After a collation of the manuscripts, and an initial survey of the material for a critical edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels had been made, the Delegates of the Clarendon Press suggested the plan of putting forth in advance, with as little as possible of critical apparatus, a separate edition of one of these Gospels. . . .

"This earliest extant English version of the Gospels, of which a portion is given in this little volume, possesses a unique interest for the student of the early forms of the language; moreover, for the history of biblical translations, it has a value that deserves wider and more precise recognition."
—from the Preface