living at the monastery of Lindisfarne off the northeastern coast of England, spent six years to hand copy the Latin text of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with a quill pen. He also illuminated the gospel text with a weave of fantastic images—snakes and birds twisting into three-dimensional knots to captivate the reader. After Eadfrith finished producing 259 pages of text and drawings, he bounded them into a book.
Later, around the year 950, a priest of the monastery at Chester-le-Street added a gloss of Old English words written above the Latin text of Eadfrith. By doing so, Aldred produced the first translation of the Gospels in the English language.
The Latin text of John 1:1 in the Lindisfarne Gospels copied from the Latin Vulgate:
IN PRIN
CIPIO
ERAT VERBUM
ET VERBUM ERAT
APUD DEUM ET DEUS
This image (above) shows the Old English words written above the Latin text which are highlighted below in bold.
Latin:
Old English:
Modern English:
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum
in fryma waes word & word waes mid gode & god waes word
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God