogers was "tested by fire" on 4 February 1555 at
Smithfield, England; the first to meet this fate under
Mary I of England. Myles Coverdale was employed by
Cromwell to work on the
Great Bible of 1539, the first officially authorized English translation of the Bible. Time and extensive scholastic scrutiny have judged Tyndale the most gifted of the three translators.
Dr. Westcott (in his
History of the English Bible) claims that "The history of our English Bible begins with the work of Tyndale and not with that of
Wycliffe." The quality of his translations and choices have also stood the test of time, coming relatively intact even into modern versions of the Bible. A. S. Herbert, Bible cataloguer, says of the Matthew Bible, "this version, which welds together the best work of Tyndale and Coverdale, is generally considered to be the real primary version of our English Bible", upon which later editions were based, including the
Geneva Bible and
King James Version. Professor
David Daniell recounts that, "New Testament scholars
Jon Nielson and
Royal Skousen observed that previous estimates of Tyndale's contribution to the KJV 'have run from a high of up to 90% (Westcott) to a low of 18% (Butterworth)'. By a statistically accurate and appropriate method of sampling, based on eighteen portions of the Bible, they concluded that for the (KJV) New Testament Tyndale's contribution is about 83% of the text, and in the Old Testament 76%. However, these studies do not in turn deal with the contributions of
previous versions to Tyndale. The Matthew Bible, though largely unrecognized, significantly shaped and influenced English Bible versions in the centuries that followed its first appearance. ==Printing==