Erasmus Greek NT

According to what I have read, the printer or publisher was usually responsible for any artwork or wood-cuts in printed books, and not the author.

Publishers in that day sometimes used the same wood-cuts in Bibles that they had used in secular works.

Below are some examples of pagan symbols or art-work that was printed in Bibles.

This third edition of the Bishops' Bible published in 1572 [also called the second folio edition] is sometimes called "the Leda Bible" from "the decoration of the initial at the Epistle to the Hebrews which is a startling and incongruous wood-cut of Jupiter visiting Leda in the guise of a swan" (Cooper, Dictionary of Christianity, p. 29; Dore, Old Bibles, p. 252). Unger’s Bible Dictionary maintained that the Bishops’ Bible “was popularly called ‘the Leda Bible’” (p. 1114). MacGregor also confirmed that this edition’s wood-cut “used for the Epistle to the Hebrews represents the ancient Greek legend of Leda and the Swan” (Literary History, p. 154). Herbert observed that many of the initial letters in this Bishops' Bible "represent scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses" (Historical Catalogue, p. 76). Charles Roger maintained that this Bishops’ Bible edition had Neptune with his horses and trident at the beginning of some O. T. books and also at the beginning of Matthew (Collation, p. 49). John Lewis noted that the 1572 edition also included in the inner margin of the calender "the representations of the 12 signs of the Zodiac" (Complete History, p. 257).


It may be that some of the initial letters in the original 1611 KJV edition with mythological scenes may be from the same source as those used in this Bishops’ Bible edition. Darlow and Moule suggested that some of the ornamental initials in the 1611 resemble “those used in folio editions of the Bishops’ Bible” (Historical Catalogue, I, p. 135). In introductory articles in Hendrickson’s reprint of the 1611, Alfred Pollard pointed out: “In the New Testament two of the mythological ten-line set, the use of which in the Bishops’ Bible had justly been censured, reappear at the beginning of Matthew and Romans” (p. 45, footnote 2). John Eadie affirmed that the printers of the 1611 used some of “the same head pieces, woodcuts, and other embellishments, which had appeared in the Bishops’” (English Bible, II, p. 291). In the initial letter for Matthew 1 and Revelation 1, the 1611 KJV has an illustration with the Roman god Neptune with sea horses. Eadie noted that “the figure of Neptune with his trident and horses, which appears so often in the Bishops’, stands at the beginning of Matthew” (p. 291). H. W. Hoare noted that the figure “of Neptune with his trident and horses was borrowed from the Bishops’ Bible” (Evolution, pp. 274-275). William Loftie affirmed that “the figure of Neptune, which in the largests of the Bishops’ was made frequently available, now headed the gospel of St. Matthew” [in the 1611] (Century of Bibles, p. 6). At Psalm 141 and 1 Peter 3, the 1611’s initial letter has a figure of the Greek god Pan. At Romans 1, the 1611’s initial letter has a naked, sprouting nymph Daphne. These can be seen in the large 1611 digital reproduction by Greyden Press and in the 2010 reprint of the 1611 by Oxford University Press, but the 1611 reprints in Roman type published by Thomas Nelson or Hendrickson Publishers do not have them. Norton has a page of illustrations that includes the above three initials from the 1611 in his book, and he asserted that it is unlikely that the KJV translators approved of their use (Textual History, pp. 51-52). Gordon Campbell wrote: “The initials portraying Daphne and Neptune had been used in the Bishops’ Bible, and had attracted censure from some quarters, so their reuse must have been deliberate. In any case, there was no reason for the translators to disapprove” (Bible, p. 101). Donald Brake wrote: “While readers today might consider depictions of mythological images contrary to the biblical message, the translators likely did not view them as a threat to Christian belief” (Visual History of the KJB, p. 180). Brake noted that the 1611’s initial letter at Hebrews 1 is a “demonic face with bat wings” (p. 178). Brake also pointed out that the 1611’s initial letter at 2 Corinthians 1, Galatians 1, Philippians 1, 2 Thessalonians 1, Philemon 1, and 1 Peter 1 is “two demons depicted with horns and pitchforks” (p. 179).

 

That kind of negates the KJVO's silly argument about the use of the triquetra in the NKJV, doesn't it?

 

I am still tryting to figure out WHY they do NOT consider the geneva/Tynsdale Bibles as being authorized by God as the KJV was, nor why the NKJV is not a KJV version updated!