Early+English+Translations

A number of **Old English Bible translations** (pre-1066) were prepared in medieval [|England], [|rendering] parts of the [|Bible] into the [|Old English language].

Many of these translations were in fact [|glosses], prepared and circulated in connection with the [|Latin] Bible — the [|Vulgate] — that was standard in [|Western Christianity] at the time, for the purpose of assisting clerics whose grasp of Latin was imperfect. Old English literature is remarkable for containing a number of incomplete Bible translations that were //not// glosses and that were meant to be circulated independentl

The [|Lord's Prayer] — //Suae ðonne iuih gie bidde fader urer ðu arð ðu bist in heofnum & in heofnas; sie gehalgad noma ðin; to-cymeð ric ðin. sie willo ðin suae is in heofne & in eorðo. hlaf userne oferwistlic sel us to dæg. & forgef us scylda usra suae uoe forgefon scyldgum usum. & ne inlæd usih in costunge ah gefrig usich from yfle// //Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, si þin nama gehalgod. To becume þin rice, gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. Soþlice.// In 1066, the [|Norman Conquest of England] marked the beginning of the end of the Old English language and initiated profound changes in its vocabulary. The project of translating the Bible into Old English gradually ended after that process began. A period of change from Old English to Middle English began (though evidence is very scanty), and eventually there were attempts to provide [|Bible translations] in that language.
 * [|Aldhelm], Bishop of Sherborne (b. 639, d. 25 May 709) is thought to have written an Old English translation of the [|Psalms], although this is disputed.
 * [|Caedmon] is mentioned by Bede as one who sang poems in Old English based on the Bible stories, but he was not involved in translation per se.
 * A translation of the [|Gospel of John] into Old English by the Venerable [|Bede], which he is said to have prepared shortly before his death around the year 735. This translation is lost; we know of its existence from Cuthbert of Jarrow's account of Bede's death.[|[][|1][|]]
 * The //[|Vespasian Psalter]//,[|[][|2][|]] an interlinear [|gloss] found in a manuscript of the [|Book of Psalms].[|[][|3][|]] The gloss was prepared around 850. This gloss is in the [|Mercian] dialect.
 * Eleven other 9th-century glosses of the Psalms are known, including Eadwine's //Canterbury Psalter//.[|[][|4][|]]
 * [|King Alfred] had a number of passages of the Bible circulated in the vernacular around AD 900. These included passages from the [|Ten Commandments] and the [|Pentateuch], which he prefixed to a code of laws he promulgated around this time. Alfred is also said to have directed the Book of Psalms to have been translated into Old English. Many scholars believe that the fifty Psalms in Old English that are found in the //Paris Psalter// [|[][|5][|]] represent Alfred's translation.
 * Between 950 and 970, [|Aldred the Scribe] added a gloss in the [|Northumbrian] dialect of Old English (the //Northumbrian Gloss on the Gospels//) to the //[|Lindisfarne Gospels]// as well as a foreword describing who wrote and decorated it.
 * At around the same time, a priest named Farman wrote a gloss on the [|Gospel of Matthew] that is preserved in a manuscript called the //[|Rushworth Gospels]//.[|[][|6][|]]
 * In approximately 990, a full and freestanding version of the four Gospels in idiomatic Old English appeared, in the [|West Saxon] dialect; these are known as the //[|Wessex Gospels]//. Seven manuscript copies of this translation have survived; they apparently had some currency. This version gives the most familiar Old English version of [|Matthew 6:9–13], the [|Lord's Prayer]:
 * At about the same time as the Wessex Gospels, the priest [|Ælfric of Eynsham] produced an independent translation of the Pentateuch with [|Joshua] and [|Judges]. His translations were used for the Illustrated [|Old English Hexateuch].
 * The [|Caedmon manuscript] which was initially ascribed to Caedmon, was written between 700-1000. The extant manuscript was copied about 1000. It includes Biblical material in vernacular verses.

Later texts

 * The three related maunscripts, [|Royal 1 A. xiv] at the British Library, [|Bodley 441] and [|Hatton 38] at the Bodleian Library, are written in Old English although produced in the late 1100s. Hatton 38 is noted as being written in the latest Kentish form of West Saxon.[|[][|7][|]][|[][|8][|]] They cover the four Gospels, with one section (Luke 16.14 - 17.1) missing from both manuscripts, Hatton and Royal.[|[][|9][|]]

Excerpt taken from Wikipedia Article entitled "Old English Bible Translations"
Early English Translations