A 1631 King James Bible, known as the "Wicked Bible," is on display through Sept. 6 at the Hardin Center as a special limited addition to the exhibit "Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to Gutenberg." Meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible, the Wicked Bible contains an error in Exodus 20:14, where the Seventh Commandment reads, "Thou shalt commit adultery." The printers, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, are said to have been fined 300 pounds for the offense, a huge sum at that time, and had their printers' license revoked. Many believe that the error was deliberate on the part of a typesetter to discredit the printer. A thousand "Wicked Bibles" were printed, but King Charles I ordered them to be destroyed, making the "Wicked Bible" one of the rarest English Bibles in history. It is believed that only 11 of the original 1,000 have survived. The remaining "Wicked Bibles" are very seldom on public display; the one in the rare books collection of the New York Public Library is almost never made accessible to the public.
I imagine today, a simple recall would be all that happened if something like a thousand copies of an NIV version got with a similar misprint got distributed.
What do you think is the difference between now and then?
It's in the Bible ... really. Well, its in "The Wicked Bible." Below is an excerpt from it.
True 
Comments (22)
I have read a whole list of these misprints. There was a "wifebeater" Bible, and I think there was one that said to get drunk. It's pretty funny now, but I'm sure back then, when printing was incredibly costly, it would have been horrifying.
This highlights one of the things that has made the spread of the gospel so much easier-the cheapness and accessibility of printed materials. Praise God for giving humans the mental creativity to invent new and cheaper ways to do things.
There have been many scriptures and versions of scriptures to pop up over the the centuries. It amazes me there wasn't much more controversy than what there was when the final decisions were made, putting together the first real books we would recognize a a Bible.
In fact the whole story of how they came to their conclusions is an interesting one to read.
@Ex_Adyto_Cordis@xanga - Yes, it's interesting to consider how they treated the poor guys just for making an apparent mistake. Of course, it was an extremely expensive mistake, but it was such a harsh political climate and penalties were incredibly severe by our standards.
The difference? People once used to care if the scriptures were misinterpreted. In these times people could care less.
I went down this trail a while back when studying Bible versions and why som feel the KJV is the only blessed version. Several funny things came to light. Before I list them understand that I Love the KJV and the poetry of the way it relates certain scriptures.
First, people think of the KJV as being somehow without flaw and in its original version. Well, the original 1611 version contained the Apocraphal books. This version also contained the mistaken verse Matthew 26:36 said, “Then cometh Judas”, it should have read “Then cometh Jesus.” Another edition earned the nickname “Unrighteous Bible” because it stated that the unrighteous would inherit the kingdom of heaven.
The point is that no book is perfect, God is perfect. Also for those who think that the "original" KJV was the only blessed version of the Bible they have a real problem. The version they are buying is not original. The version we have today is the product of several rewrites.
Source: http://www.contenderministries.org/biblestudy/kjodebate.php
that's really cool.
For those of you not fans of Bill Engvall, on his album "Dorkfish" he talks about shopping at a factory outlet mall that sold the Bible with typos in it
The 7th commandment in modern society is largely ignored.
I must say the one scripture that I think of after reading a post like this, is....
"Study to show thyself approved unto God." If you study, and dig, the scriptures in different languages, and interpretations, you'll eventually know what the truth is. :0)
So *that* is the bible John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Rudy Giuliani, John Edwards, and Newt Gingrich followed. And to think I thought they were just disgusting pigs.
Makes you wonder how many typos and deliberate switches have been incorporated into the bible over the centuries.
i personally think it's funny.
@TheSutraDude@xanga - ha! nice call.Typos can occur in any book, including the Bible. Yes, it can certainly lead to misinterpretation. Of course, if we know what scripture says and we know God, we would most likely question a "typo" and check other Biblical sources.
I think the penalty upon the printers was pretty harsh as we are all fallible. I know that we don't actually know the entire situation so my thoughts are only based on my limited understanding of it. I think, however, it demonstrates human nature - people are quick to condemn the mistakes of others while masking their own mistakes.
If the typo was deliberate - well, it's not possible for us to determine that now. Perhaps it could have been better investigated at the time.
Proper interpretation of God's word is important. I only wonder, though, how the printers must have felt after the conrtoversy occurred. There is a great deal in God's word about forgivenes and, of course, we must not forget Matthew 7:3.
I suppose I am not really answering the question that was initially posed. I don't know how this situation would have been dealt with in our time. I assume the books would be recalled and destroyed and an announcement of the error would be made. Would the printers be punished because of the mistake? I am not sure. My guess is they would already be losing a great deal of money because of their mistake.
However, as I said, we must remember that we are all fallible. Even in a professional setting, we are capable of making an error.
Fortunately there are some 24000 manuscripts in exitence for the NT, some dating back to 25AD. When compared to each other there are no mistakes other than some minor copying errors where a word or letter were out of place, but rare none the less.Isn't it funny that people don't question writings like Homers Iliad or Ceasars galic wars with such little manuscript evidence compared to the NT, but they question the NT because it has moral dictates, and man with his fallen sinful nature hates that.
The difference is that today, most people don't care what you take out of the bible as long as it is in the old testament.
@TheSutraDude@xanga -
THAT was funny!!
@BookMark61@xanga - Glad you enjoyed it. lol
I know this post is taking it as a funny occurance, but I think there is a good lesson to be learned from this incident:
The bible, in it's physical form, is just written word. Easily skewed, easily revised by man. The question then becomes, what do we trust as the word of God? Should we cite specific passages and try to live exactly as it states, or accept the bible as a structure for how to be a good person and try as best we can to just be a decent human being?
@Native_Texan@xanga - Exactly.
Reading the original post and the associated comments for this article shows that confusion between the words "it's" and "its" is very prevalent at all levels and areas of society. The two forms are incorrectly used almost interchangeably, with "it's" being more numerous to my observations.
For a refresher: "It's" is the contraction for "It is" while "Its" means in the sense of possession. The errors are so numerous its occurrences certainly do not, or should, not cause a rise in value for collection purposes, but should render it as just poorly written garbage.
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Well people aren't perfect, God is.
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