See the misprints and errors in early editions of the King James Bible, including the “He and She Bibles,” “Judas Bible,” and “Wicked Bible”
A look at misprinted early editions of the King James Bible, including the “He and She Bibles,” “Judas Bible,” and “Wicked Bible.”
Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the Internet and its effect on verbal communication.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The Bible As Literature, Part Two: History, Poetry, and Drama in the Old Testament. The second part of an examination of the Bible as literature, this film examines the books of Joshua, Samuel, and Kings as historical documents, the Book of Proverbs as lyric poetry, and the prophetical books as protest literature. It was produced in 1974 by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
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© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A look at William Shakespeare's contributions to the vocabulary of the English language.
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© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Hear the original pronunciation of Elizabethan English as demonstrated and explained by British linguist David Crystal and his actor son, Ben Crystal. Actors at the rebuilt Globe Theatre, London, have used this pronunciation in performances of William Shakespeare's plays.
Transcript
HANNIBAL HAMLIN: Through the history of Bible printing, a fair number of Bibles have picked up little nicknames for typographical or printing peculiarities.
STEVEN GALBRAITH: The Folger has one copy of the very first printing in 1611, which is nicknamed the He Bible.
HAMLIN: The first printing of the first edition has the word, he. That then was corrected to, she. In the second printing, so that the first and second printings are known as the He and She Bibles.
GALBRAITH: So we've opened up the Bible to the Book of Ruth 3:15. And this is where you find the typographical variant that defines whether it's a He or She Bible. And as you can see here, Ruth 3:15, and he went into the city. But it should be, she.
We were investigating this edition called the Judas Bible. There's a typo in it. Instead of Jesus, at one point, the text reads, Judas, which is not a very good mistake to make.
So in our copies, someone has fixed that mistake, and they've pasted this slip of paper with, Jesus, over Judas, although the J of Judas is sneaking and peering out behind the slip, reading Jesus.
HAMLIN: Probably, the most famous typo in the history of Bible translation, if not in the history of printing, the 1631 edition of the Bible, known as the Wicked Bible, left out the, not, in "Thou shalt not commit adultery," which got them into a serious amount of trouble, but which is kind of fun from a modern perspective.
STEVEN GALBRAITH: The Folger has one copy of the very first printing in 1611, which is nicknamed the He Bible.
HAMLIN: The first printing of the first edition has the word, he. That then was corrected to, she. In the second printing, so that the first and second printings are known as the He and She Bibles.
GALBRAITH: So we've opened up the Bible to the Book of Ruth 3:15. And this is where you find the typographical variant that defines whether it's a He or She Bible. And as you can see here, Ruth 3:15, and he went into the city. But it should be, she.
We were investigating this edition called the Judas Bible. There's a typo in it. Instead of Jesus, at one point, the text reads, Judas, which is not a very good mistake to make.
So in our copies, someone has fixed that mistake, and they've pasted this slip of paper with, Jesus, over Judas, although the J of Judas is sneaking and peering out behind the slip, reading Jesus.
HAMLIN: Probably, the most famous typo in the history of Bible translation, if not in the history of printing, the 1631 edition of the Bible, known as the Wicked Bible, left out the, not, in "Thou shalt not commit adultery," which got them into a serious amount of trouble, but which is kind of fun from a modern perspective.