Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1894-11-21
CURIOUS BIBLES.
Blunders that Men Make Live
After Them.
FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE PRINTED.
A Single Error In Each OF the Following
Editions Has Given 1t a Marked
Distinction.

Some one has said that, 1.-THE evil
men do lives after them; the good is
often Inferred with their bones.''
In slightly altered form this bit of
cynic philosophy presents itself to any
one examining case of curious old
Bibles in the Lenox Library ON Fifth
avenue.
The blunders that men make live
after them, also, assuming. frequently,
the proportions of evil.
As in the case OF the old English
Bibles under discussion. each edition of
which has long been distinguished from
others by descriptive name derived
from blunders, more or less ludicrous,
into which the early translators fell.
The oldest Bible in this interesting
case was printed in 1535-Coverdale
translation-and is the first Bible ever
printed in the English language. All
the more oreditable therefore is the
absence of noticeable errors of typogra-
ply or translation. Taking them in
chronological order, we have next the
first edition of Matthew'S version of
the Scripture in English. published in
1887, and called 1.-THE Bug Bible"
Psalms 9lst and v. is referred to
by way of explanation, and there the
promise that "Thou shalt not be afraid
for the terror by night" is significant
ly rendered: $50 that thou shalt not
nede to be afraiyed for eny bugges by
night nor for the arrowe that fiyeth by
daye."
A startling insinuation that the
"bugges' that infest the night are of
ancient and honorable descent.
In 1889 Archbishop Cranmer's ver-
sion Of the Bible in English appeared in
London, and bears the high distinction
of being called "The Great Bible.'
The first edition of the Geneva ver-
sion, appearing in 1850, is known as
"The Breeches Bible" from the fact
that the statement made in Genesis,
iii. chapter, vii. verse, to the effect
that Adam and Eve made aprons for
themselves, is rendered by the trans
lators: "And they sewed fig leaves to-
gether and made themselves breeches." F"
In 1868 there was printed in London
the English Bible known as "The
Treacle Bible" Evidently the trans
lator who fastened that appellation on
his work gave his preferences to treacle
over "balm, for sis there no balm in
Gilead?'' reads: "Is there no treale in
Gilead?'
The first edition of the Douay Bible,
published in 1609-10, is also known as
the "Rosin Bible, because the trans
lator asks: Is there no rosin in
Gilead?" And the treacle and rosin
blunders stand perpetuated for all time.
In quick succession we find, appear
ing in London, Of course, the first Eng
lish "Royal Version n"-1611-dubbed:
"The Great He Bible" and embody-
ing thereby the compositor's or trans
lator's error: "He went into the CITY,"
Following quickly = in the same
year apparently-comes "The Great
She Bible" in which gentle Ruth is
rehabilitated and ''she" goes into the
city.
Those were hypercritical and pains
taking times, when the omission of
single letter, converting "she' into
"he," could fasten reproach upon
volume for all time. This potent error
was made IA the transcription of the
fifteenth verse of the third chapter of
Ruth.
In 1851 we find an English Bible
printed in London-laboring under the
heavy disparagement of being known
as "The Wicked Bible. "
The mischief being created by leav-
ing out the little word mot" in Exodus
Xxx, ID. We read: "Thou shalt (not)
commit adultery"
A similar catastrophe befell the Bible
printed in English - London - 1858,
stamping it as 1.-The Unrighteous
Bible.''
In this, l. Corinthians, vi, 8, is
made to read: "Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom
of God?''
The Oxford edition Of the Bible,
which was gotten out in 1717, goes by
the acrid name of The Vinegar
Bible" The perversion of the word
vineyard" in the head lines of Luke
Xxx, giving us "the parable of the
vinegar" instead.
From the Clarendon Press the Ok
ford edition of 1904 comes the worst of
all the blunders that have been perpe-
trated in cold type.
"The Murderer's Bible" is so called
from the misprinting of Numbers
xxxv., 18, giving us, instead of the
sentence "the murderer shall surely be
put to DEATH" the statement that 'The
murderers shall surely be put together. "
The Oxford Bible, which appeared in
1907, is called "The Ear Bible" and
in Matthew xiii, 43, of that edition,
those who have "ears to ear" are ex-
horted to hear.
So potent is any departure from the
right way that single error in each
one of these laboriously translated