Paula Fether Supporter Lifelong student of the scriptures

The Wycliffe Bible is an English translation from 1382. According to https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Wycliffe-Bible-WYC/, it wasn't a "good read". But this is understandable given that it was the first complete translation into Middle English, and thus an important part of translation history.

Here is a history of Bible translation into English: https://greatsite.com/english-bible-history/

May 20 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

What is the Wycliffe Bible?

Born around the years 1328-1330, John Wycliffe was sent to Oxford University, where he rose to become master of Balliol College by 1361 and, some years later, a doctor of theology. His familiarity with English law and canon law was not merely the result of his interest in the subject, but of a deep-rooted desire to see liberties defended and maintained.

All his searches, meditations, debates and reasonings fell quickly into place. The Bible alone was the sole standard of truth, the source of all true knowledge about spiritual things. Today, such an idea does not seem unusual, but at a time when the circulation of the Bible was severely restricted by the Church (with very little of it available in English). Wycliffe prepared a treatise entitled "On the Truth of Holy Scripture," and one of its main points was to draw a clear line between Scripture and tradition.

Wycliffe discerned that the Scriptures ought to be preached to the people, that there should be no difference between a priest and a layman, and that the ordinary peasant should be able to read the Bible for himself, with some of his associates.

Between 1379 and 1382, the translation work moved forward with great urgency. Wycliffe furthered the teaching and training of itinerant preachers who travelled through the land with the Word of God.

The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was then in progress under the supervision of Nicholas of Hereford, a zealous follower of Wycliffe. John Purvey, another helper in the work, was Wycliffe's secretary for some years. The resulting translation was very literal, to the point of ignoring idiomatic English. 

What makes Tyndale's work stand out is that he did not merely consult the Latin Vulgate and Luther's German translation. He returned to the original Greek text, published for the first time in 1516 by Erasmus. Tyndale also did not forget his purpose: to make the Scriptures easy enough for the ordinary layman to read, right down to the "boy who ploughs the field." So, his style and idiom are simple and clear, yet powerful. And his lively rhythm no doubt reflects the joy that he experienced in undertaking the task.

It is true to say that "Tyndale was a translator whose judgment was unusually good. Working in extraordinarily adverse conditions, at his day's frontiers of knowledge of biblical languages, he produced translations which set the pattern for all the English translators who followed."—The Making of the English Bible, by Gerald Hammond, pages 42, 43.

Tyndale and others worked amid the shadow of death looming over them. But by making the Bible available to many people in their native tongue, they opened before them the prospect, not of death, but of life eternal. As Jesus Christ said: "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." (John 17:3)

A year before Tyndale's death, the first complete printed English Bible was published by Miles Coverdale, which drew on Tyndale's work. On the title page, there is a woodcut border attributed to German painter Hans Holbein, with the name Jehovah in the form of the Hebrew tetragrammaton at the very top. It was Tyndale who first introduced the name" Jehovah" into the English language, in his translation of the Pentateuch at Exodus 6:3.

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