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Wicked Bible

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Wicked Bible
Photos of the 1631 "Wicked Bible"
An edition of the Wicked Bible
Original titleThe Holy Bible
LanguageEnglish
PublisherRobert Barker and Martin Lucas
Publication date1631 (1631)
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint

The Wicked Bible, sometimes called the Adulterous Bible or the Sinners' Bible, is an edition of the Bible meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible, published in 1631 by London royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas. The name is derived from a mistake made by the compositors: in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:14, the word "not" was omitted from the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery". It is the most prominent example of Bible errata, which are often absent negatives that completely reverse the scriptural meaning.[1]

Errors

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Wicked Bible (1631 KJV) Exodus 20, with the typographical error highlighted
A picture of the Deuteronomy 5:24 passage in the University of Cambridge copy of the Wicked Bible (201.C31.6) showing no misprint

The Wicked Bible is best known for the omission of the word "not" in the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14), thus changing the sentence into "Thou shalt commit adultery".

The 1886 Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission (which gives the Bodleian Library manuscript Rawlinson A 128 as its source) lists this as one of the "two grossest errors", among "divers other faults".[2] The other is a misprint appearing in Deuteronomy 5:24; the word "greatness" appears as "great-asse", leading to a sentence reading: "Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his great-asse".[2][3][4]

Gordon Campbell reports that in at least three of the surviving copies there is an inkblot where the missing "n" would be, suggesting such a mistake may have been covered up in these copies. He also notes that, at the time of the Wicked Bible's publication, the word "asse" only had the sense of "donkey".[5] A copy of the bible in which the error is not concealed by an ink blot exists in the collection of the Dunham Bible Museum on the campus of the Houston Christian University, Texas.[6]

Diana Severance, director of the Dunham Bible Museum at the Houston Baptist University, and Gordon Campbell have suggested that the second error could indicate that someone (possibly a rival printer) purposely sabotaged the printing of the Wicked Bible so that Robert Barker and Martin Lucas would lose their exclusive licence to print the Bible.[3][4][5] However, Campbell also notes that neither Barker nor Lucas suggested the possibility of sabotage in their defence when they were arraigned.[5]

About a year after publication, Barker and Lucas were called to the Star Chamber and fined £300 (equivalent to £58,600 in 2026) and deprived of their printing licence.[7]

Public reaction

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The title page of the Wicked Bible

The case of the Wicked Bible was commented on by Peter Heylyn in 1668:

His Majesties [sic] Printers, at or about this time [1632], had committed a scandalous mistake in our English Bibles, by leaving out the word Not in the Seventh Commandment. His Majesty being made acquainted with it by the Bishop of London, Order was given for calling the Printers into the High-Commission where upon the Evidence of the Fact, the whole Impression was called in, and the Printers deeply fined, as they justly merited.[8]

The Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, expressed anger at both errors.[9] The £300 fine was eventually quashed, but most of the texts were destroyed.[10]

Origin of the name

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The name 'Wicked Bible' seems to have first been applied to this edition in 1855 by rare book dealer Henry Stevens. As he relates in his memoir of James Lenox, after buying what was then the only known copy of the edition for fifty guineas, "on 21 June, I exhibited the volume at a full meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London, at the same time nicknaming it 'The Wicked Bible,' a name that has stuck to it ever since."[11]

Remaining copies

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The majority of the Wicked Bible's copies were immediately cancelled and destroyed, and the number of extant copies remaining today, which are considered highly valuable by collectors, is thought to be relatively low.[12] One copy is in the collection of rare books in the New York Public Library and is very rarely made accessible; another can be seen in the Dunham Bible Museum in Houston, Texas.[13]

In 2023, a researcher at the University of Canterbury identified a copy held at the National Central Library of Rome.[14]

There are currently twenty-five known copies of the Wicked Bible, eighteen of which are in the collections of museums and libraries in Europe, North America and Australasia:[14]

Britain (seven copies)

Italy (one copy)

United States of America (six copies)

