Sunday, March 27, 2011

Errata History of the KJV

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to receive the special 100th issue of Christian History magazine, which is dedicated to celebrating the 400th anniversary of this wonderful translation. It came with a complementary DVD documentary about the making of the KJV, quite well done, including interviews with some of the most charming scholars imaginable, some British as you might imagine, but also some clearly from the deep south, one elderly man from North Carolina that I just wanted to listen to forever. I wish I was clever enough to embed some portions from it here for you all to enjoy, but alas, I am not.

What I would like to share is a litany of printers' errors over the years, listed on p. 1 of the magazine, some highly amusing:
1611 -- The "Judas" Bible, where Judas, not Jesus, says "Sit ye here while I go yonder and pray." (Matt. 26:36)
1612 -- The "Printers" Bible, wherein Ps. 119:161 reads "Printers have persecuted me without a cause." (should be "Princes...")
1631 -- The "Wicked" Bible, omits the "not" from the seventh commandment, making it "Thou shalt commit adultery."
1716 -- The "Sin on" Bible, John 8:11, Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery to "Go and sin on more."
1717 -- The "Vinegar" Bible, the chapter heading for Luke 20 reads "The Parable of the Vinegar" instead of "...the Vineyard.")
1763 -- The "Fools" Bible, Psalm 14:1 reads "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God," rather than "no God." (Fined £3000.)
1804 -- The "Lions" Bible, "...thy son that shall come forth out of thy lions," instead of "loins."
1944 -- The "Owl" Bible, apparently the printing plate had a damaged letter n, so holy women were said to be in subjection to their "owl husbands" in 1 Peter 3:5.

They are wanting to republish Christian History magazine in some format or other, and are in the process of trying to ascertain what format will be the most successful and meet people's needs the best. I for one am glad of it.

1 comment:

  1. This is awesome, Michelle! Thanks for sharing it. I can't decide if the "wicked" Bible or the "fools" Bible (with it's hefty fine) is my favorite. Of course, the "printer's" Bible is pretty fantastic too. Haha. That's the Psalm that all of the other folks must have wished was in there when they were paying the price for the misprints in the later versions.

    This DVD sounds great. I wonder if it'll make it to Netflix or anything?

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