The Adulterous Bible of 1631

The earliest printings of the KJB were often sprinkled with what I would call unintended humor. Most famous, perhaps, is the so-called “Adulterous Bible” of 1631, also known as “The Wicked Bible,” for its printer, Robert Barker, mistakenly omitted an important negative from Exodus 20:14. As a result, the seventh commandment read, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Oops. If you find one of these Bibles in your attic today, hold onto it, because it’s really valuable. Your ancestors must have been members of the printer’s family. Only eleven copies of this edition of the KJBe are known to exist today, as the English government immediately recalled and destroyed the rest. Robert Barker died in debtor’s prison.