‘Wicked Bible’ stating ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’ to be displayed in UK
By ANIMonday, January 17, 2011
LONDON - A rare copy of the ‘Wicked Bible’, which shocked readers with the phrase ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’, is to go on public display for the first time.
The notorious seventeenth century book will be displayed along with a collection of rare religious texts at Cambridge University, which opened an unseen section of its library archives to the public.
The exhibition will feature a 1631 edition of the Bible in which the word “not” was accidentally omitted from the commandments, earning its printers a public rebuke from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The books were mostly destroyed and only a handful of copies survive.
The exhibition is centred around the King James Bible of 1611, which is widely regarded as the most influential book ever written in English.
Author and journalist Adam Nicolson, who launched the exhibition, described the King James Bible as “the great national text”.
“The King James Bible is the most influential book in the English language. For almost 300 of its 400 years it was the core of English consciousness and the touchstone of the culture,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.
“The King James Bible is the most marvellous polishing job in the history of English and nothing I have ever seen brings that home more clearly than this exhibition,” he stated.
The Cambridge University exhibition, ‘Great and Manifold Blessings: The Making of the King James Bible’, will last for five months and entry is free. (ANI)
