The Old English Bible I: The Heptateuch (Genesis to Judges) Corpus Textuum Anglicorum: 1 Edited by John J. Gallagher and Michael Everson. Introduction by John J. Gallagher. Indexes by Michael Everson. First edition. Dundee: Evertype, 2024. ISBN 978-1-78201-328-0. Click on the book cover to order this book from Amazon.co.uk! Also available from Amazon.com!

This volume presents ten Old English texts, beginning with three treatises by Ælfric of Eynsham (c.950–c.1010): his letters to Sigeweard and to Wulfgeat, and his Preface to Genesis. Following these, the five books of Moses are given (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) along with the first two of the historical books, Joshua and Judges. Together with these is presented a complete index ver­borum listing each wordform and its location in the corpus. Twenty-five illustrations from five different manu­scripts are pres­ented, some showing the manuscript text, and eleven with beautiful vignettes from Genesis and Exodus.

Corpus Textuum Anglicorum is a series which presents editions of texts in Old English and in Middle English, as well as works in related languages. The series also includes thematic studies of early English literature, and linguistic and lexical resources.

The British Library, Cotton MS. Claudius B. iv, f. 19r. Reproduced courtesy of the British Library Board.

Genesis 11 ¹Soðlice ealle menn spræcon ða ane spræce. ²Ða ða hi ferdon fram eastdæle, hi fundon ænne feld on Senaarlande ⁊ wunodon ðæron. ³Ða cwædon hi him betwynan: “Uton wyrcean us tigelan ⁊ ælan hi on fyre.” Witodlice hi hæfdon tigelan for stan ⁊ tyrwan for weall-lim. ⁴⹒ cwædon: “Uton timbrian us ceastre ⁊ stypel oð heofon heahne, ⁊ uton wyrðian urne naman. Ær ðam ðe we synd todælede geond ealle eorðan.” ⁵Witodlice Drihten astah nyðer to ðam ðæt he gesawe ða burh ⁊ ðone stypel ðe Adames bearn getimbrodon. ⁶⹒ he cwæð: “Ðis is an folc ⁊ ealle hi sprecað an leden ⁊ hi begunnon ðis to wyrcenne. Ne geswycað hi ær ðan ðe hit geara sy. ⁷Soðlice uton cuman ⁊ todælan ðær heora spæce.” ⁸Swa Drihten hi todælde of ðære stowe geond ealle eorðan. ⁹⹒ for ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel for ðam ðar wæron todælede ealle spæce.   Genesis 11 ¹Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. ⁴Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” ⁵The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. ⁶And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. (NRSV)

Old English boasts the most substantial corpus of biblical translation in any early medieval European vernacular. The Old English tradition claims a significant number of scriptural renderings of various types, including complete translations of entire books or groups of books; sustained interlinear glosses to texts of the Latin Bible; homiletic translations and paraphrases which in themselves could be considered serious translations; lengthy poetic adaptations of Old Testament books; and translations of a surprisingly wide range of apocryphal texts.

In the Old English textual tradition, there is a clear and well-established culture of recasting the scriptures into the vernacular in a range of faithful, instructive, and imaginative ways. It is these Old English versions of the Bible that are the subject of this and successive volumes in the collection.

The Old English Heptateuch is a collaborative translation of the earliest books of the Old Testament associated with Ælfric of Eynsham—a leading Benedictine monastic figure, homilist, and grammarian of Old English—and other anonymous translators. No other work of vernacular biblical translation survives from early medieval England or Western Europe that is of the same breadth or complexity as the Heptateuch. The Heptateuch is one of the earliest and most significant monuments of vernacular biblical culture from the Middle Ages in Europe.

The purpose of the present collection is to offer a reader’s edition of the Old English Bible and to bring into focus the range of vernacular biblical works produced in Anglo-Saxon England.

Our primary aim is accessibility. We seek to present the text of the Hepta­teuch and related biblical translations in a set of volumes which collect the material all together in one place. In addition to this we offer a reader-friendly format that takes as its model the design of modern Bible editions with which we are all familiar. Accord­ingly, we punctuate and paragraph the text as is now expected practice. Ours is intended to be an edition for mod­ern readers and a convenient source for consulta­tion and citation. It will be congenial to users of faith or no faith who are interested in the history of the Bible in English.

Headers at the top of the page give the incoming and outgoing folio containing the text on a spread; alongside these are the first new verse on the left-hand page, and the last new verse on the right. The manuscript siglum is given after the folio number.

The layout will allow readers to see how the translators have handled their scriptural sources and how our textual edition compares to its manuscripts. Such a layout will allow the Old English text to be used or referenced as scripture—as was originally intended—and will allow for comparison between the Old English and other versions of the Bible.