Thursday, September 22, 2022

Jan J. Martin, “William Tyndale, John Foxe, and the ‘Boy that Driveth the Plough'" (2016)

This morning I read the following article:

 

Jan J. Martin, “William Tyndale, John Foxe, and the ‘Boy that Driveth the Plough,’” Religious Educator 17, no. 2 (2016): 87-105

 

Here is the conclusion:

 

Latter-day Saints have many reasons to admire and appreciate William Tyndale. He not only gave us our English Bible but he eloquently penned the earliest English version of the words that would inspire the young Joseph Smith to enter a grove of trees to ask of God and begin the process of the Restoration. Because of this, Foxe’s depiction of Tyndale exclaiming that he would “cause a boye that dryveth the plough” to “knowe more of the scripture” than the learned man did is particularly meaningful to Latter-day Saints and is frequently quoted. However, as this paper has demonstrated, the source of the ploughboy anecdote cannot be substantiated. Moreover, Foxe’s amplifying editing of the story creates suspicion that the conversation between Tyndale and the learned man may be a fictional construct designed to further Foxe’s particular interpretation of English history and Tyndale’s role in it. Though there may not be a substantial amount of autobiographical or biographical information about Tyndale, he frequently published his own thoughts and feelings, and they are freely available. Perhaps the best way for Latter-day Saints to honor Tyndale in written and verbal discourses about him would be to take the time to quote from the words he actually said, rather than from secondhand reports of things that he may or may not have said.