Among the most well- known are the 1560 Geneva Bible that I replicate and the 1611 King James Bible that I also replicate.  However, our particular hand-bound edition of the King James Version that was printed in 1733 is not a first-edition, nor a last edition, nor an unusually rare edition.   And yet that is exactly why we attempted to make this replica.   It represents the common Bible of the common family in the American colonies.  It reminds us of a generation who were born during the First Great Awakening, who came into adulthood during the French and Indian War, and who became the brave leaders of the American Revolution and as well as the founders of a new American nation.

This is the first page of the 1715 Apocrypha scanned from our original 1715 Bible.  The image on the left is our original scan. The image on the right is after I cleaned that page up.  David Moody scanned this entire Apocrypha for us.  Question:  “Was the Apocrypha in the original King James Bible?  If so, why is it not in there now?”  Answer:  For a really detailed answer go to pages 222-228 of Alister McGrath’s book, “In the Beginning:  The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture”.   It’s a complicated story that went on for centuries.  It involves theology, but was finally decided by money.  The answer is that it was in the original 1611 King James Bible.  It remained in most published King James Bibles until 1826 when the missionary societies removed it for financial reasons.  The first English-language Bible printed in North America in 1782 by Robert Aitken’s did not have the Apocrypha within.   I believe that it is not there because Aitken was in a very big hurry to get that “Bible of the Revolution” into the hand of every Revolutionary War Soldier before the war ended.  It wasn’t until 1826 that the Apocrypha disappeared from most all King James Bibles.  Today, it is mostly impossible to get a major Protestant biblical publisher to allow the Apocrypha to be printed within a Bible, even when printing a reproduction that originally had it within.  I make a version of the 1733 Bible with the Apocrypha ($745).  I also make the 1715 Apocrypha as a stand-alone book, $225

“I just pre-ordered my own complete 1733 Bible, and I’m excited to get it when it’s finished. For those of you who have never seen Bible Man’s binding work, he produces some of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen, and they are the best thing going for reenacting and living history. When preaching from or reading one of these marvelous Bibles, Psalters, or Books of Common Prayer, you don’t have to tilt the book away so that the public can’t see that it is modern, because you’ll have in your hand an expert authentic reproduction that will stand the public’s scrutiny.”  Myric McBain

The Old Testament folded, put into signatures, and out of the book press. The Old Testament is made up of two complete signatures  plus a third partial signatures. All of these signatures add up to 804 pages.

We had to disassemble our 1733 bible in order to scan it. The before and after can be seen above.

Each printed page contains four pages of the Old Testament. These four pages are printed with two pages on each side. After they are printed, the pages are folded in half, then placed inside each other in order to form a 16-page signature. These have to go in the correct order or the Bible will be a scramble. 16-page signatures are common in 18th century books. However, this Old Testament has a signature that varies from this norm. Signature “S” is only an eight page signature. I don’t know why, except that is how the original printer decided to set up this book when he printed it. I see no other reason.

Binders and printers use the alphabet to know how to put their books together, instead of using page numbers. In this book there is no sig. “J” nor “U” nor “W”. Example: This Old Testament has signatures (A, A2, A3, A4, B, B2, B3, B4, C, C2…Z, Z2, Z3, Z4…the entire alphabet repeats twice using Aa, Bb, Cc… on the second alphabet…it also uses part of a third alphabet, Aaa, Bbb, Ccc…) The title page is page one of sig. “A”. It does not have the A printed on the title page. Every other page has an A2 or A3 or A4…then on to “B”… then “C”. “C 2″…That covers the first 8 pages. The next, or last 8 pages of each signature are not numbered, because if the first 8 pages are in the right order, the others pages will be correct.

Bruce Jennings reading his 1733 Bible

This is James Moore reading the Christmas Story by candle light from our replica 1733 King James Bible. I read Luke 2:1-20

The Bible above is our 24th Bible that we have made.  All have gone to reenactors, except the one that went to the Tower of London, then onto Kew Palace. It is currently on display in the Palace’s kitchen. It is a replica of the kitchen Bible that was used to swear in all of the staff back in the days when Mad King George lived there.

Look for the above Bible on display in the Kew Palace kitchens, Kew, England, the former residence of King George III.  We have been there years ago.  I sure would like a photo of this Bible in it’s current settings.

This bible was used in the filming of Courage, New Hampshire AKA “Sons of Liberty” on PBS.