First New Testament Printed In English

The New Testament first translated into English from the original tongue by William Tyndale: printed partially in 1525, and completely in 1526.

Excerpt:

I have here translated (brethren and sisters most dear and tenderly beloved in Christ) the new Testament for your spiritual edifying, consolation and solace: Exhorting instantly and beseeching those that are better seen in the tongues than I, and that have higher gifts of grace to interpret the sense of the Scripture, and meaning of the Spirit, than I, to consider and ponder my labor, and that with the spirit of meekness. And if they perceive in any places that I have not attained the very sense of the tongue, or meaning of the Scripture, or have not given the right English word, that they put to their hands to amend it, remembering that so is their duty to do. For we have not received the gifts of God for ourselves only, or for to hide them; but for to bestow them unto the honoring of God and Christ, and edifying of the congregation, which is the body of Christ.

The causes that moved me to translate, I thought better that others should imagine, then that I should rehearse them. Moreover I supposed it superfluous, for who is so blind tare why light should be shewed to them that walk in darkness, where they cannot but stumble, and where to stumble is the danger of eternal damnation, other so despiteful that he would envy any man (I speak not his brother) so necessary a thing, or so bedlam made to affirm that good is the natural cause of blindness, and deafness to proceed out of sight, and that lying should be grounded in troth and verity, and not rather seen contrary, that light destroyeth darkness, and verity reproveth all manner saying.

Excerpt:

The revelation of Iesus Christe, which God gave unto him, for to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and shewed by his angel unto his servant Ihon, which bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Iesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Happy is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein. For the time is at hand.

Ihon to the vij. congregations in Asia. Grace be with you and peace, from him which is and which was, and which is to come: and from the vij. spirits which are present before his throne, and from Iesus Christ which is a faithful witness, and first begotten of the dead: and lord over the kings of the earth.

Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God his father, be glory, and dominion for evermore amen. Behold he cometh with clouds, and all eyes shall see him: and they also which pierced him. And all kindreds of the earth shall wail. Even so amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the lord almighty, which is and which was and which is to come.

Ihon your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience which is in Iesu Christ, was in the isle of Pathmos for the word of God, and for the witnessing of Iesu Christ. I was in the spirit on a son day, and heard behind me, a great voice, as it had been of a trompe saying: I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. That thou seest write in a book, and send it unto the congregations which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thiatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicia.

And I turned back to see the voice that spake to me. And when I was turned: I saw vij. golden candlesticks. and in the midst of the candlesticks, one like unto the son of man clothed with a linen garment down to the ground, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head, and his hairs were white, as white wool, and as snow: and his eyes were as a flame of fire: and his feet like unto brass, as though they brent in a furnace: and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand vij. stars. And out of his mouth went a two edged sword. And his face shone even as the sun in his strength.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet, even as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me: fear not. I am the first and the last, and am alive, and was dead. And behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death. Write therefore the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be fulfilled hereafter: and the mystery of the vij. stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the vij. golden candlesticks. The vij. stars are the angels of the vij. congregations: And the vij. candlesticks which thou sawest are the vij. congregations.