Editing Lindisfarne Gospels (section)

== History ==
[[File: St. Mark - Lindisfarne Gospels (710-721), f.93v - BL Cotton MS Nero D IV.jpg|thumb|[[Evangelist portrait]] of [[Mark the Evangelist|Mark]]]]
[[Lindisfarne]], also known as "Holy Island", is located off the coast of [[Northumberland]] in northern England (Chilvers 2004). In around 635 AD, the Irish missionary [[Aidan of Lindisfarne|Aidan]] founded the Lindisfarne monastery on "a small outcrop of the land" on Lindisfarne.<ref name=" Backhouse 1981, 7">Backhouse 1981, 7.</ref> King [[Oswald of Northumbria]] sent Aidan from [[Iona]] to preach to and baptise the pagan [[Anglo-Saxons]], following the conversion to Christianity of the Northumbrian monarchy in 627. By the time of Aidan's death in 651, the Christian faith was becoming well-established in the area.<ref name=" Backhouse 1981, 8">Backhouse 1981, 8.</ref> The Lindisfarne gospel book is associated with the Cult of St. Cuthbert. Cuthbert was an ascetic member of a monastic community in Lindisfarne, before his death in 687. The book was made as part of the preparations to translate Cuthbert's relics to a [[shrine]] in 698. Lindisfarne has a reputation as the probable place of genesis according to the Lindisfarne Gospels. Around 705 an anonymous monk of Lindisfarne wrote the ''Life of St Cuthbert''. His bishop, Eadfrith, swiftly commissioned the most famous scholar of the age, Bede, to help shape the cult to a new purpose.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality & the Scribe|last=Brown|first=Michelle|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2003|location=London, The British Library}}</ref>

In the 10th century, about 250 years after the production of the book, Aldred, a priest of the monastery at [[Chester-le-Street]], added an [[Old English]] translation between the lines of the Latin text. In his [[colophon (publishing)|colophon]] he recorded the names of the four men who produced the Lindisfarne Gospels:<ref name=" Backhouse 1981, 7"/> [[Eadfrith]], [[Bishop of Lindisfarne]], was credited with writing the manuscript; Ethelwald, Bishop of the Lindisfarne islanders, was credited with binding it; [[Billfrith]], an [[anchorite]], was credited with ornamenting the manuscript; and finally, Aldred lists himself as the person who glossed it in Anglo-Saxon (Old English).<ref>Backhouse 1981, 12.</ref>

Some scholars have argued that Eadfrith and Ethelwald did not produce the manuscript but commissioned someone else to do so.<ref>Backhouse 1981, 13.</ref> However, Janet Backhouse argues for the validity of the statement by pointing out that "there is no reason to doubt [Aldred's] statement" because he was "recording a well-established tradition".<ref name=" Backhouse 1981, 7"/> Eadfrith and Ethelwald were both bishops at the monastery of Lindisfarne where the manuscript was produced. As Alan Thacker notes, the Lindisfarne Gospels are "undoubtedly the work of a single hand", and Eadfrith remains regarded as "the scribe and painter of the Lindisfarne Gospels".<ref>Thacker 2004.</ref>