The Hebrew quotations in this essay were transliterated at the request of the editorial board.

1 Both Nicholas of Lyra and Andrew of St. Victor were criticized for ‘judaizing'. For Nicholas, see the discussion in The Legacy of Israel, ed. Bevan, Edwyn R. and Singer, Charles (Oxford, 1927), p. 307.Google Scholar For Andrew, see Smalley's, Beryl The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, 1964), pp. 156–172.Google Scholar

2 Midrash denotes an exegesis which attempts to penetrate into the spirit of the Scriptures. Midrashic expositions began about 450 B.C. and lasted well into the middle ages.

Rashi (Solomon bar Isaac) was a French commentator on the Bible and Talmud. He was born at Troyes in 1040 and died 13 July 1105. His commentary, without text, on the Pentateuch was first printed in 1475 and was the first dated Hebrew book printed. Rashi's fame rests on his commentaries. He derived much of his exegesis from midrashic literature and used his rabbinical predecessors as models. His works circulated with great rapidity and were studied by the Christian Hebraists. Moses ben Maimon (also called Rambam, Maimonides) was a Talmudist, philosopher, astronomer, and physician. He was born in Cordova on 3 o March 113 5 and died in Cairo 13 Dec. 1204. He is so greatly venerated that he is called ‘the second Moses'.

The information is from The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1912), VIII, IX, X.Google Scholar

3 I wish to acknowledge with thanks the assistance of Prof. R. J. Schoeck, of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, for whose graduate seminar this paper was first written.

4 Dictionary of the Bible, ed. James Hastings, rev. ed. by Frederick C. Grant and H. H. Rowley (New York, 1963), p. 252.

5 Slater, John Rothwell, The Sources of Tyndale's Version of the Pentateuch (Chicago, 1906), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar No one knows if Tyndale ever met Luther. In his dissertation, Slater discusses Tyndale's known and supposed associates.

6 Slater, p. 5. Robert Wakefield held the first chair of Hebrew at Cambridge in 1524. By 1525 there was a chair of Hebrew in Wittenberg, and at Worms and Marburg one could get Jewish guidance or scholarly assistance.

7 Coverdale's translation covers Ezra to Malachi and the Apocrypha, while Joshua to 11 Chronicles is either a new translation or Tyndale's work. The rest of the books were translated by Tyndale. Westcott, Brooke Foss, A General View of the History of the English Bible (New York, 1927), pp. 169–179.Google Scholar

8 The best Rabbinical Bibles (both in Hebrew) are: Torah Shelemah: [Complete Torah] Talmudic-Midrashic Encyclopedia of the Pentateuch, ed. Rabbi M. M. Kasher (New York, 1931-64) and Torah Temimah: [Complete Torah] Pentateuch (New York, 1928). The first volumes of the Torah Shelemah have been translated into English.

9 Because of the enthusiasm of the English prelates for burning Tyndale's books, but three copies of the 1530 Five Books of Moses exist, and of these only the one in the Grenville Library of the British Museum is perfect. The copy I have seen is at the New York Public Library Rare Book Room. It is a small octavo without a collective title page, the first leaf being headed ‘The fyrst boke of Moses called Genesis'. The printer cited in the colophon at the end of Genesis is Hans Luft, i.e., Johannes Hoochstraten (see Daiches, David, The King James Version of the English Bible [Chicago, 1941], p. 9).Google Scholar Since the five books were issued separately they have different typefaces—Genesis and Numbers are in Black Letter, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy in Roman Letter. On the back of the title page is a preface,'W. T. To the Reader', which is followed by ‘A prologe shewinge the use of the scripture', that is, the prologue to Genesis. After this the Bible translation follows, with separation of chapters but not of verses. The initials WT are at the top of leaves for the prologues of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There are very few glosses in this book.

