Wycliffe's Bible (also known as the Middle English Bible [MEB], Wycliffite Bibles, or Wycliffian Bibles) is a sequence of orthodox Middle English Bible translations from the Latin Vulgate which appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395..
Two different but evolving translation branches have been identified: mostly word-for-word translations classified as Early Version (EV) and the more sense-by-sense recensions classified as Later Version (LV). They are the earliest known literal translations of the entire Bible into English (Middle English); however, several other translations, probably earlier, of most New Testament books and Psalms 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 either personally or with a team including John Purvey and Nicholas Hereford to promote Wycliffite ideas, or were created for use by Lollards for public reading at their clandestine meetings, or contained heterodox translations antagonistic to Catholicism.
The term "Lollard Bible" is sometimes used for a version of Wycliffite Bible with inflammatory 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.
Manuscripts Wycliffite Bible texts are the most common manuscript literature in Middle English that still exist. (The second-most common manuscript is Nicholas Love's Meditations on the Life of Christ which Bishop Arundel promoted as an alternative to Wycliffite lives of Christ.)
Over 250 so-called Wycliffite manuscripts survive; only 20 of these are or were complete bibles; two thirds have New Testament material only, with no additional material. Other manuscripts are gospel harmonies, concordances, lectionaries and collections: some of these books contain other material, usually orthodox, but occasionally Wycliffite or Lollard works, sometimes sanitised.
In the first half of the 15th century, production moved to London, and produced smaller, more practical formats in textura hand.
Many of the manuscripts have apparatus to link to the Sarum liturgical calendar and were apparently commissioned by clerical or religious patrons for professional use: about 40% have tables of lections (lists of Scripture readings) indicating that the manuscripts were used in conjunction with the Mass or preparation of sermons. Notably the Latin of these Old Testament Lectionary readings is sometimes different to the Vulgate, coming from the Sarum Missal, and some have different translations from either the Early or Late Wycliffite versions.
Owners and users Modern scholars have questioned previous beliefs that the Wycliffite manuscripts were primarily made for or used by lay Lollards: historian Anne Hudson, in asking about various so-called Wycliffite literature "How clear is their ideological affinity to Wycliffite views?", mentions the "wide circulation of the Wycliffite bibles beyond those who credibly could even distantly be associated with Lollardy...the text was not in any way heretical even if it had been hereticated" (i.e. by the addition of non-Biblical texts.)
40 percent of manuscripts were illuminated intended for presentation or aristocratic use; copies are known for the Duke of Gloucester, by the brother of Henry V, by Henry VI, Henry VII, and so on. Others had fancy or rubricated initial letters. Some of these have extensive commentary in marginalia.
Historian Elizabeth Solopova notes "in spite of many polemical claims that the translation would benefit the 'poor', 'simple' and 'illiterates', at the time when the production of WB had peaked in the first half of the 15th century the conditions for a wide use of the vernacular Bible by the laity were not yet fully established. And on the contrary, it appears that in spite of censorship there was scope for a legitimate and sophisticated use of the vernacular translations by the clergy and in religious institutions. The traditional view of the vernacular as the language of the laity and a medium that typified the 'unlearned' may need to be modified."
As well, many of the Middle English vernacular primers (or Book of Hours) of the time, books associated with aristocratic nuns, provided versions of the so-called Wycliffite text for their Psalms or scripture readings.
One copy sold at auction on 5 December 2016 for US$1,692,500.
Text versions
Surviving copies of Wycliffe's Bible fall into two broad textual families, the highly literal Early Version(s) (EV) in "grammatically careful English" and the "generally more idiomatic" but odd Later Version(s) (LV). A wide variety of Middle English dialects are represented.
There exist only a very few copies with EV texts. Various explanations for the two version have been suggested by scholars: that the EV was a textual preparation for the LV which escaped into the wild; that the EV was intended to help new clergy with their university studies and exegesis, perhaps as product of the Oxford Franciscans independent of Wycliffe's circle, but then perhaps revised as the LV by Wycliffe's circle (who were not necessarily Wycliffites) e.g. at Merton College; or that the rapid change in Middle English in the 14th Century meant that the EV vernacular translations could not remain unrevised; or the EV was likely aimed toward the weakly-literate members of the clergy or the common folk by accompanying their Vulgate reading, while the LV may have been aimed toward all literates and for public reading. Both versions are characterized by a close regard to the word order and syntax of the Latin base text: the word order being traditionally suspected of being divinely inspired.
The number of LV manuscripts is much larger than the number of EV manuscripts. Some manuscripts mix books of the Bible from the earlier version with other books of the later version. Some scholars speculate that the EV may have been meant as a rough draft that was gradually improved by various scholars into the somewhat better English of the second version.
