{"id":28799,"date":"2015-04-30T12:58:01","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T16:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=28799"},"modified":"2015-04-30T12:58:01","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T16:58:01","slug":"bible-typos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/04\/bible-typos.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Typos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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, is\u00a0implausible for a number of reasons. But there is one simple fact that is particularly relevant:<\/p>\n

There have been Bibles which contained typos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, anyone who has studied the manuscript history of the Bible\u2019s transmission will know that there have been copying errors.<\/p>\n

But that involves making mistakes when\u00a0copying 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 somehow\u00a0rendered foolproof. Even printings of the King James Version have had errors \u2013 too bad for the KJV-only crowd.<\/p>\n

Josh Mann<\/a> shared a number of examples a while back, after a Washington Post<\/em> article<\/a> appeared which drew examples from a famous article by Bruce Metzger<\/a>. Peter Head<\/a> also mentioned it. Here are the major\u00a0examples given in\u00a0the WP<\/em>\u00a0article:<\/p>\n

In the Geneva translation of the Bible, John 6:67 is supposed to say: \u201cThen Jesus said to the twelve, will ye also go away?\u201d But in some copies, printed in 1611, it says this instead: \u201cThen Judas said to the twelve, will ye also go away?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026The\u00a0<\/span>Folger Shakespeare Library<\/a>\u00a0has 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 \u201cJudas.\u201d This edition, with this mistake, is often called the \u201cJudas Bible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026There\u2019s the \u201cWicked Bible,\u201d a 1631 London King James printing in which Exodus 20:14 reads: \u00a0\u201cThou Shalt commit Adultery.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(There\u2019s a pretty crucial \u201cnot\u201d missing there.) \u201cIn that case the printers were fined and ordered to destroy the copies!\u201d according to Fraas.\u00a0Some copies survived<\/a>, thankfully.<\/p>\n

A 1612 edition of the King James, fittingly, reads: \u201cPrinters have persecuted me without cause.<\/strong>\u201d That line, from Psalm 119:161, should say \u201cprinces,\u201d not \u201cprinters.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a 1682 edition of the King James that was just\u00a0an unholy mess<\/strong>. In Deuteronomy 24:3, it said \u201cif the latter husband ate her\u201d instead of \u201chate.\u201d It read \u201ckings\u201d instead of \u201ckeepers\u201d in Esther 6:2. And Jeremiah 13:27 reads \u201cadversaries\u201d instead of \u201cadulteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more: Jeremiah 16:6 \u00a0substitutes \u201cglad\u201d for \u201cbald,\u201d so the line reads: \u201cBoth the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall\u00a0<\/span>men\u00a0lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves glad\u00a0for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremiah 18:21 reads \u201cswine\u201d instead of \u201cfamine,\u201d and \u2014 because why not at this point? \u2014 Ezekiel 18:25 says \u201cis equal\u201d instead of \u201cis not equal.\u201d Oh well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A 1795 London-issued Bible reads\u00a0\u201cLet the children first be killed\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(instead of \u201cfirst be filled\u201d) in Mark 7.27.<\/p>\n

The \u201cMurderers Bible\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(1801) has \u201cmurderers\u201d instead of \u201cmurmurs\u201d (Jude 10).<\/p>\n

And the \u201cWife-Hater Bible\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0of 1810 replaces \u201clife\u201d with \u201cwife\u201d in Luke 14:26 and reads: \u201cIf any\u2026hate not his own wife also.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026A 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.<\/p>\n

And a 1966 Jerusalem Bible says \u201cPay for peace\u201d instead of \u201cpray for peace.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPrinters have persecuted me without cause\u201d is probably my favorite of the bunch. Which is yours? Are you aware of others?<\/p>\n

\"Judas<\/p>\n

The photo above\u00a0of the hand-correction of \u201cJudas\u201d to \u201cJesus\u201d comes from the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Library<\/a> and was taken by Mitch Fraas.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, is\u00a0implausible 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[805,1140,1419,2196,3139,6212,6239,7543,8401,9537,12839,13051,13056,13346],"class_list":["post-28799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-bible","tag-article","tag-bible","tag-bruce-metzger","tag-copyists","tag-errors","tag-king-james","tag-kjv","tag-mistakes","tag-only","tag-printing","tag-translation","tag-typo","tag-typos","tag-version"],"yoast_head":"\nBible Typos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/04\/bible-typos.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible Typos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/04\/bible-typos.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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