Canada (one copy)

New Zealand (one copy)

Private collections

A number of copies also exist in private collections. In 2008, a copy of the Wicked Bible went up for sale online, priced at $89,500.[20] A second copy was put up for sale from the same website which was priced at $99,500 as of 2015.[21] In 2015, one of the remaining Wicked Bible copies was auctioned by Bonhams,[22] and sold for £31,250 (equivalent to $43,000 in 2025).[23] In 2016, a copy of the Wicked Bible was auctioned by Sotheby's and sold for $46,500.[24] The same copy was auctioned again by Sotheby's in 2018, selling for $56,250.[25]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Russell, Ray (October 1980). "The Wicked Bibles". Theology Today. 37 (3): 360–363. doi:10.1177/004057368003700311. S2CID 170449311.
  2. 1 2 Rawson Gardiner, Samuel (1886). Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission. Nichols and Sons. p. 305. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Brown, DeNeen (17 November 2017). "New museum's 'Wicked Bible': Thou Shalt Commit Adultery". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  4. 1 2 Green, Emma (23 October 2015). "Thou Shalt Commit Adultery: A rare copy of the so-called Wicked Bible of 1631, which omitted a rather important "not" from the 10 Commandments, is going on auction in the U.K." The Atlantic. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 Campbell, Gordon (2010). Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611 — 2011. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969301-6. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  6. ↑ Jones, Chris. "The Donnithorne Wicked Bible". Digital Voyages. Canterbury University Press. Retrieved 12 April 2026.
  7. ↑ Kohlenberger, John R. III (2008). NIV Bible Verse Finder. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. p. viii. ISBN 978-0-310-29205-0.
  8. ↑ Huntington, Ray L.; Marsh, Jeffrey W.; Skinner, Andrew C.; Whitchurch, David M. "Challenges in Printing Early English Bibles". Religious Studies Center. Brigham Young University. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
  9. ↑ Ingelbart, Louis Edward (1987). Press Freedoms: A Descriptive Calendar of Concepts, Interpretations, Events, and Courts Actions, from 4000 B.C. to the Present. Greenwood Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 0-313-25636-5.
  10. 1 2 Corlett, Eva (2 May 2022). "Rare 'Wicked' bible that encourages adultery discovered in New Zealand". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Stevens, Henry (1886). Recollections of Mr James Lenox of New York and the Formation of His Library. London: Henry Stevens & Son. p. 35.
  12. ↑ Gekoski, Rick (23 November 2010). "The Wicked Bible: the perfect gift for collectors, but not for William and Kate". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  13. ↑ Turner, Allan (31 August 2015). "Historic Bibles ‑ even a naughty one ‑ featured at Houston's Dunham Museum". Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  14. 1 2 Jones, Chris. "The Wicked Bible – The Story". Digital Voyages. Canterbury University Press. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  15. ↑ Dixon, Simon. "Who owned the Wicked Bible?". Library of Special Collections. University of Leicester. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  16. ↑ "University of Cambridge". University of Cambridge. iDiscover. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  17. ↑ Lewis, Stephen (29 November 2008). "The treasures of York Minster Library". York Press. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  18. ↑ The Holy Bible: Containing the Old Testament and the Neuu. London: Robert Barker and Assigns of John Bill. 1631. Retrieved 24 May 2025.
  19. ↑ The Wicked Bible. OCLC 43064147.
  20. ↑ "Greatsite.com Platinum Room". Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  21. ↑ "Platinum Room". 15 December 2015. Archived from the original on 16 December 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2025.
  22. ↑ Flood, Alison (21 October 2015). "Extremely rare Wicked Bible goes on sale". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  23. ↑ "The 'Wicked Bible', 1631". Bonhams. Retrieved 24 May 2025.
  24. ↑ "Bible in English [The "Wicked" Bible]". Sotheby's. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2025.
  25. ↑ "Bible in English [The "Wicked" Bible]". Sotheby's. 28 June 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2025.

Bibliography

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