Theology Thursday: Breaking the ice: John Wycliffe and the English Bible

This article by F. F. Bruce, written to mark the sexcentenary of his death in 1384, provides an accessible introduction to Wycliffe’s life, particularly his role as the driving force behind the production of the first English Bible. Bruce notes that he was unusual in his day for his clear understanding of scriptural authority (if not of justification by faith alone): “on the principle of sola scriptura he was wholly at one with Luther."

Wycliffe’s emphasis on the supreme authority of Scripture led him to question papal authority, place a high priority on preaching and insist that clergy should know the Scriptures. And it was his view that every person was personally and directly responsible to God which led to his passionate belief that the Bible should be available to all people in their own language.

Bruce also highlights the work of Wycliffe’s disciple John Purvey on a more idiomatic revision of the Bible after Wycliffe’s death. Purvey’s prologue provides a fascinating insight into the painstaking process of Bible translation, as the translators sought to find the right balance between readability and faithfulness to the base text.

Purvey also detailed their timeless motivation: “to save all men in our realm, which God would have saved” by providing access to the Word of God in their own tongue. For over a century, the Wycliffite translations were the only versions of the Scriptures available to the English people in their own language.

Bruce concludes with an apposite quote from the translators of the King James Bible in 1611: “blessed be they… that break the ice, and give onset upon that which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can be more available thereto, than to deliver God’s book unto God’s people in a tongue which they understand?”

I warmly recommend this article as a prompt to gratitude and a spur to prayer as we are reminded to treasure our Bibles and to contend for biblical truth. As John Purvey, who was himself imprisoned for his activities, concluded in his prologue: “God grant to us all grace to know well and to keep well Holy Writ, and to suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last.”

Bruce, F. F. “John Wycliffe and the English Bible.” Churchman 98/4 (1984): 294–306.