Tyndale “firsts”

William Tyndale (ca. 1492-1536) was a pioneer of English Bible translation. Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into English accomplished several “firsts.” I gleaned the following “firsts” from various sources. I think most are reasonably well-established facts.

• The first English Bible translation directly from Hebrew and Greek texts
• The first English Bible translation printed in large quantities; first printed on the printing press
• The first English Bible translation to use Iehouah (Jehovah)
• The first English Bible translation to use passeouer (Passover)
• The first English Bible translation to use scapegoote (scapegoat)
• The first English “Reformation-era” Bible translation
• The first incomplete English Bible translation completed by Miles Coverdale
• The first English Bible translation translator who was executed by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy (this one might not be a first; hard to tell for certain)

[Note: John Wycliffe, who translated the Latin Bible into English (Middle English), died in 1384. 44 years later, in 1428, the Bishop of Lincoln, England (Wycliffe having been now condemned as an heretic by the Council of Constance in 1414), ordered that his remains be exhumed (or at least they got somebody’s) and burned. The ashes were thrown into the River Swift. The Lord knoweth them that are his (and where to find their remains).]

A Table of All the Pronouns

 

The British Grammar: Or, An Essay in Four Parts…, James Buchanan. 
London: A. Millar, 1762, p. 102

Check your sources, again

In May 2024 I wrote a post for my blog titled “Check Your Sources.” It grew out of discovering a discrepancy in the online resource Blue Letter Bible. Probably most of us tend to trust what we consider reliable resources; probably most of us do not question the resource unless and until we run into a problem.

Later in May I read at John M. Asquith’s site a claim that the Wycliffe Bible was not translated from Jerome’s Vulgate. Because of researching this claim, I discovered another resource I use has some unexpected question marks surrounding it. When researching a “disputed” King James Bible reading, I check the translations of prior English Bibles. This includes the wording of the Wycliffe translation (available on HathiTrustOrg). There seems to be some question about what we have commonly accepted as the “Wycliffe Bible.” In 1850 Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden produced a “Wycliffe Bible.” Scholars (and the rest of us) have generally (or carelessly) accepted the work of Foshall and Madden as the work of Wycliffe. Yet, “some surprising discrepancies and inadequacies in their work have been discovered.” We may too uncritically refer to what the “Wycliffe Bible” says. Perhaps too little effort has gone into ferreting out what is the original work of John Wycliffe. Swedish scholar Sven L. Fristedt at the University of Stockholm produced three volumes on the subject of The Wycliffe Bible: Part I, The Principal Problems with the Forshall and Madden Edition; Part II, The Origin of the First Revision as Presented in De Salutaribus Documentis; Part III, Relationships of Trevisa and the Spanish Medieval Bibles. Nevertheless, these works appear to be little-known to the wider audience of Bible researchers.

“The Early Version of the Old Testament up to Baruch iii.20 (EV I) is contained in MS E (Bodl. 959), the manuscript that FM [Forshall and Madden] take to be the original copy of the translator or translators. FM did not, however, print their text from E, nor did they explain their choice of manuscripts, either here or elsewhere.” The Wycliffe Bible

Fristedt concludes that the FM edition does not represent “the most reliable reproduction of the original translation.” At the least, greater care should be taken in referring to what “the Wycliffe Bible” says. (And even the Forshall and Madden edition has two versions.) Wiping the egg from his face, again, he passes along a lesson learned (again).

• Always check your sources.

English idioms based on the Bible

“The Sun says Aston Villa ‘refused to give up the ghost’. Wendy Richard calls her EastEnders character Pauline Fowler ‘the salt of the earth’. The England cricket coach tells reporters, ‘You can’t put words in my mouth’. Daily Mirror fashion pages call Tilda Swinton ‘a law unto herself’.” “King James Bible: How it changed the way we speak,” BBC News Services

Many English language idioms and phrases are based on the Bible. These terms from the Bible are passed on as elements in our law and literature, passed down in everyday speech, repeated in news and entertainment media, and included as lyrics in our songs. Sometimes the words come directly out of the King James Bible; sometimes they are based on a Bible phrase or story (e.g., The Parable of the Good Samaritan). Those using the idioms may have only learned them from others rather than the Bible, but they can be traced back to the Bible. Those using the idioms may not even know they are from the Bible. Certainly, the words themselves existed prior to the translation of the Bible into English – obviously, they were already in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. However, their primary saturation in everyday English language comes via of the longstanding dominance of the King James Bible in the English language.

