I love reading classic literature in the original spelling. A few years ago one of my best friends gave me a facsimile edition of the 1611 edition of the King James translation of the Bible. Knowing that a great deal of Tyndale’s translation ended up in the King James version, for my birthday last year I got myself a copy of the 1526 edition of William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament in the original spelling. I love them both. For me, reading through these books is a fun way to learn about how our language works as well as gain insight into the history of the Gospel.
The other day I was reading through this copy of Tyndale’s New Testament and I found the following fascinating construction in St. Mark chapter 10:
And he sayde unto them: Whosoever putteth awaye his wyfe, and maryeth another, breaketh wedlocke to herwarde.
In modern English we would generally use the phrase “toward her” or depending on our dialect, “towards her.” But here Tyndale places the -ward suffix, indicating direction, on the pronoun!
