Wicked Bible
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The Wicked Bible, sometimes called The Adulterous Bible or The Sinners' Bible is a term referring to the Bible published in 1631 by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers from London, which was meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible. The name is derived from the compositors' mistake: in the Ten Commandments the word not in the sentence Thou shalt not commit adultery was omitted. This blunder was spread in a vast amount of copies; that's where the term comes from. About a one year later, the authors of the Wicked Bible were fined £300 and were deprived of their printer's licence. This edition of Bible containing such a flagrant mistake outraged Charles I of England and the bishop of Canterbury, who said then:
| “ | 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.[1] | ” |
By order of His Majesty, the authors were called to the Star Chamber, where, upon the fact being proved, the whole impression was called in, and they were fined the equivalent of a month's salary or 120 hectares.
The majority of the Wicked Bible's copies were immediately canceled and burned, with only 11 still surviving. One copy is in the collection of rare books in the New York Public Library and is very rarely made accessible; the other one can be seen in the Bible Museum in Branson, Missouri (USA).
Contents |
[edit] The excerpt with a mistake
(…) Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy dayes may bee long vpon the land which the LORD thy God giueth thee.
13 * Thou ſhalt not kill.
14 Thou ſhalt commit adultery.
15 Thou ſhalt not ſteale.
16 Thou ſhalt not beare falſe witneſſe againſt thy neighbour.
17 * Thou ſhalt not couet thy nighbours houſe, thou ſhalt not couet thy neighbours wife (…)
[edit] Public reaction
[edit] 1631
Apart from the resentment among the church, the case of the Wicked Bible was commented on by historians. The note given below was made by one of them soon after the printing:
| “ | His Majesties Printers, at or about this time, had committed a scandalous mistake in our English Bibles, by leaving out the word Not in the Seventh Commandment. His Majesty being made acquainted with it by the Bishop of London, Order was given for calling the Printers into the High-Commission, where upon Evidence of the Fact, the whole Impression was called in, and the Printers deeply fined, as they justly merited. With some part of this Fine Laud [2] caused a fair Greek Character to be provided, for publishing such Manuscripts as Time and Industry should make ready for the Public view.[3] | ” |
[edit] Modern times
The Wicked Bible has also inspired modern artists. Sometimes it's used as an example of something abstract, or to show the hopelessness of society (or keeping the would-be "commandment")[4]. In the literature, although being rarely recognized, the case of Wicked Bible influenced the writers.
- In 2001 the book The Wicked Bible by Edwin Astin was published. It tells about the influence of Ancient Greece on Christianity.[5]
Some people even recognize the Wicked Bible as the work of the devil.[6]
[edit] Interesting facts
- The less known mistake also appearing in the Wicked Bible is the lord hath shewed us his glory and his great arse instead of the lord hath showed us his glory and his greatness. (Deuteronomy, 5:24).
- One of the specimen of the Wicked Bible was left for sale on an Internet auction. It was priced at $89,500.[7].
- For the money from the fine some printing matrixes were bought.[8]
[edit] Bibliography
- Eisenstein, Elisabeth L. - Rewolucja Gutenberga, translated by: Henryk Hollender, Prószyński i S-ka publishing, Warsaw 2004, ISBN 83-7180-774-0
- Ingelbart, Louis Edward - Press Freedoms. A Descriptive Calendar of Concepts, Interpretations, Events, and Courts Actions, from 4000 B.C. to the Present, Greenwood Publishing 1987, ISBN 0313256365
[edit] References
- ^ Ingelbart, Louis Edward,- Press Freedoms. A Descriptive Calendar of Concepts, Interpretations, Events, and Courts Actions, from 4000 B.C. to the Present, Greenwood Publishing 1987, ISBN 0313256365
- ^ Archbishop William Laud
- ^ http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance72.html
- ^ http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance72.html
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Bible-Edwin-Astin/dp/0595192556
- ^ http://www.tentmaker.org/Biblematters/KJV.htm
- ^ http://www.greatsite.com/ancient-rare-bibles-books/platinum.html
- ^ http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/anecdtes/c17/bible.htm
