Old English Hexateuch Old English Hexateuch The Old English Hexateuch is the collaborative project of the late Anglo-Saxon period that translated the six books of the Hexateuch into Old English, presumably under the editorship of Ælfric of Eynsham. It is the first vernacular translation of the first six books of the Old Testament, i.e. the five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) and Joshua. The translation is retained in seven manuscripts, most of which are fragmentary. The best-known of those is a richly illuminated manuscript kept in London: British Library, Cotton MS Claudius B.iv. Another copy of the text,
Old Saxon Genesis of Satan employing a "hæleðhelm" or helm of disguise. Old Saxon Genesis Genesis is an Old Saxon Biblical poem recounting the story of the Book of Genesis, dating to the first half of the 9th century, three fragments of which are preserved in a manuscript in the Vatican Library, "Palatinus Latinus" 1447. It and the "Heliand", a heroic poem based on the New Testament, a fragment of which is also included in the same manuscript, constitute the only record of Old Saxon poetry. It is also the basis of the Anglo-Saxon poem known as "Genesis B", and Eduard Sievers postulated