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The Collation

"What manner o' thing is your crocodile?" April 2015

Our crocodile series was disrupted by the work that went into creating the Folger’s new website, but we’re back in action this month with a perhaps appropriately timed mystery item:

what manner of thing is this?

what manner of thing is this?

It’s just a snippet of thing, but leave your comments below and come back for the discussion of its mystery tomorrow!

Comments

It’s a misprint – it should be Jesus, not Judas, in that verse. Which makes this an excerpt from the so-called “Judas Bible” printed by Robert Barker. There are a few different dates on this Bible, aren’t there? HAMNET shows you have the 1610, but searching online I see 1608 and 1609 dates, too (and also see that there is a complicated publishing history with this, involving a Geneva imprint).

John Russell — April 1, 2015

Reply

This is John 6:67 with a typo – Judas instead of Jesus – which occurred in some versions of the Geneva translation of the Bible. This image probably comes from the Folger’s 1610 copy (http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=168818 ). It’s perhaps more unusual in that this copy has remained uncorrected.

As it happens, the Washington Post published an article online about this only a couple of months ago! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/02/10/when-jesus-was-judas-and-other-pretty-stupendous-bible-typos/

Philip Allfrey — April 1, 2015

Reply

Both of you—commenting at the same time!—are correct. It’s the Folger’s copy of the 1610 Geneva bible showing the typo in John 6:67. And that Washington Post article is exactly what led me to this crocodile and the question of when mistakes get corrected. More on this soon!

Sarah Werner — April 1, 2015

Reply

And the crocodile is now revealed! http://collation.folger.edu/2015/04/keeping-your-jesus-and-judas-straight/

Sarah Werner — April 7, 2015

Reply

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