Tyme of birthe, and time of diyng; 2012: A time of birth, and a time of dying;
1395: tyme to plaunte, and tyme to drawe vp that that is plauntid. 2012: a time to plant, and a time to draw up that which is planted.
1395: Tyme to slee, and tyme to make hool; 2012: A time to slay, and a time to make whole;
1395: tyme to distrie, and tyme to bilde. 2012: a time to destroy, and a time to build.
1395: Tyme to wepe, and tyme to lei3e; 2012: A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
1395: tyme to biweile, and tyme to daunse. 2012: a time to bewail, and a time to dance.
1395: Tyme to scatere stoonys, and tyme to gadere togidere; 2012: A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them together;
1395: tyme to colle, ether biclippe, and tyme to be fer fro collyngis. 2012: a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracings, or embraces.
1395: Tyme to wynne, and tyme to leese; 2012: A time to win, and a time to lose;
1395: tyme to kepe, and tyme to caste awei. 2012: a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
1395: Tyme to kitte, and tyme to sewe togidere; 2012: A time to cut, and a time to sew together;
1395: tyme to be stille, and tyme to speke. 2012: a time to be still, and a time to speak.
1395: Tyme to loue/Tyme of loue, and tyme of hatrede; 2012: A time to love/A time of love, and a time of hatred;
1395: tyme of batel, and tyme of pees. 2012: a time of battle, and a time of peace.
1 Following King Edward I's expulsion edict of 1290, decreeing the banishment of all Jews from England, the Jewish people were absent from its soil until the mid-17th century. However, Hebrew Old Testaments, commentaries, and other scholarly writings concerning the Hebrew Scriptures, were studied when the Old Testament of the "Wycliffe Bible" was written and revised (as were Greek sources when its New Testament was written and revised). For more on this, see 'A Word Regarding the Primary Source' below.
2 Nicholas (de) Hereford, an associate of Wycliffe's and Purvey's, helped write 2/3rds of the highly literal "Early Version" of the Old Testament (up to "Baruch", an apocryphal book then placed before "Ezekiel"), before he was summoned to Rome to explain his actions. Threatened with death by the Synod of Black Friars, he recanted. Pope Urbanus VI sentenced him to prison, where he possibly spent two years. When a civil insurrection broke out in Rome, the rioters set all the captives free. Hereford fled back to England and resumed his work to educate the ignorant and aid the poor. Arrested again, this time his recantation stuck. Thenceforth, he worked tirelessly against his former colleagues, testifying at their trials, vociferously and vituperatively condemning the writing of the English Bible. For his efforts, the Church princes rewarded him with the position of Chancellor and Treasurer of Hereford Cathedral, as well as a lifelong stipend. Finally, after a long life of shifting alliances, of activities of both grace and perfidy, Hereford retired to a Carthusian monastery, an austere, ascetic order that embraced solitude, silence, and midnight masses. Perhaps, at long last, he felt he had said enough.
Wycliffe's
Old Testament
G E N E S I S
CHAPTER 1
1:1 In the beginning God made of nought heaven and earth. (In the beginning God made out of nothing the heavens and the earth.)
1:2 Forsooth the earth was idle and void, and darknesses were on the face of (the) depth; and the Spirit of the Lord was borne on the waters [and the Spirit of God was borne upon the waters].
1:3 And God said, Light be made, and the light was made.
1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good, and he parted the light from (the) darknesses;
1:5 and he called the light, day, and the darknesses, night. And the eventide and the morrowtide was made, one day (the first day).
1:6 And God said, The firmament be made in the midst of (the) waters, and part (the) waters from (the) waters.
1:7 And God made the firmament, and parted the waters that were under the firmament, from the waters that were on the firmament [from these that were above the firmament]; and it was done so.
1:8 And God called the firmament, (the) heaven(s). And the eventide and the morrowtide was made, the second day.
1:9 Forsooth God said, The waters, that be under (the) heaven(s), be gathered into one place, and a dry place appear; and it was done so.
1:10 And God called the dry place, earth; and he called the gatherings together of waters, the seas. And God saw that it was good;
1:11 and said, The earth bring forth green herb, and making seed, and an apple tree making fruit by his kind, whose seed be in itself, on [the] earth; and it was done so. (and said, Let the earth bring forth green herbs, which make seed after their kind, and trees making fruit after their kind, whose seed be in them, all over the earth; and it was done so.)
1:12 And the earth brought forth green herb and making seed by his kind, and a tree making fruit, and each having seed by his kind. And God saw that it was good. (And the earth brought forth green herbs, which make seed after their kind, and trees making fruit, and each having seed after its kind. And God saw that it was good.)
1:13 And the eventide and the morrowtide was made, the third day.
1:14 Forsooth God said, Lights be made in the firmament of (the) heaven(s), and part they the day and (the) night; and be they into signs, and times, and days, and years;
1:15 and shine those in the firmament of (the) heaven(s), and lighten they the earth; and it was done so.
1:16 And God made two great lights, the greater light that it should be before to the day, and the less(er) light that it should be before to the night; and God made (the) stars;
1:17 and setted them in the firmament of (the) heaven(s), (so) that they should shine on [the] earth,
1:18 and that they should be before to the day and (before) [to the] night, and should part (the) light and (the) darkness. And God saw that it was good.
1:19 And the eventide and the morrowtide was made, the fourth day.
1:20 Also God said (And God said), The waters bring forth a reptile, either a creeping beast, of living soul, and a volatile, either a bird flying above [the] earth, under the firmament of (the) heaven(s).
1:21 And God made of nought great
