Despite the veneration in which it has been held by mankind for the last
nineteen hundred years, the Bible has fared almost as badly at the hands
of translators and printers as books of far less importance. Errors made
in the course of translating and printing have caused various nicknames to
be applied to the editions. Some of the more extraordinary of these
editions were described in a recently published catalogue as follows:
=The Gutenberg Bible= (1450)--The earliest book known. Printed from
movable metal types, is the Latin Bible issued by Gutenberg, at Mayence.
=The Bug Bible= (1551)--Was so called from its rendering of the Psalms
xci:5: "Afraid of bugs by night." Our present version reads: "Terror by
night."
=The Breeches Bible=--The Geneva version is that popularly known as the
Breeches Bible, from its rendering of Genesis iii:7: "Making themselves
breeches out of fig-leaves." This translation of the Scriptures--the
result of the labors of the English exiles at Geneva--was the English
family Bible during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and till supplanted by
the present authorized version of King James I.
=The Place-Makers' Bible= (1562)--From a remarkable typographical error
which occurs in Matthew v:9: "Blessed are the place-makers," instead of
"peace-makers."
=The Treacle Bible= (1568)--From its rendering of Jeremiah viii:22: "Is
there no treacle [instead of balm] in Gilead?"
=The Rosin Bible= (1609)--From the same text, but translated "rosin."
=The Thumb Bible= (1670)--Being one inch square and half an inch thick;
was published at Aberdeen.
=The Vinegar Bible= (1717)--So named from the head-line of the twentieth
chapter of Luke, which reads: "The Parable of the Vinegar," instead of the
"vineyard."
=The Printers' Bible=--We are told by Cotton Mather that in a Bible
printed prior to 1702 a blundering typographer made King David exclaim:
"Printers [instead of princes] persecuted him without a cause." See Psalms
cxix:161.
=The Murderers' Bible= (1801)--So called from an error in the sixteenth
verse of the Epistle of Jude, the word "murderers" being used instead of
"murmurers."
=The Caxton Memorial Bible= (1877)--Wholly printed and bound in twelve
hours, but only one hundred copies struck off.
However much truth there may be in the stories of the dissolute conduct of
Shakespeare, there is abundant proof of the fact that the Bible was one of
his favorite books. Indeed, his admiration for the Scriptures carried him
so far that he frequently incorporated Bible sentences in his plays. The
following are examples:
_Bible_--"But though I be rude in speech."--2 Corinthians xi:6.
_Othello_--"Rude am I in speech."
_Bible_--"To consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart."--1 Samuel
ii:33.
_Macbeth_--"Shew his eyes and grieve his heart."
_Bible_--"Look not upon me because I am black; because the sun hath looked
upon me."--Song of Solomon i:6.
_Merchant of Venice_--"Mislike me not for my complexion--the shadowed
livery of the burnished sun."
_Bible_--"I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him."--1 Samuel
xvii:35.
_Othello_--"I took by the throat the circumcised dog, and smote him."
_Bible_--"Opened Job his mouth and cursed his day; let it not be joined
unto the days of the year; let it not come into the number of
months."--Job.
_Macbeth_--"May this accursed hour stand ay accursed in the calendar."
_Bible_--"What is man that Thou art mindful of him? Thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands."--Psalms
viii:4; Hebrews ii:6.
_Hamlet_--"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason; how
infinite in faculties; in form and moving how express and admirable; in
action how like an angel; in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of
the world--the paragon of animals."
_Bible_--"Nicanor lay dead in his harness."--Maccabees xvii:12.
_Macbeth_--"We'll die with harness on our backs."
The Prophecies of Bonaparte.
Remarkable Manuscript Found in the Exiled Emperor's Desk on the
Island of Elba before Waterloo.
That the first Napoleon was exceedingly superstitious is well known. He
was a devout believer in dream warnings, and he was a patron of palmists,
clairvoyants, and astrologers. Like many another great man, the famous
emperor sometimes was prone to indulge in prophetic utterances himself.
One of the most interesting of the compositions of Napoleon is a
remarkable prophecy which, in the emperor's own handwriting, was found in
his desk on the island of Elba. The document was discovered by Captain
Campbell, in 1815. It is as follows:
The foundation of our political society is so defective and
tottering that it threatens ruin; the fall will be terrible,
and all the nations on the continent will be involved in it;
no human force can arrest the course of events.
All civilized Europe will find itself in the position in
which a part of Italy once was under the Caesars.
The storm of the Revolution, some clouds of which will
extend over France, will soon cover all that portion of the
globe which we inhabit with a frightful darkness.
The world can be saved only by shedding torrents of blood; a
terrible and violent hurricane can alone purge the poisonous
air which envelops Europe.