Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 06:37:54 +1000 (GMT+1000)
From: Jan Groenveld <>
To: Undisclosed recipients: ;
Subject: Typesetter's nightmares


 OOPS!

 In 1631, King Charles I ordered 1,000 Bibles from an English printer named
 Robert Barker.  Only after the Bibles were delivered did anyone notice a
 serious mistake: The word "not" had been left out of the Seventh
 Commandment! (Exodus 20:14).

 Charles was not amused by the "Wicked Bible," as the infamous printing
 mistake was called. He ordered the Bibles recalled and destroyed, took away
 Barker's license to print Bibles and fined him 300 pounds-a hefty chunk of
 change in those days. And Barker was out of business.  (OUCH!)

 OOPS! The Sequel

 The unlucky printer of the "Fool Bible," another printing mistake, fared
 even worse: He was fined 3,000 pounds for accidentally printing, "The fool
 hath said in his heart there is a God" (Psalm 14:1). (Another OUCH!)


 OOPS! The Series
 Other notorious Bible printing mistakes include:

 *The "Judas Bible," first printed in 1608, which had Judas instead of Jesus
 in John 6:67.

 *The "Sin On" Bible, published in 1716, which printed John 8:11 as "Go, and
 sin on more."

 *The "Ears to Ear"Bible. Printed in 1810, it had Jesus saying, "Who hath
 ears to ear, let him hear" in Matthew 13:43.

 *The "Denial Bible," printed in 1792, in which Phillip, not Peter, denies
 Jesus in Luke 22:34.

 With these in mind, the "Printers Bible," published in 1702, makes more
 sense. In that edition, instead of saying "princes have persecuted me
 without a cause" (Psalm 119:161), David complains that "printers" have
 persecuted me without a cause."