Sometimes the words used are from or related to the Bible, without possessing the Bible meaning. When someone in general conversation says a person “fell from grace,” they are not likely speaking theologically. They mean that a person has lost his or her reputation, status, or rank. Sometimes the use of the phrase may be contrary to the Bible meaning. Though it may be oft repeated that “money is the root of all evil,” the King James Bible says “the love of” money is the root of all evil. Our phrase “on the straight and narrow” picks up the sound of a biblical word (“strait”), but neither the spelling nor the exact meaning. Sometimes the phrases are used in a humorous vein (going to “the land of Nod” for sleep, especially an adult falling asleep in church meeting) or even slightly irreverent way (“let there be light” for turning on a light switch).

This is a fairly long list of verses. I divide it into verse from the Old Testament and verses from the New Testament. Sometimes the background of the idiom or phrase can be found in more than one Bible verse. However, for brevity of listing, I only reference one.

Old Testament

• Genesis 1:3 “Let there be light”
• Genesis 3:3 “of the fruit of the tree…God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it” (forbidden fruit)
• Genesis 3:19 “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (in the sweat of your brow)
• Genesis 3:19 “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (ashes to ashes, dust to dust)
• Genesis 4:3 “it came to pass”
• Genesis 4:9 “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
• Genesis 4:16 “the land of Nod”
• Genesis 5:27 “all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years” (as old as Methuselah)
• Exodus 3:8 “a land flowing with milk and honey”
• Exodus 4:15 “put words in his mouth”
• Exodus 32:2-4 “Break off the golden earrings…made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods” (a golden calf)
• Leviticus 16:10 “be the scapegoat”
• Numbers 14:34 “breach of promise.”
• Numbers 22:31 “fell flat on his face.”
• Deuteronomy 32:10 “the apple of his eye.”
• Judges 14:3 “Philistines” (i.e., narrow-minded persons hostile to culture)
• 1 Samuel 13:14 “a man after his own heart”
• 1 Samuel 17:23 “Goliath…and David” (usually reverse;, the victory of the underdog, the triumph of the unexpected)
• 2 Samuel 1:19 “how are the mighty fallen”
• 2 Samuel 15:6 “stole the hearts” (stole his/her heart)
• 1 Kings 4:34 “the wisdom of Solomon”
• 1 Kings 21:25 “whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.” (a Jezebel; old Jezebel)
• 2 Kings 19:30 “take root”
• 2 Kings 20:1 “Set thine house in order” (put your house in order)
• Job 19:20 “My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh” (nothing but skin and bones)
• Job 19:20 “escaped with the skin of my teeth.”
• Job 19:28 “the root of the matter”
• Job 28:13 “the land of the living.”
• Job 40:7 “Gird up thy loins”
• Job 40:15 “behemoth” (used to reference something or someone really big)
• Psalm 8:2 “Out of the mouth of babes”
• Psalm 11:6 “fire and brimstone”
• Psalms 34:18 “a broken heart”
• Psalm 72:9 “enemies shall lick the dust.”
• Psalm 90:12 “teach us to number our days” (our days are numbered)
• Psalm 107:27 “at their wits’ end.”
• Proverbs 13:24 “He that spareth his rod hateth his son” (spare the rod, spoil the child)
• Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth…before a fall.” (before a fall)
• Ecclesiastes 1:9 “no new thing under the sun.” (nothing new under the sun)
• Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose” (a time for everything)
• Ecclesiastes 10:1 “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour” (a fly in the ointment)
• Ecclesiastes 10:20 “a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.” (a little bird told me)
• Isaiah 1:18 “white as snow”
• Isaiah 11:6 “the lamb…and the young lion” (the lion and the lamb)
• Isaiah 28:12 “cause the weary to rest… yet they would not hear.” (no rest for the weary)
• Isaiah 40:15 “a drop of a bucket”
• Isaiah 52:8 “see eye to eye”
• Isaiah 53:7 “as a lamb to the slaughter”
• Isaiah 57:21 “There is no peace… to the wicked.” (no rest for the wicked)
• Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine” (rise and shine)
• Isaiah 65:5 “holier than thou”
• Jeremiah 13:23 “Can…the leopard [change] his spots?”
• Ezekiel 1:16 “a wheel in the middle of a wheel.”
• Ezekiel 18:2 “sour grapes”
• Daniel 2:33 “his feet …part of clay.” (feet of clay)
• Daniel 5:5 “a man’s hand…wrote…upon the plaister of the wall” (handwriting on the wall)
• Daniel 5:27 “weighed in the balances, and…found wanting”
• Daniel 6:7 “cast into the den of lions.” (thrown in the lion’s den)
• Zechariah 9:10 “to the ends of the earth.”

