Wycliffe Bible
Contents
John Wycliffe's Translation
This page describes preprocessing results for the text of John Wycliffe's Translation obtained from The Wesley Center Online. The same text is also available from WikiSource. For historical context, see Wycliffe's Bible.
Weaknesses
Both Tyndale and Wycliffe texts from the Wesley Center Online were the work of Sergej A. Fedosov of the Slavic Bible website.
Some problems with Sergej's work is that he didn't transcribe the Middle English vowels with a macron that represented a n, or m – so the text has a lot of hi meaning him, the meaning them, wet meaning went etc., where these are not spellings that the printer used. He also transcribes the þe, þt and such thorn letters as ye, yt instead of the, that, etc., but transcribes the ampersand (&) as and.
He also capitalised some words where this was inappropriate. e.g. The first word of Leviticus 1, "Forsothe" was transcribed as "FORSOTHE".
Description
The downloaded ZIP file contained 76 books comprising the 66 protocanonical books and 10 deuterocanonical books. It also included a text file providing a key to the booknames. See below.
Genesis - gen.txt Exodus - exo.txt Leviticus - lev.txt Numbers - num.txt Deuteronomy - deu.txt Joshua - jos.txt Judges - jdg.txt Ruth - rut.txt 1 Kings - 1sa.txt 2 Kings - 2sa.txt 3 Kings - 1ki.txt 4 Kings - 2ki.txt 1 Paralipomenon - 1ch.txt 2 Paralipomenon - 2ch.txt 1 Esdras - ezr.txt 2 Esdras - neh.txt 3 Esdras - 2ez.txt Tobit - tob.txt Judith - jdt.txt Esther - est.txt Job - job.txt Psalms - psa.txt Proverbs - pro.txt Ecclesiastes - ecc.txt Songes of Songes - sol.txt Wisdom - wis.txt Syrach - syr.txt Isaiah - isa.txt Jeremiah - jer.txt Lamentations - lam.txt Preier of Jeremye - epj.txt Baruk - bar.txt Ezechiel - eze.txt Daniel - dan.txt Osee - hos.txt Joel - joe.txt Amos - amo.txt Abdias - oba.txt Jonas - jon.txt Mychee - mic.txt Naum - nah.txt Abacuk - hab.txt Sofonye - zep.txt Aggey - hag.txt Sacarie - zec.txt Malachie - mal.txt 1 Machabeis - 1ma.txt 2 Machabeis - 2ma.txt Matheu - mat.txt Mark - mar.txt Luke - luk.txt John - joh.txt Dedis of Apostlis - act.txt Romaynes - rom.txt 1 Corinthis - 1co.txt 2 Corinthis - 2co.txt Galathies - gal.txt Effesies - eph.txt Filipensis - phi.txt Colosencis - col.txt 1 Thessalonycensis - 1th.txt 2 Thessalonycensis - 2th.txt 1 Tymothe - 1ti.txt 2 Tymothe - 2ti.txt Tite - tit.txt Filemon - phm.txt Ebrews - heb.txt James - jam.txt 1 Petre - 1pe.txt 2 Petre - 2pe.txt 1 Joon - 1jo.txt 2 Joon - 2jo.txt 3 Joon - 3jo.txt Judas - jud.txt Apocalips - rev.txt Laodicensis - lao.txt
The Biblical text files were last edited on 2002-05-24. I have not attempted to compare the full text with the derived copy at WikiSource.
Filenames
I prefixed the filenames for the Biblical text files with the usual book numbers, with an underscore to avoid mis-sorting filenames that already began with a numeral.
Deuterocanonical books
To include the 10 deuterocanonical books in a SWORD module would require using av11n.
Here is a list of these books extracted from the original text file of booknames.
3 Esdras - 2ez.txt Tobit - tob.txt Judith - jdt.txt Wisdom - wis.txt Syrach - syr.txt Preier of Jeremye - epj.txt Baruk - bar.txt 1 Machabeis - 1ma.txt 2 Machabeis - 2ma.txt Laodicensis - lao.txt
These books appear in the following order
- 3 Esdras, Tobit & Judith are after 2 Esdras.
