are capitalized thus in the original text). The equivalent title used here in the KJV, and in several modern translations as well, is "The Branch". Overall, the KJV and other translations, including Jewish Bibles, capitalize words such as "King", "Prince", "Branch", and "Sun", as titles for the coming Messiah, but not always consistently internally, or in uniformity with one another. To aid comprehension, all are consistently capitalized in Wycliffe's Old Testament.
In Habakkuk 3:18, where the KJV has "God my saviour", and other translations have "God my deliverer"/"God my deliverance", Wycliffe's Old Testament, following the WOT (both versions), has "God my Jesus". The name "Jesus" is not here in the original Hebrew or Greek texts. Its insertion here in this verse by Christian preachers Wycliffe and Purvey illustrates their belief in the essential unity of the two testaments.
"Spirit" in the WOT can refer to God, His breath, or simply "the wind". So "the Spirit" and "the Spirit of God" are sometimes capitalized, sometimes not. Occasionally, the WOT has "the Spirit of the Lord", where the KJV and other translations have "the spirit of the Lord". But overall, "the Spirit of the Lord" is capitalized more often in the KJV Old Testament and other translations than in the WOT. This term is problematic. Wycliffe's Old Testament simply follows the WOT.
In the Wycliffe New Testament (both versions), "God", "Jesus", "Christ", and the "Holy Ghost" are always capitalized, while the "Father", the "Son" (of God, or of man), the "Spirit", "Lord", and "Saviour" are only sometimes capitalized. For consistency's sake, all have been capitalized in Wycliffe's New Testament. Other appellations and adjectives for God and Jesus, such as "the word", "the lamb", "shepherd", "master", "prince", "king", "holy" and "just" are not capitalized in the WNT, and remain not capitalized in Wycliffe's New Testament. "christian" is not capitalized in the WNT, nor in Wycliffe's New Testament. As always, the goal with each testament was to achieve a workable balance between providing an accurate representation of the original text, and enhancing reader comprehension, while remaining true to the context.
Words in italics are words added by the translators to aid comprehension. The KJV OT contains more italicized words than does the "Later Version" of the WOT, but less italicized words than the "Early Version" of the WOT. The KJV NT contains many more words in italics than the "Later Version" of the WNT, but less words in italics than the "Early Version" of the WNT. Wycliffe's Bible simply follows the WB in this regard. (Words in italics within parentheses in Wycliffe's New Testament are excerpts I have taken from the "Early Version of the WNT"; see the "Preface to the Revised Edition of Wycliffe's New Testament" for more information.)
When Wycliffe's Bible and the KJV are placed side-by-side, you can readily compare one text to the other. Sometimes reading Wycliffe's Bible first, then the KJV, you will see how the KJV grew out of the "Wycliffe Bible", and that it often follows it explicitly. Other times the KJV will help you to understand a difficult passage in Wycliffe's Bible. Sometimes the two texts will be different, but related; other times they will be as different as two versions of the same verse could be. But many times, particularly in regard to the New Testament, you will find these two texts very similar, and often, identical.
A Word Regarding the Primary Source
The primary source for this book was Forshall & Madden's 4-volume magnum opus, The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, With the Apocryphal Books, In the Earliest English Versions, Made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers. Today, it is most likely found in a university library or on the Internet.
Written over a period of twenty years in the mid-19th century, this monumental work of scholarship was the crowning achievement of The Rev. Josiah Forshall and Sir Frederic Madden. From about 160 extant hand-printed copies of the two versions of the "Wycliffe Bible" (about 40 copies of the "Early Version" and about 120 copies of the "Later Version"), they selected one copy from each version to serve as a "master" text, and then, by utilizing over 90,000 footnotes, correlated the other copies with these two "master" texts.
Both versions of the "Wycliffe Bible" contain prologues (introductions to each book or group of related books, mostly taken from Jerome), and marginal glosses (explanations of the text by the translators, and some alternate renderings of words and phrases). The prologues are not utilized in Wycliffe's Bible. The glosses are a different story.
Some revisions of the "Later Version" of the WOT, particularly the copies Forshall & Madden labelled "C", "G", "K", "Q", and "X", and to a lesser extent, "B", "I", and "N", contain glosses which prove that Hebrew Bibles, commentaries, and scholars were consulted during the copying/revising process. Over 300 times throughout the WOT, gloss after gloss states: "in Hebrew, it is", "is not in Hebrew", "as Hebrews say", "as Hebrews understand", "this verse is not in Hebrew", "this title is not in Hebrew". As well, at least 7 times, a "Rabbi Solomon" is quoted as commenting on a particular verse: "as Rabbi Solomon saith". This "Rabbi Solomon" was most likely the scholar "Rashi", the leading commentator on the Jewish Bible and the Talmud in the 11th century, or possibly another commentator from history, or perhaps even a contemporary of the translators (although this is the least likely possibility). Another 5 times, reference is made to (Jerome's) "Book of Hebrew Questions", a book of the master translator's own corrections of the Greek and Latin texts, which he made by referencing the Hebrew Scriptures. Jerome believed that the Hebrew provided a truer text to translate from than either the earlier Latin versions or the Septuagint (a fact agreed to by all modern translators). So, where appropriate, the words and phrases from these glosses have been either incorporated into the main text of Wycliffe's Old Testament or are presented as alternate renderings. A few of the alternate renderings from the glosses are printed in this book, but all of them can be found in the online files and in files on the Wycliffe's Bible CD. As well, gleanings from other glosses are placed in footnotes in this book.
The footnotes in Forshall & Madden's four volumes are another source of invaluable information. As noted, there are over 90,000 footnotes, with about 65,000 pertaining to the Old Testament (both versions), and about 25,000 pertaining to the New Testament (both versions). These footnotes delineate textual divergence - changes, omissions, insertions, copyist errors - between the two "master" texts and the other hand-printed copies of both versions of the "Wycliffe Bible". (A footnote can either refer to a single copy or to multiple copies.) Close reading of these footnotes indicates that many times when a copy of either version was written (though less frequently with the "Early Version"), the original language texts were also consulted. For time and again, words were added, or changed, to produce a more accurate rendering of the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, and the original Greek of the New Testament. In creating Wycliffe's Bible, many of these footnotes were utilized to provide the most precise translation, as well as the best phrasing - the most satisfying, balanced, and rhythmic read - that is found within all extant copies of the "Wycliffe Bible". However, specifically in regard to Wycliffe's New Testament, no "Later Version" footnote was simply used to produce greater consistency with the KJV, nor were two footnotes combined within the same phrase ("between the commas") for that purpose. With some "Early Version" WNT verses, noteworthy phrasing from two (or more) footnotes were combined due to space limitations, and to avoid needless repetition. These excerpts are marked with a plus sign in superscript, "+" and are contained within square brackets, [ ]; all the other "Early Version" passages are from a single source.
In Wycliffe's Bible, a forward slash, "/", separates different renderings of the same phrase from two different hand-written copies, usually the "master" text and an alternate rendering found in a footnote. Most of the renderings from the footnotes in Wycliffe's Old Testament came from the copies labelled "I", "N", and "S". It is significant to note that numerous textual variations indicated by footnotes for only the "Early Version" also appear in the KJV. This strongly suggests that the KJV translators consulted a variety of copies of the "Wycliffe Bible" during the writing of the KJV (more on this below). See the online files or the files on the Wycliffe's Bible CD for the majority of these alternate renderings taken from the footnotes.
In creating Wycliffe's Bible, textual errors that were found in the "Wycliffe Bible" were not changed (they are also
