| Wycliffe Bible | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | WYC |
| Complete Bible published | 1382 |
| Online as | Wycliffe Bible at Wikisource |
| Derived from | Latin Vulgate |
| Translation type | Formal equivalence |
| Revision | 1388,[a] 1395 |
In þe bigynnyng God made of nouȝt heuene and erþe. Forsoþe þe erþe was idel and voide, and derknessis weren on the face of depþe; and the Spiryt of þe Lord was borun on the watris. And God seide, Liȝt be maad, and liȝt was maad.
For God louede so þe world, that he ȝaf his oon bigetun sone, þat ech man þat bileueþ in him perische not, but haue euerlastynge lijf. | |
Middle English Bible (MEB) or Wycliffe's Bible or Wycliffite Bibles or Wycliffian Bibles (WYC) are names given for a sequence of orthodox Middle English Bible translations from the Latin Vulgate which appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395.[1]
Two different translations have been identified, a word-for-word translation known as the Early Version (EV) and the more sense-by-sense Later Version (LV). They are the earliest known literal translations of the entire Bible into English (Middle English)[2] however several other translations of most New Testament books into Middle English are extant.
The authorship, orthodoxy, usage and ownership has been controversial in the past century, with historians now downplaying the certainty of past beliefs that the translations were made by controversial English theologian John Wycliffe of the University of Oxford directly or with a team including John Purvey and Nicholas Hereford, to promote Wycliffite ideas, used by Lollards for clandestine public reading at their meetings, or contained heterodox translations antagonistic to Catholicism.[3]: 316
The term "Lollard Bible" is sometimes used for a Wycliffean Bible with inflamatory Wycliffite texts added. At the Oxford Convocation of 1408, it was solemnly voted that in England no new translation of the Bible should be made without prior approval.
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- ^ "Versions of the Bible", Catholic Encyclopedia, New advent.
- ^ Daniell 2003, p. 66.
- ^ Kelly, Henry Ansgar (2023). "The Bible in England in the long fifteenth century: from boom to bust to piecemeal interest". Medium aevum. 92 (2): 316-341.