“TREACLE IN GILEAD”

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3262, 19 February 1931, Page 6

“TREACLE IN GILEAD”

ERRORS OF EARLY BIBLES. Who owns the copyright of the Bible? The query is raised by the report of the quarrel of two English publishing firms, one of which is trying to restrain the other from publishing copies of the Bible (says a writer in the London Sun-News Pictorial). - To find the answer to the question we have to go back as far as 1604, when a Dr Reynolds suggested at a Hampton Court Conference that there should be a revision of the Bible. As a result scholars worked for seven years, and finally the Authorised Version was published, with a dedication to James 1., who was then king. You will find that dedication still in the front of the Bible you buy to-day, and the copyright is vested in the Crown.

The Authorised Version was not the first Bible to be printed in England, for early in the sixteenth century portions of the Bible had been printed, mostly from translations made by Tynedale. In spite of this, England was the last country in Europe to possess printed copies of the Bible in her own tongue. As early a? 1466 Germany possessed complete printed versions in the common tongue, but it was not until 1635 that the “ Miles Coverdale ” Bible was published. There are only two copies of this Bible now in existence; it was a complete Bible, and was decorated with woodcuts, as were most of the early Bibles. These illustrations are very quaint, as the artist almost invariably depicted the various charaeteis in the Bible in contemporary clothes, and we see Cain in a suit of armour, the Israelites in doublet and hose, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden wears the long ringlets and crown of contemporary royalty. In subsequent editions there were sometimes mistakes in the text, and copies of these are in great demand with collectors, one of them recently being bought for America for many thousands of pounds.

Probably the most famous is the « Breeches Bible,” in which the word “ breeches ” was substituted for “ aprons,” so that Gen. iii, 7, read: “ They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches.”

“ The Bugges Bible ” was printed in 1551, and for “the terror by night” the early compositor substituted “ the bugges by night,” which probably conveyed the idea far more appropriately to the mediaeval reader. In 1568 a new copy of the Bible made Jeremiah exclaim: “Is there no treacle in Gilead ? ” and the book was thereafter known as “ The Treacle Bible.” In still another copy in the same passage “rosin” was substituted for the “balm” we find ip the Authorised Version.

Later on the famous verse, “ Blessde are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,” was converted to “Blessed are the placemakers,” and the Bible was th n makers,” and the Bible was thenceforward known as “ The Whig Bible ” or “ The Place-makers Bible.” “ The “He and She Bible,” as its name indicates, muddled those pronouns, and it is curious that the same mistake was made in two editions.

There were two “ Wicked Bibles,” the first in 1631, which left the “ not ” out of the seventh commandment, and some years later another “ not ” left out of the Epistle to the Corinthians led to another “ Wicked 1 Bible,” for the verse then read: “Know yet not that the unrighteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God ? ” Other mistakes that were made were “ vinegar ” for “ vineyard ” and “murderers” for “ murmurers,” and in “The Camel Bible” it was stated that ‘Rebekah arose, and her camels.” instead of “Rebekah arose, and her damsels.” In “The Standing Fishes Bible” Ezekiel xivii. read: “ and it shall come to pass that the fishes shall stand, upon it,” instead of “fishers,” and in “The Wife-hater Bible ” the word “ wife ” was substituted for “ life.” '

This last was published in 1810, and since then proof-readers have apparently been more' careful,' for no other such mistakes have been reported. It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that Bibles were printed in any number, and in ,those days the Family Dr’ble was a very precious possession. Since then, however, there have been many editions, and the various Bible Societies claim that in the last hundred years they, have circulated more than 385,000,000 copies of the Bib p, and that it is now prodoaced in 608 languages.