“The Killer Bible”
BIB.000228.1-.2
Bible - Printed Book
1795
England
English
Printed on Paper
Volume 1: 9.9 × 6.6 × 2.4 in. (25.2 × 16.9 × 6.2 cm) Volume 2: 9.9 × 6.6 × 2.4 in. (25.2 × 16.9 × 6.2 cm)
On View in The History of the Bible, The King James Bible
Printing the Bible with movable type on an early modern press was a remarkably difficult task. Every single letter for every line on every page had to be individually placed by hand, making mistakes inevitable. Typically, those mistakes were innocuous, but occasionally, the results were disastrous. In this 1795 Bible, the word “filled” was accidentally misspelled as “killed” in Mark 7:27, producing the unfortunate exhortation, “Let the children first be killed.”
Printed in 1795 by Thomas Bensley for Robert Bowyer and James Fittler, London, England. Acquired before 1820 by Archibald Campbell-Colquhoun, Glasgow, Scotland;[1] Inherited by William Laurence Colquhoun, Bath, England; Inherited by William Campbell, Clathick, Scotland.[2] Acquired by 2010 by Christian Heritage Museum, Hagerstown, Maryland; Privately purchased in 2010 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Donated in 2016 to National Christian Foundation (later The Signatry), under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.
Notes: [1] The bookplate of Archibald Campbell Colquhoun (1756–1820) appears on the front pastedown of both volumes. Colquhoun was a Scottish politician from the Campbell family of Clathick on his father’s side and the Colquhoun family of Killermont on his mother’s side. His bookplate reads, “A. C. Clathick,” with the motto “fac et spera” (do and hope). [2] Inscriptions on the front flyleaves record birth, christening, marriage, and vaccination dates for one line of Archibald’s descendants. It begins with Archibald’s son, William Laurence Colquhoun, who married Louisa Locke and had two children, William and Louisa. It then records William’s marriage to Charlotte Emily Julian and gives details about their children, Julian and Laurence.
To acquire permission to use this image, please visit our Rights and Reproduction page .