Wycliffe's Bible
Directed by English theologian John Wycliffe in the 1380s and completed by followers including John Purvey, this was the first complete Bible translated into English at a time when the Church restricted scripture to Latin. It predates the King James Version (KJV) by nearly two and a half centuries, and its text opens with Genesis (WYCLIFFE).
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred Word of God.
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity.
About the Wycliffe's Bible (WYCLIFFE) Translation
Wycliffe's Bible, produced under the direction of English theologian John Wycliffe (c. 1328-1384) and completed by his followers including John Purvey, was the first complete translation of the Bible into the English language. Translated from the Latin Vulgate at a time when the Church restricted scripture to Latin, Wycliffe's Bible was a radical act that made God's Word directly accessible to English readers for the first time and helped inspire the later Protestant Reformation. Hand-copied and circulated at great personal risk to its distributors, the translation exists in an earlier, more literal version and a later, more idiomatic revision associated with Purvey, both of which survive in this edition. Predating the printing press by decades, Wycliffe's Bible stands as the foundation stone of English-language scripture, over a century before Tyndale and nearly two and a half centuries before the King James Version. Read Wycliffe's Bible online here, the earliest complete English translation of scripture.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Today's Verse
And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.
Verse Of The DayHand-copied and circulated at real risk to those who distributed it, Wycliffe's Bible helped inspire the later Protestant Reformation and stands as the foundation of English-language scripture, well before even the American Standard-ASV1901 (ASV) existed. Compare its early English against Psalms (WYCLIFFE).
