William Tyndale on the Lord's Supper
A memorial and sign; no presence in the elements
Wherefore the sense must needs be, that it is the memorial and seal of the testament only.
THE POSITION
The Brief Declaration sets out the opinions in dispute and sets out at length the reasoning of what it calls "the third part," which reads "this is my body" as the sign named with the name of the thing signified. He places himself with it: the defenders of bodily presence "rail on us as heretics." The sacrament is a memorial and a seal of the testament, and in the 1 John exposition a sign left "to strength our faith, and to certify our conscience." It is a lean rather than an affirmation because the key sentences are framed as what the third party says, and the seal language keeps it from being a bare sign.
15 And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering. 16 For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.
4 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
English translator of the New Testament from Greek and of the Pentateuch from Hebrew, working in exile in the Low Countries, whose wording runs through the King James Version. He was strangled and burned at Vilvoorde in 1536. He was also the first English Protestant theologian of weight, defending justification by faith, the authority of Scripture over the church, and the obedience owed to kings. This entry rests on the Obedience of a Christian Man, the Answer to Sir Thomas More, the Brief Declaration of the Sacraments, the exposition of 1 John and his biblical prologues, all in the Parker Society edition (1848–1850).
Cite this page
"William Tyndale on the Lord's Supper", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/tyndale/lords-supper (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/tyndale/lords-supper).