New Testament

• Matthew 5:13 “salt of the earth”
• Matthew 5:38 “An eye for an eye”
• Matthew 5:39 “whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (turn the other cheek)
• Matthew 5:41 “compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain” (go the extra mile)
• Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters”
• Matthew 7:14 “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way” (on the straight and narrow)
• Matthew 7:15 “come to you in sheep’s clothing…inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (a wolf in sheep’s clothing)
• Matthew 7:6 “neither cast ye your pearls before swine” (pearls before swine)
• Matthew 15:14 “if the blind lead the blind”
• Matthew 16:3 “the signs of the times”
• Matthew 17:20 “say unto this mountain, Remove” (moving mountains)
• Matthew 19:24 “the eye of a needle”
• Matthew 20:9 “the eleventh hour”
• Matthew 23:24 “strain at a gnat”
• Matthew 23:24 “swallow a camel.”
• Matthew 26:52 “they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (live by the sword, die by the sword)
• Matthew 27:24 “Pilate…washed his hands before the multitude” (wash your hands [of something])
• Mark 2:22 “new wine into old bottles”
• Mark 3:21 “He is beside himself.”
• Mark 3:25 “a house…divided…cannot stand.”
• Mark 6:25 “give me…in a charger the head of John the Baptist.” (head on a platter)
• Mark 10:9 “What…God hath joined together”
• Mark 10:25 “a camel to go through the eye of a needle”
• Mark 14:44 “Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he” (the kiss of death)
• Luke 2:7 “no room…in the inn.”
• Luke 3:16 “baptize you…with fire (a baptism of fire)
• Luke 4:4 “man shall not live by bread alone”
• Luke 4:23 “Physician, heal thyself”
• Luke 8:5 “fell by the way side”
• Luke 10:33 “a certain Samaritan…had compassion on him” (a Good Samaritan)
• Luke 12:19 “eat, drink, and be merry.”
• Luke 12:28 “ye of little faith”
• Luke 15:27 “killed the fatted calf”
• Luke 17:2 “a millstone…hanged about his neck”
• John 6:31 “eat manna…bread from heaven” (manna from heaven)
• John 8:7 “let him first cast a stone at her.” (cast the first stone)
• John 8:32 “the truth shall make you free.”
• John 19:5 “Behold the man!”
• John 19:17 “he bearing his cross” (my/your cross to beart)
• John 19:30 “gave up the ghost.”
• Acts 9:5 “kick against the pricks”
• Acts 20:35 “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (better to give than receive)
• Romans 2:14 “a law unto themselves”
• Romans 7:6 “from the law…of the letter.” (letter of the law)
• Romans 13:1 “the powers that be”
• 1 Corinthians 13:12 “see through a glass, darkly”
• 1 Corinthians 15:52 “in the twinkling of an eye”
• 2 Corinthians 11:19 “suffer fools gladly”
• 2 Corinthians 12:7 “a thorn in the flesh” (thorn in my side)
• Galatians 5:4 “ye are fallen from grace.” (a fall from grace)
• Galatians 6:7 “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (you reap what you sow)
• 1 Thessalonians 1:3 “labour of love”
• 1 Timothy 6:10 “the love of money is the root of all evil” (money is the root of all evil)
• 1 Timothy 6.12 “Fight the good fight”
• Hebrews 2:14 “flesh and blood”
• Hebrews 11:4 “he being dead yet speaketh.”
• James 3:6 “the course of nature” (let nature take its course)
• Revelation 6:2-8 “behold a white horse : and he that sat on him… red…a black horse…a pale horse: and his name that sat on him” (the four horsemen)
• Revelation 7:1 “the four corners of the earth”

This list contains 118 words or phrases from the Old & New Testaments of the King James Bible – all of which in my lifetime I have heard, some more & some less (and some I have said myself).

