Sinners' Bible: How Did the 1631 Misprint Slip Through?
In 1631, a Bible printed in London commanded “Thou shalt commit adultery” because a single word was missing. Here is what happened, what the consequences were, and what you can do to keep something similar from happening to you.
What the Sinners' Bible is
It is a Bible printed in London in 1631. It is famous for an error in one of the commandments.
The text should have read “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. But the printed edition was missing the word “not”. The result was a commandment that read “Thou shalt commit adultery”.
Today it is known as the Sinners' Bible. Few copies survive.
Who printed it and how they were punished
The printers were Robert Barker and Martin Lucas. They were the ones who left out the “not”.
Without those three letters, the commandment ordered the exact opposite of what it should have. The reaction was immediate.
King Charles I ordered the print run destroyed. Barker and Lucas were fined three hundred pounds and lost their licence.
Why this kind of error is so hard to spot
The key lies in the type of error. No word was misspelled. What happened was that one was missing.
A misspelled word catches your attention. A missing word, on the other hand, is invisible. There is nothing on the page to signal that something has been lost.
Most likely, this is how it slipped through: the eye knows what follows “Thou shalt” and fills in what it expects to read. Whoever checked the text saw the sentence they expected, not the one that was actually printed.
Why it can happen to you too
This mechanism is not unique to seventeenth-century printers. It happens to you every time you skim over a message in a hurry.
When you reread something you have written yourself, you know what you meant to say. That is why your brain tends to fill in whatever is missing without you noticing.
How to avoid this kind of typo
Before you send anything important, read it aloud. Reading aloud forces you to go through every word and makes it easier to notice if one is missing.
Also, check every negative, one by one: “no”, “never”, “without”. These are the words that, if they disappear, completely change the meaning of a sentence.
The Sinners' Bible proves it. Three letters, “not”, stood between the commandment and the sin.
Frequently asked questions
What was the error in the Sinners' Bible?
The word “not” was missing from the commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. As a result, the text commanded “Thou shalt commit adultery”.
Who printed the Sinners' Bible?
It was printed by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas in London in 1631.
How were the printers punished?
King Charles I ordered the print run destroyed. Barker and Lucas were fined three hundred pounds and lost their licence.
How can I avoid missing an important word?
Read the text aloud before sending it. Check every negative one by one, such as “no”, “never” or “without”.
Informative article written with the help of AI tools from the verified script of the video. The video is in Spanish.