ABSTRACT
The Jewish Scriptures in their entirety were translated into English for the first time in the Middle English or “Wycliffite” Bible, by associates and followers of John Wyclif between about 1370 and 1390. 1 Although the Jewish Scriptures were considered by Christians an integral part of the Christian Bible, Christian dominion posited an historical endpoint to the validity of Judaism: the advent of the Messiah. 2 What were the consequences of this for the translation of Jewish Scripture made during Chaucer's lifetime? Did the Wycliffite translators believe that the ways in which Jews read their Scriptures had been superseded by Christian interpretation, or do the reading practices of Jews, as the translators represent them, live on in the Wycliffite Bible to influence the reading practices of English Christians, including Chaucer?
