Old English Hexateuch

The largest complex of Old English prose translation of the Old Testament, this body of work covers Genesis through Joshua together with related Old Testament material, rendered from Latin with the Latin Vulgate serving as its base text. It belongs to the vernacular teaching programme associated with Ælfric of Eynsham, the most prolific English prose writer of the late Anglo-Saxon period, and its approach is selective and pedagogical rather than exhaustively literal. It is best classed as a fresh translation or adaptation, with the Vulgate as its predecessor or base translation. A distinctive characteristic is that translation and adaptation are interwoven throughout, and not every section is Ælfric's own work; the compilation drew on other hands as well. Surviving in illustrated manuscript copies, it stands among the most substantial witnesses to biblical translation into English before the medieval and Reformation vernacular versions.