According to David Daniell and the broader consensus of Tyndale biographers, William Tyndale almost certainly learned Hebrew on the Continent (in Germany), after leaving England in 1524. Daniell is careful to stress that the precise location and teachers remain unknown.
David Daniell’s View
In his major biography William Tyndale: A Biography (Yale, 1994) and the introduction to his modern-spelling edition of Tyndale’s Old Testament (1992), Daniell repeatedly notes that the straightforward answer is that we do not know exactly where or from whom Tyndale acquired Hebrew. He is, however, firm on the broader picture:
- Hebrew was virtually unknown in England in the 1520s. The Jewish community had been expelled in 1290 and was not readmitted until the 1650s. Formal academic Hebrew studies only took proper root in England much later (under Elizabeth I and James I).
- Tyndale “seems to have learned his Hebrew somewhere in Germany,” where knowledge of the language was developing more rapidly among both Christian Hebraists and Jewish communities.
- Daniell points to the relatively short period in which Tyndale achieved a high level of competence (roughly 1526–1529, with the Pentateuch appearing in 1530) as evidence that he had some assistance, likely from Jewish teachers or the growing body of printed Hebrew grammars and dictionaries available on the Continent.
- He has specifically suggested the possibility of study at Wittenberg (where Tyndale appears to have spent time in the mid-1520s) or Worms (a major centre of rabbinical learning).
In other writings and public comments, Daniell has highlighted Worms in particular as a plausible place, noting that it was a significant centre of Jewish learning at the time Tyndale was there printing his 1526 New Testament.
Broader Scholarly Consensus
Most other biographers and specialists follow what has been called the “Continental theory”:
- Tyndale left England in 1524 with little or no useful knowledge of Hebrew.
- He acquired it in Germany between approximately 1525 and 1529, during his time in places such as Wittenberg, Worms, and possibly Marburg.
- Worms is frequently mentioned because of its substantial Jewish community and tradition of rabbinical scholarship. Some older scholarship (e.g., J.R. Slater’s detailed study of the sources of Tyndale’s Pentateuch) places his Hebrew studies across Wittenberg, Worms, and Marburg.
- Evidence of growing competence appears in his polemical works of 1528 (The Parable of the Wicked Mammon and The Obedience of a Christian Man), and he was translating the Pentateuch by 1529–30.
A 2002 article by Jonathan P. Yates challenged the strength of the Continental consensus, arguing that limited Hebrew learning was possible in early sixteenth-century England through university circles linked to Oxford and Cambridge, and that the Continental timeline has chronological difficulties. This remains a minority position. The dominant view among Tyndale specialists, including Daniell, continues to locate his Hebrew studies in Germany after 1524.
Supporting Context
Tyndale’s finished work shows genuine facility with Hebrew, not merely dependence on Luther’s German or Latin intermediaries (though he certainly used available helps, including early printed grammars and dictionaries). Modern Hebraists who have examined his translations have generally affirmed that he possessed real independent skill. His own later request from prison for his Hebrew Bible, grammar, and dictionary further illustrates how central the language had become to his work.
In short, while Daniell and other careful biographers refuse to claim certainty about the exact place or teachers, they are consistent that Tyndale learned Hebrew in Germany (most plausibly in Wittenberg and/or Worms) after leaving England, in an environment where both Christian Hebraist resources and Jewish learning were far more accessible than they were at home.