Did you know…?
Because of a printer’s error, one edition of the Bible went from pious to downright wicked.
In 1635, British royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas set out to reprint the King James Bible. The typesetter for the project made one small mistake, though: the word “not” was left out of Exodus 20:14. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that that particular passage happens to be the Commandment, “Thou shall not commit adultery.” Because of its “Thou shall commit adultery,” passage, the book became known as The Wicked Bible, or occasionally The Adulterous Bible, and even The Sinners’ Bible.
The mistake sent shock waves through London and enraged the king, Charles I, and George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop had this to say about it:
“I knew the tyme when great care was had about printing, the Bibles especially, good compositors and the best correctors were gotten being grave and learned men, the paper and the letter rare, and faire every way of the beste, but now the paper is nought, the composers boyes, and the correctors unlearned.”
Almost all of the erroneous copies were burned and Barker and Lucas were brought in front of the king. He fined them £300 (the equivalent of about £33,800 today) and, even worse, took away their printer’s license. Although most were destroyed, there are a few copies floating around (one is in the Bible Museum in Branson, Missouri) and go for insane amounts at auction.
This, of course, isn’t the only time the Bible has been printed with errors. In 1653 hope was given to sinners everywhere when another edition dropped a “not” and printed, “The unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God.” An edition published in 1801 earned the nickname The Murderer’s Bible for its mistakes. Instead of “Let the children first be filled,” it read, “Let the children first be killed.”
Did you also know…?
- Potpourri
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- In the wrong hands, one Christmas custom can bring a whole lot of bad luck.
- Because of a printer’s error, one edition of the Bible went from pious to downright wicked.
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