Take a close look at the picture above. Read verse 14 out loud.
The word “not” is missing. As in “Thou shalt ___ commit adultery.”
It is from an edition of the Bible published in 1631, now affectionately known as “The Sinners Bible” or “The Wicked Bible.” Adulterers of the realm celebrated! (Just kidding.)
The Royal Printers in London, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, were to blame. It was meant to be a simple reprint of the King James Bible, first released in 1611. To this day, we don’t know if it was a simple mistake or if it was an act of sabotage by a competitor.
What is most fascinating to me is that the error was not discovered for an entire year! One thousand copies had been printed and circulated, and yet it was a full year before the mistake was revealed. The error was brought to the King’s attention by Dr. William Laud, the Bishop of London.
King Charles I was absolutely furious. He ordered all the copies to be seized and burned. He fired Barker and Lucas and fined them £3,000. (In today’s money, that would be more than $750,000 US.) This began the tragic downfall of Robert Barker. Four years later, he was in jail for racking up too much debt; and over the next ten years was in and out of prison until he died in a prison cell in 1645.
George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was incensed. He later wrote:
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.
Despite the crown’s best efforts to destroy the print run, apparently at least nine copies of this Bible survive today. One sold in 2018 for nearly $56,250 in an auction. (You can read Sotheby’s auction description at this link.)
There are several other infamous Bible typos in history. Here are a few of the more famous ones (a full list can be found on the International Bible Collectors site):
“Cannibals” Bible. Deut. 24:3 reads “if the latter husband ate her” instead of “hate her.” — 1682
”Wife hater” Bible. Luke 14:26 reads “if any man come to me and hate not his father.., yea, and his own wife” instead of “his own life.” — 1810
“Vexing wives” Bible. Num. 25:18 reads “for they vex you with their wives” instead of “with their wiles.” — 1638
“Child killer” Bible. Mark 7:27 reads “Let the children first be killed” instead of “be filled.” — 1795
“Sin on” Bible. Jeremiah 31:34 reads “Sin on more” instead of “Sin no more.” — 1716
Jerry B. Jenkins recounts the story of his time as publisher of The Ryrie Study Bible during his tenure as Director of Moody Press in the 1980s. They printed an edition where a verse that began “Moreover brethren…” came out as “Moveover brethren….”
Bible proofreading is something we take for granted. Peachtree Editorial Services is a company that has been dedicated to this work for many decades. Our client, Chris Hudson, is the president of the company. You can be assured that the Bible you read today has been carefully proofread!
(I posted a version of this article years ago. It has been revised, updated, and edited for today’s reader.)
There have been times I’ve wondered
if God proofread my life’s manuscript,
or if perhaps He’d blundered,
or somehow an error slipped
into Windows Infinity
and hid from His watchful eye,
for really this cannot be me,
fighting sleep, afraid to die.
I know, I know, He is perfection,
and I have a faulty point of view,
and I must live at His direction,
that what He’s written must be true,
that He’s the Master of this craft…
but must this be the final draft?
I once had a job as a clerk
But I never did I check my werk
For typo’s and error,
The result was a terror
And everyone throught me a jerk
Wish I hadn’t just sipped tea when I read this, Sy.
So does my phone.
I heard a Christian prof tell about his most embarrassing typo on a slide, back in the days of overhead projectors. He was lecturing on the planning, planting, and caretaking of flora in public recreation areas.
As he put up the slide, titters and giggles ensued. He’d left out an “l” in the title…and not in the words planning, planting, or flora.
I had an author friend who was doing a romantic suspense book involving the military. She even had a military expert helping her, so she sent him the pages involving anything military to make sure she got them right. Imagine his laughter when she had an exploding IUD in her manuscript, instead of an exploding IED.
I TOTALLY loved this!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
I LOVE historic information that might not be well known.
All the best, Jeannie
If man makes gramatical error, does he also make errors in the meaning of words? The translation? If so, how do we rectify that?
I think debate, but once again we are at the mercy of man. Martin Luther had a different thought. Is another Martin Luther coming in this generation?
Food for thought, or is that thought for food?
Soooo . . . Bob Barker was a publisher before becoming a game show host? 😁
Peachtree is fantastic! (So is Chris, for that matter.)
The power of reality!
This is life, with all the errors and typos!
My life has had many!!!
It is refreshing to know, For This We Have Jesus! He has seen all the errors and mistakes in my life and by His Blood I am redeemed and restored! What a blessing! If we keep writing, rewriting and reprinting that eternal Truth, all will be well.
Thank you Steve!
That’s a wild story. One I never heard. I teach religious education to seventh graders and high schoolers. I hope our Bible has no proofreading errors 😬. If it does, I’ll send it right to the Steve Laube Agency for immediate correction!