- Wisdom & Syrach are after Songes of Songes.
- Preier of Jeremye & Baruk are after Lamentations.
- 1 & 2 Machabeis are after Malachie
- Laodicensis is after Apocalips
These are the numbers that I assigned for these at the file renaming.
67_TOB.TXT 68_JDT.TXT 70_WIS.TXT 71_SYR.TXT 72_BAR.TXT 73_EPJ.TXT 77_1MA.TXT 78_2MA.TXT 81_2EZ.TXT 87_LAO.TXT
Conversion to USFM
I made a simple TextPipe filter to convert the files to rudimentary USFM, complete with ID and Header tags, plus the following remarks.
\rem John Wycliffe's Translation of the Bible \rem converted to rudimentary USFM format by David Haslam \rem from the text obtained from The Wesley Center Online \rem http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/biblical_studies/wycliffe/
The ID and Header for Genesis looks like this:
\id GEN \h Genesis
Versification issues
I used Dirk's GoBibleCreator USFM Preprocessor utility to detect versification issues.
Results
The results were as follows: (82 issues in total, some of which are inter-related due to being immediately adjacent)
Versification Issues Filename Chapter Verse 01_GEN.usfm 3 21 01_GEN.usfm 8 8 02_EXO.usfm 29 43 03_LEV.usfm 22 17 04_NUM.usfm 2 2 04_NUM.usfm 28 30 04_NUM.usfm 33 23 07_JDG.usfm 4 6 07_JDG.usfm 4 16 09_1SA.usfm 4 3 09_1SA.usfm 16 17 09_1SA.usfm 17 4 12_2KI.usfm 21 1 12_2KI.usfm 21 22 14_2CH.usfm 26 12 15_EZR.usfm 10 38 16_NEH.usfm 9 30 16_NEH.usfm 9 4 16_NEH.usfm 10 1 16_NEH.usfm 10 39 16_NEH.usfm 11 9 18_JOB.usfm 6 7 18_JOB.usfm 8 9 18_JOB.usfm 37 1 18_JOB.usfm 37 34 19_PSA.usfm 9 22 21_ECC.usfm 4 18 21_ECC.usfm 5 1 21_ECC.usfm 6 12 21_ECC.usfm 7 1 21_ECC.usfm 7 31 21_ECC.usfm 8 1 21_ECC.usfm 10 1 21_ECC.usfm 10 19 22_SOL.usfm 1 17 22_SOL.usfm 2 1 22_SOL.usfm 6 6 24_JER.usfm 11 9 24_JER.usfm 30 25 24_JER.usfm 31 1 25_LAM.usfm 3 60 26_EZE.usfm 39 1 26_EZE.usfm 39 24 26_EZE.usfm 43 15 27_DAN.usfm 4 1 27_DAN.usfm 4 101 27_DAN.usfm 13 66 27_DAN.usfm 14 1 28_HOS.usfm 12 1 28_HOS.usfm 12 13 33_MIC.usfm 4 14 33_MIC.usfm 5 1 39_MAL.usfm 3 1 39_MAL.usfm 3 18 40_MAT.usfm 10 32 40_MAT.usfm 20 27 40_MAT.usfm 22 6 40_MAT.usfm 24 51 42_LUK.usfm 7 42 48_GAL.usfm 3 20 54_1TI.usfm 4 17 54_1TI.usfm 5 1 66_REV.usfm 12 1 66_REV.usfm 12 20 68_JDT.usfm 1 11 68_JDT.usfm 8 5 70_WIS.usfm 7 31 70_WIS.usfm 8 1 70_WIS.usfm 10 22 70_WIS.usfm 11 1 71_SYR.usfm 27 1 71_SYR.usfm 27 29 72_BAR.usfm 2 36 72_BAR.usfm 3 1 72_BAR.usfm 4 3 72_BAR.usfm 4 20 77_1MA.usfm 11 4 78_2MA.usfm 2 27 81_2EZ.usfm 1 38 81_2EZ.usfm 3 1 81_2EZ.usfm 3 32 81_2EZ.usfm 7 16
I have cross-checked these issues against the WikiSource edition. All but one of them were not corrected.
