MISTAKES IN THE BIBLE.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 72, 22 September 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

MISTAKES IN THE BIBLE.

The wonder is, says Mr. Hugh W. Strong >in the Temple Magazine for August, not thut there are mistakes in the Bible, but that ere are so fe<w. There is, indeed, a splendid tradition of devoted care in the preservation of the HolyScriptures. Before the days of printing the texts were purer than after its introduction. The name of God was directed to be written with the utmost attention atid devotion, and the transcriber was expected to wash his pen before he inscribed it on the parchment. In order that the writings might be preserved in their integrity, we are told, all the verses of each, book and eveiy •section were numbered, the middle verse of each book being also marked. Fraud or negligence was thus effectually guarded against. Genesis is marked as containing 1534 verses, and the middle one is distinguished, in the 27th chapter, at the 40th verse, where it is written, "And by the sword shalt thou live." Here are some of the mistakes that crept in in the days of printing. The mere substitution of the word "vinegar" for "vineyard" in the page heading to St. Luke xx. gave to the edition of 1717 the title of "the Vinegar Bible," which it bears to this day. In the "Servant Bible," published in 1640, Genesis iii. 1, had this curious innovation, "Now the servant was more subtill than any beast of the field." For leaving out the most imperative negative "not T> in the Seventh Commandment, Archbishop Laud fined the printer of the "Wicked Bible" no Jess than £300 of the money of his day —a severe punishment for a serious crime. From omissions we pass, by a natural transition, to substitutions. "Then cometh Judas with them into a place called Gethfiemane, and saith unto the disciples, 'Sit y» here while I go and pray yonder."