David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bangor, Wales, produced a book on the subject. The title is Begat: the King James Bible & the English Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) I have not seen or read it, but a review of the book says that Crystal found 257 biblical expressions that he thinks are current in modern English.

Note: Sometimes I used ellipsis (…) to give a closer sense of how the words are stated in English idiom. Sometimes I place to the right in parentheses () the way the idiom is most often expressed.

Introducing Archaic English

Some odds and ends I have collected.

The Dawley Dictionary gives some words and phrases of English dialect they believe is disappearing.

Thou, Thee, and Archaic Grammar by A. Davies, R. Lipton, D. Richoux, et al.

“Thou”, “thee”, “thine” and “thy” are pronouns that have dropped out of the main dialects of Modern English. (p. 1)

For years people have read and learnt about Shakespeare, Byron...all these are writers and poets who have been read for years and years. Famous is their use of the words “thou”, “thy” and these are also found often in the Bible. 

Now the most terrible thing is for people to start abusing and start misusing these terms. (p. 3)

A warning, NEVER ever use “ye” in place of “the” - this is a complete misconception and misinterpretation of medieval texts in which a letter looking like “y” was used in place of þ pronounced like the “th” in “think” or “this”. (p. 4)

It seems that in virtually every instance where thee/thou is still being used – whether in dialects, liturgy, or Quakerism – it is most often used by the elders in that setting. My own hypothesis is that thee/thou will continue its progression toward obsolescence, though it will probably survive longest in liturgical environments. (p. 19)

You Again

Quoting two authors.

“It is true that Elizabethan English is more precise than modern English in its use of pronouns. Nevertheless I confess that, as a preacher, I would rather specify the exact meaning of the odd ambiguous pronoun now and then, than explain all the archaisms in the text of the KJV.” (Donald A. Carson, The King James Version Debate, p. 98)

On the one hand, men like Carson insist that a Bible must be translated so that the reader can understand without the assistance of a preacher. On the other hand, here Carson admits he is willing that the readers be left out of understanding certain places. He picks and chooses what he desires to explain and what he does not.

“How often does your inability to distinguish singular ‘you’ and plural ‘you’ trip you up in your daily English reading or conversation? Almost never. Context almost always distinguishes the two sufficiently...” (Mark Ward, Authorized, p. 100)

Carson calls this problem “the odd ambiguous pronoun now and then,” and Mark Ward tells us the indistinct “you” trips you up “almost never.” However, this is not the whole truth, and our experiences with modern English tell us otherwise.

Two brief points.

For a Bible study in 2021, I quickly put together a list of two dozen verses to illustrate how significant the ye/thee distinction can be. (See some of them Here.) Did Jesus tell Nicodemus you must be born again, or did he tell him you must be born again? Which is it? Rather than the “the odd ambiguous pronoun now and then,” there are hundreds of places in the Bible where the use of “you” for either second person singular or second person plural can make it difficult to understand the passage.

Our own practices belie the claim that the number of “you” is not a problem. We know instinctively that we need to make the distinction between singular and plural “you,” even though our modern language has betrayed us! We modern – yea, even educated – English speakers, despite what they teach otherwise in schools, have devised numerous ways to let our hearers know we mean “you plural” – y’all, you’uns, youse, and you lot, for examples.

These difficulties should not be brushed aside. They, like other interpretational difficulties, should be met and overcome through prayer and Bible study. Additionally, we who use the King James Bible have an interpretational tool built right into the text, when it comes to you and you.

The English Letter “J” and the KJV

In a strange screed about “Translation Errors In The King James Version,” the author contrives a weird view of translation. Since “No ‘J’ Sound Existed In Hebrew,” the KJV translators were “obviously wrong” to use Jehovah or Jesus in their Bible. He claims, “the KJV used the letter ‘J’ to replace the sound of the Hebrew ‘י’ (yod).” This weird writing ignores and/or is oblivious to several facts.