Analysis
Genesis
Let's examine the first such issue as an example:
\v 20 And Adam clepide the name of his wijf Eue, for sche was the moder of alle men lyuynge. And the Lord God made cootis of skynnys to Adam and Eue his wijf, and clothide hem; and seide, Lo...! \v 22 Adam is maad as oon of vs, and knowith good and yuel; now therfore se ye, lest perauenture he putte his hond, and take of the tre of lijf, and ete, and lyue with outen ende. \v 23 And the Lord God sente hym out of paradijs of likyng, that he schulde worche the erthe, of which he was takun. \v 24 And God castide out Adam, and settide bifore paradis of lykyng cherubyn, and a swerd of flawme and turnynge aboute to kepe the weie of the tre of lijf.
Clearly there is no marker for \v 21.
Verse 20 requires splitting into two verses in order to match the v11n for the KJV. Thus it would then become:
\v 20 And Adam clepide the name of his wijf Eue, for sche was the moder of alle men lyuynge. \v 21 And the Lord God made cootis of skynnys to Adam and Eue his wijf, and clothide hem; and seide, Lo!
In Wikisource, this change has not been made, even though some issues have been fixed in other books.
- Many of the remaining 81 v11n issues were similar.
3 Kings
Although not detected automatically, it should be noted that two verses in 3 Kings each contain a numbered note that starts on a new line.
Chapter 11
\v 5 But Salomon worschipide Astartes 1, the goddesse of Sidoneis, and Chamos, the god of Moabitis, and Moloch, the idol of Amonytis;
Chapter 15
\v 23 Sotheli the residue of alle wordis of Asa, and of al his strengthe, and alle thingis whiche he dide, and the citees whiche he bildide, whether these ben not writun in the book of wordis of daies of kingis of Juda? Netheles Asa hadde ache in feet 11, in the tyme of his eelde.
1 Esdras
The versification of 1 Esdras 10 is peculiar in the list of names section at verses 32-44. It's impossible to make one simple change that would make this line up with how it reads in the KJV. I therefore inserted an empty verse 38 containing the following: [Note: the versification is offset in this list].
Esther
Esther includes the Greek additions, but with ordinary verse numbers. Esther thus has 16 chapters instead of the usual 10 in the KJV.
Job
Job chapter 1 had a malformed chapter heading (CAP. I.) in the original text file. This was corrected by my TextPipe filter.
Psalms
Psalm 9 had a malformed heading (PALM 9) in the original text file. This was corrected by my TextPipe filter.
The numbering of the Psalms follows the Greek pattern. See Composition and numbering section of the article on Wikipedia.
Psalm 10 is appended to Psalm 9 as a single Psalm, yet the verse numbers were restarted at 1. The Wikisource edition corrected this oddity.
I have included the original verse numbers (corresponding to Psalm 10) in braces.
Ecclesiastes
The versification for Ecclesiates 5 was offset by minus one. I have included the original verse numbers in braces.
Songes of Songes
The versification for Songes of Songes 6 was offset by minus one. I have included the original verse numbers in braces.
Daniel
Daniel includes the Greek additions, but with ordinary verse numbers. Daniel thus has 14 chapters instead of the usual 12 in the KJV.
2 Machabeis
The versification for 2 Machabeis 2:26-33 was offset by minus one. I have included the original verse numbers in braces.
Edited USFM files
A copy of the USFM files was made. Those with versification issues have been edited until the preprocessor utility reported none.
Go Bible
A Wycliffe Go Bible application has been made from the edited USFM files. This has been tested successfully using mpowerplayer.