J. I. Mombert reprinted the 1534 revision of the Five Books of Moses in 1884. Although I am aware of some modern criticism of Mombert, in comparing the first six chapters of Exodus in the 1530 edition with Mombert's edition, I found but few variations, all of which were noted in Mombert's Prolegomena. The list of variations between Tyndale's Pentateuch and Matthew's Bible of 1537 is also included in the Prolegomena, and in checking the Prolegomena I have found it reliable. For Exodus 1-6 I found only two significant variations between the 1530 Pentateuch and the Matthew's Bible of 1537. There were other editions of Matthew's Bible during the Reformation, of which I have seen Edmund Becke's 1549 version, printed by Daye and Seres, again noting few variations (both in the Rare Book Room of the New York Public Library and of the University of Toronto Library). Becke's 1549 version is the source of all direct quotations in this paper.

10 Tyndale, W., An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, ed. Rev. Walter, Henry (Cambridge, 1850), p. 75.Google Scholar

11 Price, Ira Maurice, The Ancestry of our English Bible, ed. Irwin, William A. and Wikgren, Allen P. (3d ed., New York, 1956), p. 246.Google Scholar Spalatinus was told this by Buschius. How much credence should be given to Spalatinus is an important question. Spalatinus then remarks ‘that the English … were so eager for the Gospel.’ But Dore has shown that ‘so far from England then being a “Bible-thirsty land”, there was no anxiety whatever for an English version at the time, excepting among a small minority of the people.' Dore, John Read, Old Bibles (London, 1888), p. 13.Google Scholar

12 Quoted in William Tyndale's Five Books of Moses, called the Pentateuch. Being a verbatim reprint of the edition of1530, ed. Rev. Mombert, Jacob Isidore (New York, 1884), pp. Ii–lii.Google Scholar

13 There is a general consensus that the Hebrew Bible was a primary source of Tyndale's Bible. Scholars of this opinion are: Dictionary of the Bible, ed. James Hastings, p. 253l J-I. Mombert, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, s.v. “Tyndale, William” (New York and London, 1912); Price, op. cit., p. 248; Eadie, John, The English Bible (London, 1876), I, 211Google Scholar; Westcott, op. cit., p. 153; Mozley, J. F., William Tyndale (London, 1937), p. 174.Google Scholar

Apparently, none of these scholars has looked at the Hebrew grammars and lexicons to which Tyndale had access. I found several mistranslations which cast some doubt on the extent of Tyndale's Hebrew learning. However, it would be impossible to make a definitive evaluation without comparing fifteenth and early sixteenth-century grammars and lexicons, a necessary research project, but far beyond the scope of this paper. J. R. Slater, who carefully compared Tyndale's Genesis, concluded that Tyndale was largely dependent on Luther.

14 Hills, Margaret T., A Ready-Reference History of the English Bible (New York, 1965), P.7.Google Scholar

15 In discussing this question with Fr. J. Reginald O'Donnell, of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, he suggested that this may have been a marginal gloss erroneously included in the text by a scribe. In the authoritative Vulgate, Biblia Sacra, 1926, from which all Latin quotes are taken, the mention of Eliezer is not included in the text of 2:22. Biblia Sacra lists the early manuscripts which mention Eliezer at this point. As all other Vulgate editions which I have seen include Eliezer, no doubt, whatever text Tyndale used included this reference.

16 ‘Prolegomena’ to Tyndale's The Five Books of Moses, ed. Mombert, p. Ixxxviii. Bibles used in this part were: Biblia Sacra juxta Latinam Vulgatam uersionem, ed. Aidano Gasquet S.R.E. Cardinale, 11 (Rome, 1929); Luther, Martin, Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Die deutsche Bibel, VIII (Weimar, 1954)Google Scholar La Sainte Bible Polyghtte, ed. F. Vigouroux, I (Paris, 1900); Vetus Testamentum Editionis Vulgatae,i (Ratisbon, 1806).

17 Buber, Martin, Moses: The Revelation and the Covenant (New York, 1946), pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

18 Rev.Motyer, J. A., The Revelation of the Divine Name (London, 1959), pp. 21–23.Google Scholar For a brief survey of patristic and medieval discussions olehyeh asher ehyeh, see Jaroslav Pelikan, Luther's Works: Companion Volume: Luther the Expositor (Concordia, 1959), pp. 24-26.

