An extremely rare Bible encouraging adultery has been found in New Zealand.
There are only a handful of copies left in the world and one has turned up in Christchurch.
This version of the Bible was printed in 1631. It became known as the 'wicked Bible' or the 'sinner's Bible' because it contains a mistake that's small in print but monstrous in meaning.
Canterbury University medieval historian Associate Professor Chris Jones told Newshub the mistake gave the Bible a whole new meaning.
"The mistake is what is really striking, it says 'thou shalt commit adultery' in the 10 Commandments, which obviously should read 'thou shalt not commit adultery."
The printers of the Bible, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, were operating in a cut-throat industry and were thought to be cutting costs on editors.
It was a huge scandal at the time. King Charles I hauled the pair before the court and slapped them with a hefty fine.
"The printers got in tremendous trouble over this," Prof Jones told Newshub.
There are just 20 copies left worldwide - and this is the first in the Southern Hemisphere even though the Aussies tried to claim they had one.
Prof Jones said it is like the pavlova case.
"It's an Australian claim they say they got their first but they haven't, which is always very satisfying for a Kiwi historian."
It came from the estate of a UK ex-pat Christchurch bookbinder, and is now owned by a family trust and has been studied and preserved at Canterbury University.
"I was totally gobsmacked by this. You do not expect to encounter something like this in sleepy Christchurch," Prof Jones said.
Many Kiwis have committed adultery and come up with a raft of reasons for doing so, well now they can add one more to the list - that a Bible told me to.
