This article is part of theHistory of the English Bible series. |
Overview of English Bible translations |
Old English Bible translationsBede, Alfred the Great, Aelfric |
Middle English Bible translationsJohn Wyclif, Richard Rolle |
Early Modern English Bible translationsWilliam Tyndale, Great Bible, Bishops' Bible, |
Modern English Bible translationsRevised Standard Version, |
The age of Middle English was not a fertile time for Bible translations but saw the first major translation that of John Wyclif. The period of Middle English begins with the Norman conquest and ends about 1500. The influence of French as the prefered language limited English literature of all types.
- Richard Rolle of Hampole (or de Hampole) was an Oxford-educated hermit and writer of religious texts. He translated several parts of the Bible including the Psalms in the early 1300s. Rolle's Psalms was translated into a Northern English dialect but later copies have been adapted into Southern English dialects. Rolle's Psalms was written as a Latin gloss with English appearing between the Latin text.
- At the same time another version of Psalms, the West Midland Psalms, was translated by an anonymous author in the West Midlands region. This version is also a gloss.
- Also in the early years of the 1300's, an English translation of the French language version of Revelations appeared also by an anonymous translator.
- Wyclif produced the first complete English language Bible in the late 1300's. His New Testament was completed in 1380 and the Old Testament a few years later. It is thought that a large portion of the Old Testament was translated by Nicholas Hereford with Wyclif completing it and translating the New Testament himself. Some 30 copies of this Bible survive despite the fact that it was banned by the church along with the Lollards who used it.
- Wyclif's Bible was revised in the last years of the 1300's, perhaps by John Purvey. This edition was also banned and became even more popular than the first. Some 130 copies still exist including some belonging to the British royal family.
- After the controversy was begun by Wyclif, a unauthorized catholic version of the New Testament was produced in English. The oldest remaining copy dates to about 1400.
- William Caxton translated many Bible stories and passages from the French which occured in the Golden Legend which he published in 1483 and in the The Book of the Knight in the Tower, published 1484.