1941

Casting the Vision

A group of Christian leaders meets to discuss their concern for the lack of believers engaged in biblical studies, and the effect of this on the Church. W. J. Martin, Lecturer in Hebrew at Liverpool University, proposes the founding of “a residential research library”.

3rd January 1945

A home for Bible scholarship

Tyndale House is officially opened by the Inter-Varsity Fellowship Trust (IVF, now UCCF) as ‘a library and research centre devoted to the highest and most permanent interest of biblical scholarship’.

August 1945

Summer School

A summer school is held at Tyndale House for the first time. There are five sessions each day, including papers read by various members, discussions, Greek Testament and Hebrew classes.

1950s

Publications that came out of Tyndale House in the 1950s‭:‬

1951 – F.F. Bruce published his first commentary: Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary. This became IVF’s first major publication in which the imprint ‘Tyndale Press’ was used.

1952 – Leon Morris’s published thesis, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, is the second major works published by IVF under ‘Tyndale Press’ imprint.

1953 December – The New Bible Commentary is published and rapidly becomes a best seller, edited by Francis Davidson and Alan Stibbs. The contributors were by and large members of the Tyndale Fellowship.

1956 – The first issue of The Tyndale House Bulletin produced by Andrew Walls is published. The plan was to publish the Bulletin twice a year and it would report on work done in Tyndale House and in the Study Groups.

1952

Closing‭?‬

The house almost closes due to financial issues and a plan was made in January 1952 to sell Tyndale House and move the library to the London area.

Thankfully by July 1952, the financial position at Tyndale House begins to improve and the house can stay open.

April 1956

'The new wing'

The library is built and officially opened by John W. Laing on April 21st, 1956. Previously the library had been in the 1908 house. A stone is laid on the outside wall with the inscription, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom’.

September 1959

The Warden's House

Building of the Warden’s house begins. It is built on the site of a lawn on which J. Stafford Wright used to pitch a tent in preference to staying inside Tyndale House! This house is the Warden’s Lodge until it is adapted for family housing for post-graduates in the 1990s.

1962

Contributing to research

Donald John Wiseman provides 152 entries for The New Bible Dictionary. He comments that the Old Testament study group of the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical Research plays a large part in the production of this work.

1964

First Tyndale Commentary published

This series of concise, clear, text-focused commentaries would become a globally trusted resource for Bible study.

1967

The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary Series

After first being proposed in 1962, work begins on the commentary series with Donald John Wiseman as General Editor.

1973–1976

Financial trouble

Tyndale House’s financial problems cause the Business Advisory Committee of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship to raise the question, ‘How important it is to have a private library for biblical research?’

The following year it is decided that Tyndale House and the grounds should not be sold, but costs must be reduced. It is decided to cease catering, and the domestic bursar and cooks are made redundant.

Over £11,000 is raised in an appeal for Tyndale House. Douglas Johnson was the appeal’s Secretary.

1977

The Gospels Project begins

Dick France is Research Fellow and Director of the Gospels Research Project at Tyndale House, Cambridge from 1977–1978.

The project continues work into the 1980s.

1980

Changing library

There are now 21 desks in the library – all booked for the coming year.

Tyndale House welcomes its first-ever single female residents (before several Cambridge colleges were accepting women as students).

1980–1986

The Gospels Project

The Tyndale House Gospels Project results in a six-volume series called Gospel Perspectives, published by JSOT.

Craig Blomberg concludes the project by writing a semi-popular-level book following on from the series titled, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (IVP, 1987).

1984–1985

Library Extension

Work begins on the library extension in 1984, which is officially opened in 1985.

Twelve reading bays are added on the ground floor along with a two-story hexagon.

1987

The Genesis Project

Dr Leslie McFall, Dr Richard Hess and Dr David Tsumura start work on the Genesis 1 – 11 project, under the supervision of Alan Millard, Ken Kitchen and Donald Wiseman.

(Image: from left to right, Kenneth A. Kitchen, Donald Wiseman and Alan Millard.)

1991

New International Version (NIV) translators

Donald J. Wiseman, Dr Richard T France, Professor I Howard Marshall, Dr Alan R Millard and Dr Martin J Selman are thanked for their roles as NIV translators by the President of the International Bible Society, James R Powell, on the occasion of the signing of the NIV contract in the UK, marking the renewal of the contract for the NIV with Hodder & Stoughton through to 2000.

1990–1993

Family housing

Land behind Tyndale House is purchased, and accommodation for researchers and their families is built. The new Tyndale family housing is officially opened at a Tyndale House Open Day.

1993–1994

The Acts project

A number of books are published under the Tyndale House Acts project. The Warden (Bruce Winter) is series editor, the overall series title being: The Book of Acts in its First-Century Setting.

1994

The digital age

Tyndale House becomes the first library in Cambridge to have a fully computerised catalogue.

1995

Joining the internet

Every desk in Tyndale House Library is now linked to the Internet and Tyndale House has a page on the World Wide Web.

1999

A chartered librarian

Dr Elizabeth Magba is appointed as the first ever Chartered Librarian to be on the staff of Tyndale House.

American Friends

The American Friends of Tyndale House is set up as a company to enable fundraising in the USA.

2001

A royal visit

The Chancellor of Cambridge University, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visits Tyndale House. He presents Tyndale House with a facsimile of an etching in the Royal Collection: Moses and the tablets of the law by Marc Chagall.

2006

A published history

2006 Tom Noble’s book on the history of Tyndale House is published, Research for the Academy and the Church; Tyndale House and Fellowship: The First Sixty Years (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press).