Early English Bible Translations

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Richard Marsden (University of Nottingham)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Domains

Catholic

Dates

Date of occurrence c.800- c.1000

Places

England (Location)

Genres and Modes

Translation

Resources

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The language of western Christianity in the early medieval period was Latin, and it was the Latin Bible (in the form known as the Vulgate) which remained the official source of scripture for the English church until the Reformation. Yet even before the Norman Conquest of 1066, a signifcant proportion of the Bible was available in vernacular translation also — in Old English — even though there was never a complete “Old English Bible”.

As early as the opening decades of the eighth century, the Venerable Bede, well aware of the problems faced by English monks having to master Latin, seems to have put at least parts of the gospel of St John into English, but the details are sketchy. Our first clear evidence of the “Englishing” of scripture comes not from continuous separate

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1061 words

Citation: Marsden, Richard. "Early English Bible Translations". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1270, accessed 22 November 2024.]