Wicked Bible, sometimes called Adulterous Bible or Sinners' Bible, is an edition of the Bible published in 1631 by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers in London, meant to be a reprint of the King James Bible. The name is derived from a mistake made by the compositors: in the Ten Commandments, the word "not" in the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was omitted, thus changing the sentence into "Thou shalt commit adultery". This blunder was spread in a number of copies. About a year later, the publishers of the Wicked Bible were called to the Star Chamber and fined and deprived of their printing license. The fact that this edition of the Bible contained such a flagrant mistake outraged Charles I and George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury. 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. 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, US. The British Library in London had a copy on display, opened to the misprinted commandment, in a free exhibition until September 2009. The Wicked Bible also appeared on display for a limited time at the Ink and Blood Exhibit in Gadsden, Alabama, from 15 August to 2 September 2009. A copy was also displayed until 18 June 2011 at the Cambridge University Library exhibition in England, for the 400-year anniversary of the King James Version.
Background
Historically, the omission of "not" was considered quite a common mistake. Until 2004, for example, the style guide of the Associated Press advised using "innocent" instead of "not guilty" to describe acquittals, so as to prevent this eventuality. The Wicked Bible is the most prominent example of the bible errata which often have absent negatives that completely reverse the scriptural meaning. On the other hand, some have suggested that someone purposefully sabotaged the printing of the Wicked Bible so that Robert Barker and Martin Lucas would lose their exclusive license to print the Bible. This theory is based on the fact that there are two significant errors in the Wicked Bible, and both errors are located in the chapters where the Ten Commandments appear. The first appears in Exodus 20 where the word "not" was omitted. The second appears in Deuteronomy 5. The King James Bible in Deuteronomy 5:24 should state, "Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness...." In the Wicked Bible, Deuteronomy 5:24 reads as follows: In other words, rather than celebrating the 'greatness' of God, the Wicked Bible celebrates God's great backside. One could understand a dropped 'not', maybe, but 'great-asse' is not a typical typographical error suggesting that it was not an accidental mistake.
Public reaction
1631
Apart from the contempt within the church, the case of the Wicked Bible was commented on by historians soon after the printing:
Modern times
The nickname Wicked Bible seems to have first been applied 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 1631 octavo Bible for fifty guineas, "on June 21, 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." There are fourteen known copies of the Wicked Bible today with thirteen in the collections of museums and libraries in the British Isles, North America and Australia: British Isles a. The British Libraryb. University of Glasgow Libraryc. University of Leicester David Wilson Libraryd. Cambridge University Librarye. University of Oxford, Bodleian Libraryf. University of Manchester, John Rylands Libraryg. The Library at York Minster North America a. New York Public Libraryb. Yale University, Sterling Memorial Libraryc. Houston Baptist University, Dunham Bible Museumd. DC Museum of the Biblee. University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library Australia a. University of Adelaide, Rare Books and Special Collections In 2008, a copy of the Wicked Bible went up for sale online, priced at $89,500. A second copy was put up for sale from the same website which was priced at $99,500 as of 2015. Both copies were sold for around the asking price. In 2015, one of the remaining Bible copies was put on auction by Bonhams, and sold for £31,250. In 2016, a copy of the Wicked Bible was put on auction by Sotheby's and sold for $46,500. In 2018, the same copy of the Wicked Bibles was put on auction again by Sotheby's, and sold for $56,250.