The translators worked from the Vulgate, the Latin Bible that was the standard Biblical text of Western Christianity, often following the standard Paris Bible arrangement, and without reference to or knowledge of Greek or Hebrew.
The manuscripts that are pandects (complete Bibles) include the Catholic deuterocanonical books (called the Biblical apocrypha by most Protestants) plus 3 Esdras (which is also called 1 Esdras), and also included the noncanonical Epistle to the Laodiceans.
The manuscripts that are New Testament only frequently have Old Testament Lectionaries, which are drawn from the text of the Sarum Missal rather than the Vulgate.
Examples The LV, though somewhat improved, still retained a number of infelicities of style, some of which may reflect the contemporary transitions in Middle English grammar, as in its version of Genesis 1:3 below. Orthography was in flux as well.
Vulgate – Latin: "" Wycliffe EV – Middle English: "" Wycliffe LV – Middle English: "" Douay–Rheims NT – Early Modern English: "And God said: Be light made. And light was made"
The familiar verse of John 3:16 is rendered in various English versions as:
Vulgate – Latin: "" Rushworth Manuscript () – Old English (Mercian): "" Wessex Gospels () – Old English (West Saxon): "" Wycliffe EV () – Middle English: "" Wycliffe LV (1394) – Middle English: "" Tyndale (1530s) – Early Modern English "For God so loveth the worlde yt he hath geven his only sonne that none that beleve in him shuld perisshe: but shuld have everlastinge lyfe." King James Version (1611) – Early Modern English: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Early Version The first translations (EV) are rigid and literal translations of the Vulgate.
The existing manuscripts of the EV vary considerably from one another, showing revision. Historian Conrad Lindberg established that there were two stages to the EV: for the word ponder () in Luke 2:19, an initial EV using technical words (such as mētynge) and a subsequent EV using more literal terms (such as berynge to-gidere: bearing together); the LV used Þouȝte (thought).
The EV may have begun as a Middle English "gloss" on the Latin text, similar to the Vespasian Psalter. It typically kept the order of individual words unchanged from the Latin, which could lead to confusion or meaninglessness in English. It has been described as unintelligible without reference to the original Latin Vulgate. For example, the phrase "" in 1 Samuel 2:10 was translated as "" in the first version, then revised to "" in the second version. John Stacey points out that "The scribe's desire to keep the words in their original order was stronger at this point than his regard for the rules of grammar."
The manuscript often taken as the original was written by five different people and ends at Baruch 3:20. These authors used different forms of words, such as vs or , making it unlikely that they were merely different scribes performing dictation. The finished first translation contains a noticeable change in style after Baruch 3:20. Two surviving manuscripts mark this verse with notes: one reads "Explicit translacionem Nicholay de herford" and another "". Hereford fled England for Rome in 1382, returning in 1391, and the J who took over may have been John Trevisa or John Purvey. These notes suggest that Wycliffe did not personally produce this entire translation, and may not have written any of it.
For example, Psalm 6:2,3 in one EV version (closer to modern orthography) is:
And in another EV version:
Later Version The Later Version (LV) was issued 8 to 12 years after Wycliffe's death. This version has been subsequently attributed to John Purvey. It is generally more idiomatic English and takes more liberties with the Vulgate text. Nevertheless, the translation itself was never attacked for misleading word choices the way that William Tyndale's early translations were.
For example, Psalms 6:1,2 is
Associated works Historian Mary Raschko attributes to Wycliffites three primary forms of gospel literature:
"close translation of the Vulgate, close translation interpolated with exegetical commentary, and harmonization of the four gospels into a single narrative" (i.e., the "Lives of Christ" One of Four and the Glossed Gospels.)
Anne Hudson identifies five groups of Wycliffite literature:
the Wycliffite Bible translation; the glossed gospels; the collection of distinctiones (famous historical interpretations of religious/biblical terms and phrases) known as the Floretum and, in an abbreviated version, the Rosarium; the revisions to Rolle's Middle English Psalter; the 294 sermons of the English Wycliffite Sermon Cycle.
Wycliffe's commentaries Wycliffe's early were brief commentaries or notes on the whole Bible.
Wycliffe later wrote several long exegetical commentaries on Revelation and the four Gospels which included Middle English translations of the passages being discussed. To these were added translations of most of the Catholic Epistles. As well, some of his English tracts or works included translations.
One theory of the production of Wycliffe's Bible is that these passages were extracted, collated, and completed by others to form the basis of the EV.
Glossed Gospels