19 Eadie, I, 212-213.

20 Tyndale, William, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, ed. Rev. Walter, Henry (Cambridge, 1850), p. 313.Google Scholar

21 Tyndale, William, Doctrinal Treatises, ed. Rev. Walter, Henry (Cambridge, 1848), p. 148.Google Scholar

22 Westcott, op. cit., p. 155.

23 “VV. Tyndall, The Whole Workes ofW. Tyndall, ed. Foxe (London, 1573), p . 456. Tyndale's contractions have been silently expanded here. This letter, w r i t t en Jan. 1533, is now more accessible in The Work of William Tyndale, ed. G. E. Duffield, I of the Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics (Appleford: Berkshire, 1964), p . 396.

24 Lewis, C. S., English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (New York, 1954), P. 212.Google Scholar

25 ‘Congregation’ for ‘ecclesia', ‘elders’ for ‘presbyteros', ‘repentance’ instead of 'penance', ‘knowledge’ instead of ‘confess’ and ‘confession', ‘favour’ for ‘grace', ‘love' for ‘charity', and ‘image’ for ‘idol’ (the latter only sometimes). See Mozley on ‘The Charge of Wilful Mistranslation', pp. 89-98.

26 For a contrary view, cf. Rainer Pineas’ article ‘William Tyndale's Polemical Use of the Scriptures', in Nederlandsch Archiefvoor Kerkgeschiedenis, N.S. XLV, ii, 63-78. For the warning to Frith, see above, n. 23, quoted here from Duffield's ed., p . 394. R. W. Chambers makes use of Tyndale's promise in Man's Unconquerable Mind (London, 1939), p . 199.Google Scholar

27 Tyndale's Prologues to the Five Books of Moses were printed with the Parker Society Publication of Doctrinal Treatises, pp. 389-448. Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy contain 'a table expounding certain words.’ Tyndale glosses several difficult words in Genesis (abrech, Bnei Elohim, Zaphenath paneah) as they were glossed by medieval Jewish commentators or by Talmudic Rabbis. For Exodus, the table is found on pp. 419-420 of the Parker Society Publication.

28 The Parker Society edition includes it under the vocabulary of Exodus. But it is not in the 1530 edition under the Exodus vocabulary but in a marginal note to Exodus 18, f.31.

29 See The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion, ed. R.J. Zwi Werblowsky and Geoffrey Wigoder, s.v. ‘Rav’ and ‘Samuel’ (Jerusalem, 1966) and Torah Temimah, II, p . 8.

30 Luther used the term Jehovah in ‘The Exposition of Jeremiah 23: 1-8', delivered Nov. 1526 and printed in 1527. This information was cited by George F. Moore in 'Notes on the Name Yahweh,’ Old Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of William Rainey Harper, ed. Harper, Robert F. and Brown, Francis (Chicago, 1908), 1, 145-163;Google Scholar this reference is to p. 151. For the rabbinic interpretations, see Torah Shelemah, IX, 3-6.

31 Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises, p. 408.

32 Moore, op. cit. (above, n. 30), p. 148.

33 Pistorius, Johann, Artis cabalisticae: hoc est, reconditae theologiae et philosophiae scriptorum, Vol. 1 (Basle, 1587).Google Scholar The relevant sections of Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico (Book m) may be found on f. 972, 968-969, and from De arte cabbalistica (Book in) on f. 728. Reuchlin's use of the Cabala in explaining the tetragrammaton was discussed in G. Massetani's La Filosofia Cabbalistica di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Empoli, 1897), p. 130.

34 For the use of Rashi, see the Legacy of Israel, p . 307; for Maimonides, see Pearl Kibre, The Library of Pico della Mirandola (New York, 1936), p. 43. On pp. 40-41, Kibre discusses the commentaries in the Bologna, 1482, Pentateuch. For a list of Hebrew Bibles printed before Tyndale's Pentateuch, see the ‘Prolegomena’ to Tyndale's Five Books of Moses by J. I. Mombert, pp. lxx-lxxi.

35 The Prologue is in pp. 411-418 of Doctrinal Treatises. All references to it will be made in parentheses in the text.

36 Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, pt. in, ch. 45, tr. Shlomo Pines (Chicago, 1963), P- 578.

