Bible Typos

Bible Typos

The claim that the Bible is inerrant, and in particular that the manuscript tradition used by the King James translators was divinely preserved so as to avoid error, isย implausible for a number of reasons. But there is one simple fact that is particularly relevant:

There have been Bibles which contained typos.

Of course, anyone who has studied the manuscript history of the Bibleโ€™s transmission will know that there have been copying errors.

But that involves making mistakes whenย copying by hand. I am talking here about typos in the strict sense: errors in the typography, in the printing process. There have been many, and that is no surprise unless one implausibly insists that people involved in writing, copying, and printing the Bible were somehowย rendered foolproof. Even printings of the King James Version have had errors โ€“ too bad for the KJV-only crowd.

Josh Mann shared a number of examples a while back, after a Washington Post article appeared which drew examples from a famous article by Bruce Metzger. Peter Head also mentioned it. Here are the majorย examples given inย the WPย article:

In the Geneva translation of the Bible, John 6:67 is supposed to say: โ€œThen Jesus said to the twelve, will ye also go away?โ€ But in some copies, printed in 1611, it says this instead: โ€œThen Judas said to the twelve, will ye also go away?โ€

โ€ฆTheย Folger Shakespeare Libraryย has a King James Bible with the same error in Matthew 26:36. In that case, the printers covered the mistake by pasting a little piece of paper over โ€œJudas.โ€ This edition, with this mistake, is often called the โ€œJudas Bible.โ€

โ€ฆThereโ€™s the โ€œWicked Bible,โ€ a 1631 London King James printing in which Exodus 20:14 reads: ย โ€œThou Shalt commit Adultery.โ€ย (Thereโ€™s a pretty crucial โ€œnotโ€ missing there.) โ€œIn that case the printers were fined and ordered to destroy the copies!โ€ according to Fraas.ย Some copies survived, thankfully.

A 1612 edition of the King James, fittingly, reads: โ€œPrinters have persecuted me without cause.โ€ That line, from Psalm 119:161, should say โ€œprinces,โ€ not โ€œprinters.โ€

Thereโ€™s a 1682 edition of the King James that was justย an unholy mess. In Deuteronomy 24:3, it said โ€œif the latter husband ate herโ€ instead of โ€œhate.โ€ It read โ€œkingsโ€ instead of โ€œkeepersโ€ in Esther 6:2. And Jeremiah 13:27 reads โ€œadversariesโ€ instead of โ€œadulteries.โ€

Thereโ€™s more: Jeremiah 16:6 ย substitutes โ€œgladโ€ for โ€œbald,โ€ so the line reads: โ€œBoth the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shallย menย lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves gladย for them.โ€

Jeremiah 18:21 reads โ€œswineโ€ instead of โ€œfamine,โ€ and โ€” because why not at this point? โ€” Ezekiel 18:25 says โ€œis equalโ€ instead of โ€œis not equal.โ€ Oh well.ย 

A 1795 London-issued Bible readsย โ€œLet the children first be killedโ€ย (instead of โ€œfirst be filledโ€) in Mark 7.27.

The โ€œMurderers Bibleโ€ย (1801) has โ€œmurderersโ€ instead of โ€œmurmursโ€ (Jude 10).

And the โ€œWife-Hater Bibleโ€ย of 1810 replaces โ€œlifeโ€ with โ€œwifeโ€ in Luke 14:26 and reads: โ€œIf anyโ€ฆhate not his own wife also.โ€

โ€ฆA 1950 Old Testament printed by the Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine claims that the skunk, and not the skink (a type of lizard), is an animal that swarms upon the ground in Leviticus 11:30.

And a 1966 Jerusalem Bible says โ€œPay for peaceโ€ instead of โ€œpray for peace.โ€

โ€œPrinters have persecuted me without causeโ€ is probably my favorite of the bunch. Which is yours? Are you aware of others?

Judas should be Jesus

The photo aboveย of the hand-correction of โ€œJudasโ€ to โ€œJesusโ€ comes from the University of Pennsylvaniaโ€™s Library and was taken by Mitch Fraas.


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