First, it conjures up an unsustainable standard for translation, one that would ultimately void all translations – that the sounds of the target or receptor language must match the sounds of the source or original language. How odd is that?!! This should not even need rebuttal. (Even that same author says in another place, “Everyone speaks a different language so I would suggest that they speak the name of our Lord in what ever it translates into in their particular language.”)

Second, the writer, in his excitement to find something wrong with the KJV, obviously never checked an original printing of the King James Bible. Neither the KJV translators nor the KJV printers chose to use a “J”. There are no Js in the earliest printings of the King James Bible, whether printings are in Blackletter type or Roman type. The letter where we would expect to see a “J” today is rather the letter “I” instead. So, no – no, no – the KJV translators did not use the letter “J” to replace the sound of the Hebrew yod, or for any other reason.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “The process of differentiation [between the i and j] began about the 14th century but was not complete until the 17th century.” Some sources claim that the 1629 Cambridge King James Bible was the first to make a distinction between i and j. I have not found a 1629 Cambridge printing, but on Google Books there is a 1640 printing by Buck and Daniel, printers for the University of Cambridge. It can be contrasted to the 1611 printing of the KJV by Robert Barker. In doing so, one can see examples that the 1611 printing of the Bible did not have a “j”. Later changes were made by printers and/or editors, not by the translators of the King James Bible. This issue has nothing to do with translation.

1611, Nahum 3:2 iumping

1640, Nahum 3:2 jumping

1611, Psalm 119:73 IOD

1640, Psalm 119:73 JOD

Notice also the capital I (Psalm 119:73) is mistaken by some to be a J. It is not.

[After I pointed out the situation with the “KJV” and the “J,” the author added a note: “In fact, during the time of the first KJV edition, there was no ‘J’ used in the KJV, nor in the Bible that it was based on, which was the Bishop’s Bible.”]

Tyndale’s 1526 Preface

Preface to the 1526 translation of the New Testament, by William Tyndale:

“Give diligence, reader (I exhort thee) that thou come with a pure mind, and, as the Scripture saith, with a single eye, unto the words of health and of eternal life, by the which (if we repent and believe them) we are born anew, created afresh, and enjoy the fruits of the blood of Christ. Which blood crieth not for vengeance, as the blood of Abel, but hath purchased life, love, favor, grace, blessing, and whatsoever is promised in the Scriptures, to them that believe and obey God, and standeth between us and wrath, vengeance, curse, and whatsoever the Scripture threateneth against the unbelievers and disobedient, which resist, and consent not in their hearts to the law of God, that it is right, holy, just, and ought so to be.

“Mark the plain and manifest places of the Scriptures, and in doubtful places see thou add no interpretation contrary to them; but (as Paul saith) let all be conformable and agreeing to the faith.

“Note the difference of the Law and of the Gospel. The one asketh and requireth, the other pardoneth and forgiveth. The one threateneth, the other promiseth all good things to them that set their trust in Christ only. The gospel signifieth glad tidings, and is nothing but the promises of good things. All is not gospel that is written in the gospel book: for if the law were away, thou couldest not know what the gospel meant, even as thou couldest not see pardon, favor, and grace except the law rebuked thee, and declared unto thee thy sin, misdeed, and trespass.

“Repent and believe the gospel, as saith Christ in the first of Mark. Apply alway the Law to thy deeds, whether thou find lust [i.e. eager desire, rlv] in the bottom of thine heart to the law-ward, and so shalt thou no doubt repent, and feel in thyself a certain sorrow, pain, and grief to thine heart, because thou canst not with full lust do the deeds of the law. Apply the gospel—that is to say the promises—unto the deserving of Christ, and to the mercy of God and his truth, and so shalt thou not despair, but shall feel God as a kind and a merciful father. And his spirit shall dwell in thee, and shall be strong in thee, and the promises shall be given thee at the last (though not by and by, lest thou shouldest forget thyself, and be negligent) and all threatenings shall be forgiven thee for Christ’s blood’s sake—to whom commit thyself altogether—without respect either of thy good deeds or of thy bad.