37 Midrash Rabbah, tr. and ed. Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, in, tr. Rabbi Dr. S. M. Lehrman, p. 1.

38 That Tyndale's commentary required knowledge of the text and of exegesis by Hebraists we can gather from Hooker's confusion on these points. Hooker, Richard, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, book in (London, 1963), p. 328.Google Scholar ‘Why the Jews were forbidden to plough their ground with an ox and an ass, why to clothe themselves with mingled attire of wool and linen, both it was unto them and to us it remaineth obscure.' And, of course, many others didn't understand the significance of these laws.

In the passage of the Exodus Prologue under discussion, Tyndale asserts:'… in another place he commandeth that we muzzle not the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, … and that because we should much rather not grudge to be liberal and kind unto men that do us service', again illustrating his awareness of Hebrew Biblical exegesis.

39 Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb: A Philosophy of fewish Laws and Observances, tr. I. Grunfeld (London, 1962), II, ch. 57, specifically pars. 404-409, pp. 283-288.

40 Maimonides, , Guide, pt. 111, ch. 48, p. 599.Google Scholar This view that the kid itself is nourishing and the goat's milk restorative is still part of Jewish thought today. In speaking of the prohibition of eating meat and milk, Hirsch explains that the meat belongs to the animal itself while the milk belongs to the animal's preservation. Horeb, 11, 288.

41 Though Tyndale may have directly found it in Luther, who had stated: ‘For first of all Moses teaches godliness… . He attaches the most beautiful ceremonies, by which the common people must be grasped and held, to keep them from making up their own, which God hates… . I do not think that God wanted to shape people by means of such ceremonies for any reason other than that He saw that the masses were most moved and captivated by those surface displays.’ Works: Lectures on Deuteronomy, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Daniel Peollot (St. Louis, 1960), IX, 6-7.

Some of Luther's writings on Exodus 1-6 may be found in Martin Luther, Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Die deutsche Bibel, III (Weimar, 1911), 23 5-240.1 do not know of any volume comprised of Luther's lectures on Exodus, for which reason a point by point comparison with Tyndale's Prologue was not possible. In addition, Tyndale's frequent references to other books of the Bible, would make such comparison difficult.

42 Italicizing generally mine to emphasize similarities. Guide, III, 526-527.

43 Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (The Book of Knowledge), tr. and ed. Moses Hyamson (Jerusalem, Boys Town, 1962), p. 43b.

44 Torah Temimah, III, 338.

45 The law can not acquit a man or count him righteous. ‘This acquittal is a free gift of God. It cannot be earned, but has simply to be accepted…. Man is therefore not saved by any works that he does, though such works will follow all true faith, being the product of the grace which God freely gives to faith.’ Quoted from Rev. S. L. Greenslade's The Work of William Tindale (London, 1938), pp. 37-38.

46 Martin Luther, Works: Lectures on Deuteronomy, IX, 6.

47 William Tyndale, Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, p. 44.

48 Torah Shelemah, IX, 3-6. Cf. Buber's discussion in Moses, p. 47.

49 Tyndale, Answer, marginal note p. 87.

50 Thus, Buber writes: ‘YHVH never appears in the tales of his revelations to Moses and Israel as “fixed” on Sinai; he only comes down thither on occasion, descending from heaven to do so [Ex. 3:8; 19:18, 20]'. See also the splendid discussion of Israel's nonspatial God by Harvey Cox, The Secular City, ch. 2, ‘Yahweh and the Baalim’ (New York, 1965), PP. 54-59.

51 Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, tr. John McGugh (New York, 1961), p. 281.

52 These citations are from The Babylonian Talmud: Seder Mo'ed, ed. Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein (London, 1938), I: Tractate Shabbath, ch. 63a, p. 296 and The Babylonian Talmud: Seder Nashim, tr. and ed. Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein (London, 1936), I: Tractate Yebamoth, ch. 24a, p. 144.

53 I am indebted to Rabbi Israel Wohlgelernter of Yeshiva University for supplying me with helpful references to Maimonides and the Talmud.