William Tyndale - Gifted or Driven? 3 Keys to Language Acquisition...

According to David Daniell, "William Tyndale gave us our English Bible" (Daniell, 1). Half of the OT and the full NT of the 1611 King James (or Authorized Version) Bible was 90% Tyndale's work.My wife and I are reading through David Daniell's William Tyndale, A Biography. I want to kick things off with a discussion on language acquisition. Tyndale knew 8 languages, including Greek and Hebrew. People, including me when I first began learning Koine Greek, often think of translators as gifted linguists who know many languages without much effort. Indeed, many translators have God-given gifts in language acquisition, and thus find themselves working in translation.As one who has benefitted from godly men teaching me the biblical languages, and from reading the biographies of godly missionaries like Henry Martyn and William Carey, I see three keys to language acquisition: humility, discipline, and time. If we have the humility to learn, the discipline to keep at it, and the time to devote to it, we can all learn another language. However slow or fast we learn in comparison to others is irrelevant, we're not called to compare ourselves with others (2Cor 10:12). I've read and heard the testimonies of men like Dan Wallace (in Keep Your Greek by Con Campbell) and in class lectures with David Alan Black; both of these men failed in their early attempts at learning Greek, yet have gone on to be Greek scholars, authors, and long-time professors who have equipped thousands in learning to read their Greek New Testament (and Greek Old Testament :)! Martyn and Carey often spoke of fighting to discipline themselves in learning Greek and Hebrew; they humbly disciplined themselves with extended time devoted to the process.Don't think you can't learn the biblical languages just because it doesn't come easy. We forget or don't realize that men like Tyndale and Carey were not simply gifted linguists, they were disciplined men who used their time for godly endeavors. We too are called to redeem the time (Eph 5), using our whole heart, mind, soul, strength (Mark 12:30-31), and body (Rom 12:1) to love God and to love others. Surely, part of neighbor love is to bring them the living and active Word of God (Rom 10:13-17).May we partner together in bringing God's Word to the remaining languages of the world where Christ is not yet named (Rom 15). Consider encouraging your church to join the Fellowship and come Together 4 the Bible, devoting some of your church's budget to Bible translation work and the people who work on them.