WYCLIFFE'S
BIBLE
Comprising of
WYCLIFFE'S OLD TESTAMENT
and
WYCLIFFE'S NEW TESTAMENT
(Revised Edition)
Translated by
JOHN WYCLIFFE
and JOHN PURVEY
A modern-spelling edition of their 14th century Middle English translation, the first complete English vernacular version, with an Introduction by
Wycliffe's Bible © 2012
Wycliffe's Old Testament ©2001, ©2010
Wycliffe's New Testament ©2001, ©2011
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Bible. English (Middle English). Wycliffe. 2010.
Wycliffe's Bible translated by John Wycliffe and John Purvey: a modern-spelling edition of their 14th century Middle English translation, the first complete English vernacular version, with an introduction by Terence P. Noble/Terence P. Noble, editor.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-9697670-7-7
I. Wycliffe, John, d. 1384. II. Purvey, John, 1353?-1428?
III. Noble, Terry, 1954-. IV. Title.
BS835 2010 225.5'201 C2001-911689-6
Cover design and image from www.createspace.com (a division of Amazon).
For more information, contact Terence Noble at [email protected].
My thanks to:
QUYNH M. DANG, for your patience, support, and word processing expertise;
the JEWISH PEOPLE, who, for millennia, preserved and protected their Tanakh, their greatest gift to ALL humanity;
my parents, AL and FRIEDA NOBLE, and everyone else, including pets, who showed kindness along the way;
my friend SEAN GREGORY, for his profound insights concerning the working of the HOLY SPIRIT. "Holy is holy."
Thanks be to GOD, for this opportunity of a lifetime.
With love for my mother, HELEN FRIEDA NOBLE.
Note to the Reader
In response to requests from readers, here in one ebook, published together for the first time, are Wycliffe's Old Testament (2010) and Wycliffe's New Testament (Revised Edition 2011), both of which are still available in paperback at www.amazon.com.
Be sure to read the Introduction to gain a better understanding of the words and grammar that you will encounter in Wycliffe's Bible, and In Conclusion to fully appreciate the significance of John Wycliffe's and John Purvey's magnificent accomplishment.
Terence Noble
Vancouver Canada
Summer 2012
Introduction
....and I shall give to thee tables of stone, and the law, and commandments, which I have written, that thou teach them….
From within a cloud or a burning bush, from the midst of the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem or above the summit of Mount Sinai in the desert, to prophets, priests, and patriarchs alike, YAHWEH, the Great "I AM", "the God of revelation and grace", spoke to His people in words they could all understand.
Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the ten commandments, written in stone by the finger of God, in a language the entire nation of Israel could read.
David composed his poems of praise and petition, promises and pleadings, to the Lord God of hosts, in the everyday language of his people.
Solomon penned his proverbs of wise fatherly counsel, and his songs of passionate love, in Hebrew, the language of many of his sons, and at least some of his lovers….
….then Jesus spake to the people….
By the sea or on a hilltop, in the Temple or at the well, to individuals and to multitudes alike, when Jesus walked the earth, he spoke to people in words they could understand.
Paul's actual letters were written in Greek, the everyday language of those to whom they were sent. Thirty years later, the same would be true of the original Gospels.
But in England 2300 years after David and Solomon, and 1300 years after Jesus and Paul, the Word of God was written almost exclusively in Latin1, an unknown language to 99% of that society. Indeed, Latin was only understood by some of the clergy, some of the well-off, and the few who were university-educated. This did not trouble the Church princes, who long before had transformed the "Divine Commission" - to preach the Word and to save souls - into the more temporal undertaking of the all-consuming drive to wield authority over every aspect of life, and in the process, to accumulate ever-greater wealth.
John Wycliffe, an Oxford University professor and theologian, was one of those few who had read the Latin Bible. Though a scholar living a life of privilege, he nevertheless felt a strong empathy for the poor and the uneducated, those multitudes in feudal servitude whose lives were "nasty, brutish, and short". He challenged the princes of the Church to face their hypocrisy and widespread corruption - and to repent. He railed that the Church was no longer worthy to be The Keeper of the Word of Truth. And he proposed a truly revolutionary idea:
"The Scriptures," Wycliffe stated, "are the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them. Christ and his apostles converted much people by uncovering of Scripture, and this in the tongue which was most known to them. Why then may not the modern disciples of Christ gather up the fragments of the same bread? The faith of Christ ought therefore to be recounted to the people in both languages, Latin and English."
Indeed, John Wycliffe earnestly believed that all Scripture should be available to all of the people all of the time in their native tongue.
He believed that with the Word of God literally in hand, each individual could have a personal relationship with God, and work out his or her own salvation, with no need for any human or institutional intermediary.
And so John Wycliffe and his followers, most notably John Purvey, his secretary and close friend, and for a limited time, Nicholas Hereford2, translated Jerome's Vulgate, the "Latin Bible", into the
