Draft:Bodleian Bishops' Bible

History

The Bodleian Bishops' Bible is one of the few remaining artifacts from the King James Bible translators that exist today. It is a Bishops' Bible whose history began in 1602 when it was printed. Later, at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, John Rainolds presented the idea of a new translation, which led to King James I commissioning the King James Version. King James I bought "40. large churchbibles for the translators", one of which was this Bodleian Bishops' Bible.

The Bodleian Library acquired this 1602 Bishops' Bible at Oxford University in 1646, where it is still held today. A photoscan version of the Bodleian Bishops' Bible has been put online by the Bodleian Library. It was originally catalogued as "Bib. Eng. 1602 b. 1" before later being changed to "Arch. A b. 18."

Examination

In 1888, an article published by The Athenaeum mentioned the Bodleian Bishops' Bible. Here is an excerpt:

"It now remains for me to give a brief description of the copy of the folio edition of 1602 which is in the Bodleian Library. Bibliographers have just noticed that it is one of the copies used by the revisers for the new translation of 1611, which is now called the Authorized Version, though it is quite impossible to say on what authority its general use rests. It is a large folio, with leaves uncut, which had been profusely annotated in the margins with the alterations adopted in 1611."

According to The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America volume 69, published in 1975:

"Genesis through Song of Solomon, the twelve Minor Prophets, and the Gospels according to Saints Matthew, Mark, and Like have handwritten annotations throughout all chapters. The Major Prophets are annotated throughout the first four chapters of each book, and the Gospel according to Saint John is annotated from chapters seventeen through twenty-one. There are single annotations at Ephesians iv.8, II Thessalonians ii.15, I Corinthians ix.5, Galatians iii.13, and II Peter i.10."

Deuteronomy 21:22

One notable verse within this Bodleian Bishops' Bible is Deuteronomy 21:22. Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church has stated that the current reading of Deuteronomy 21:22 in the King James Version of the Bible is wrong.

Deuteronomy 21 in a 1602 Bishops' Bible (not the Bodleian Bishops' Bible).

"¶ And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:" (KJV 1900 PCE)

"If a man haue committed a trespasse worthy of death, and is put to death for it, and thou hangest hym on tree" (Bishops' Bible 1568)

"If a man haue committed a trespasse worthie of death, and is put to death for it, and thou hangest him on tree:" (Bishops' Bible 1602)

The words "he be to be" in the KJV are the words that Steven Anderson questions, saying the "to be" is a typographical error. In a response video to Mark Ward, Anderson corrects Mark Ward's use of the Bodleian Bishops' Bible and shows how it agrees with him rather than the established text of the Authorized Version. The verse in the Bodleian Bishops' Bible (with the KJV translators' notes) is as follows:

Deuteronomy 21-22 in the Bodleian Bishops' Bible.

"^And If a man haue committed a trespasse ^sinne worthie of death, and is ^{he be} put to death for it, and thou hangest him on ^a tree:"

The Bodleian Bishops' Bible doesn't have the "to be", but simply "he be put to death". Some take this (such as with Anderson) as proof that the current reading of the King James Bible is wrong, while others contend that since this Bodleian Bishops' Bible was simply used in the creation process of the KJV, it cannot completely prove one way or the other.