Sometimes, just sometimes, printers make mistakes.
In 1631 Robert Baker, the King’s Printer, produced a Bible with a flaw: the word not was missing from the Seventh Commandment, instructing worshipers: ‘Thou shalt commit adultery.’ Known as the ‘Wicked Bible’, the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered the book be burnt and Baker fined. Baker was committed as a debtor to the King’s Bench prison where he remained until his death. In the 17th century a printer was fined for issuing what is known as ‘The Fools Bible.’ Their slip-of-the-type-stick re-wrote Psalm 14: ‘The fool hath said in his heart there is a God’. In 1653 the ‘Unrighteous Bible’ was printed in Cambridge. In I Corinthians, it asked the question, ‘Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God?’ The not was dropped on the composing room floor by the same gremlins that caused Baker so much grief. Not all errors are typographic. In an edition known as ‘The Bishops’ Bible’ and organized by Archbishop Parker in 1572, the printer thoughtlessly used ornamental initial letters, which had been left over from printings of pagan literature. The greatest offender was the initial that began Hebrews with a vivid depiction of Zeus getting amorous with Leda.
But as printers generated these Biblical blunders it is only right they accuse themselves. In Psalms 119, in an edition of 1702 edition, David instead of complaining the ‘Princes have persecuted me without a cause’ says, ‘Printers have persecuted me without a cause.’ That edition is now known as (what else?) ‘The Printer's Bible.’
Happy Good Friday!