“Them that are learned Christianly I beseech—forasmuch as I am sure, and my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and faithfully I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of knowledge and understanding—that the rudeness of the work now at the first time offend them not, but that they consider how that I had no man to counterfeit, neither was helped with English of any that had interpreted the same or such like things in the Scripture beforetime. Moreover, even very necessity and cumbrance (God is record) above strength—which I will not rehearse, lest we should seem to boast ourselves—caused that many things are lacking which necessarily are required. Count it as a thing not having his full shape, but as it were born before his time, even as a thing begun rather than finished. In time to come (if God have appointed us thereunto) we will give it his full shape, and put out if aught be added superfluously, and add to if aught be overseen through negligence, and will enforce to bring to compendiousness that which is now translated at the length, and to give light where it is required, and to seek in certain places more proper English, and with a table to expound the words which are not commonly used and show how the Scripture useth many words which are otherwise understood of the common people, and to help with a declaration where one tongue taketh not another; and will endeavor ourselves, as it were, to seethe it better, and to make it more apt for the weak stomachs; desiring them that are learned and able, to remember their duty, and to help thereunto, and to bestow unto the edifying of Christ’s body (which is the congregation of them that believe) those gifts which they have received of God for the same purpose. The grace that cometh of Christ be with them that love him.

“Pray for us.”

The First Printed English New Testament: translated by William Tyndale

“Moe” and “More”

I find delightful the study of changes in the English language, and especially regarding words of the Bible. As I continued to study the 1611 printing of the Bible, I found F. H. A. Scrivener calling attention to the use of “moe” in the 1611 Bible (which had previously escaped me). Scrivener calls it the “quaint” word for “more.”

The several editors, especially those of 1762 and 1769...got rid of the quaint old moe for more (spelt mo in the Bible of 1638)... (The Authorized Edition of the English Bible (1611), Its Subsequent Reprints and Modern Representatives, London: Cambridge University Press, 1884, p. 104)

Joshua 10:11

I searched and found “moe” used in some twenty-nine instances, maybe moe. It was a legitimate form of the word, though perhaps “quaint” at the time of the 1611 translation – at least “quaint” by the time Scrivener wrote in 1884. Perhaps the typesetters preferred it when the line space was crowded? Or, maybe it was a carry-over from the 1602 Bishop’s Bible? (I found one place where the KJV had “moe” where the Bishops did not, and another place where the KJV had “moe” and the Bishops had “mo”.)

The use of “moe” was not exclusive, and the word “more” was used moe than “moe.”

2 Samuel 2:28

Numbers 22:15 is my favorite, the verse that uses “moe” and “more.”

And Balak sent yet againe Princes, moe, and more honourable then they.

Even if the spelling is out of style, the pronunciation of “more” with a long “o” and no “r” – mō – is not uncommon in these parts.

Numbers 22:15

Another still common word in 1611 that was updated is “fet”. It means to bring or bring back, and in modern printings appears as “fetched.”

2 Samuel 11:27

Tyndale’s biblical archaism

For his translation of the New Testament, William Tyndale revived archaic pronoun and verb ending usage. Here is a quote from The Diachrony of Written Language Contact: A Contrastive Approach by Nikolaos Lavidas (Brill Academic Publishing, 2021, p. 41), which I think makes the same point.

“Tyndale’s texts, translations and polemical texts, contains examples of syntactic archaisms (Canon 2016), that is, borrowings and re-introductions of obsolete forms from an earlier period of the language—what one would characterize as evidence of a type of written contact with earlier forms of English. One such example is the use of the early/archaic second person singular and plural pronouns in Tyndale’s texts: the second person plural pronoun had begun to appear in all, singular and plural, contexts in Early Middle English. Tyndale used the verbal forms for second singular and plural number productively, as well as the distinction between the subject pronoun ye and the object pronoun you, following earlier texts. However, the first attestations of the nominative you, instead of ye, appeared in the 14th century and was productively used in the literary language by the 1540s.”

This settled into English Bibles the precision of grammar present in the Greek New Testament (and later, Old Testament Hebrew as well). The valuable decision of Tyndale remains for our benefit in the King James Version.

[Note: The “Canon” reference is to a journal article: Elizabeth Bell Canon, “Buried Treasure in the Tyndale Corpus: Innovations and Archaisms,” Anglica, an International Journal of English Studies, 2016, 25/2, pp. 151-165.]