The Secret of Psalm 46

Dear Readers,

Speaking of the Bible, did you know that part of the Bible was written by Shakespeare? It’s true!

That’s right, the Good Book had the master of all English literature himself, the immortal and the magnificent Mr. William Shakespeare, as one of it’s contributing authors.

Don’t believe me? Well just take a looky here: it’s well documented that the Bard had a hand in writing the Bible in my poem An Informed Gentleman’s Conversation… available here: http://telemoonfa.blogspot.com/2008/01/poems.html

Not enough proof? OK, well, let me draw your attention to the forty-sixth Psalm. (copied and pasted from lds.org)

TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN FOR THE SONS OF KORAH, A SONG UPON ALAMOTH.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.


Let me ask you, did you notice anything particularly Shakespearian about psalm 46?

What about those giant bold words in there, “Shake” and “Spear.” Does that suggest any connection to the Bard, even a minor, distant connection, wrought with subtleties?

OK, maybe that’s still not enough to convince you that Shakespeare had anything to do with writing the Bible, but just wait until you do this little activity: count the number of words from the beginning of the psalm to the word “shake” (not counting the TO THE CHIEF... thing.) There’s 46. Now count the number of words from the word “spear” to the end of the psalm. There’s also 46.

Hmmm… interesting… 46 words, yep, 46 words… and this is in the 46th psalm! Curiouser and curiouser. This means something. It’s too big to be a coincidence.

Math time!

Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. That means that he would have been 46 years old in the year 1610. King James ruled England from 1603 to 1625. Shakespeare not only lived in England when King James was ruling, but Shakespeare was also very personally acquainted with King James. In fact, Shakespeare’s’ theatre group was the official state-sponsored theatre group, called “The King’s Men.”

And when was the King James Version of the Holy Bible originally published? 1611! But the translation process, from the original Hebrew and Greek and etc. to modern day English, (thank you Wikipedia, for this info.) began in 1604.

So, around 1610, the KJV Bible translation process was almost complete. King James read some of the proofs, and thought that overall the book would be great, but that it was a little dry. He went over to his best bud Shakespeare and said, “Hey Will, you’re a good writer, how about you translate the Bible a little bit, and make it really good-sounding, like your plays?”

And Shakespeare said, “Sure!” (It is, after all, dangerous to say no to a king.)

And then when Shakespeare was working his way through translating the psalms, and making them a little more exciting and poetic, he got to the 46th psalm on his 46th birthday, and thought, “I’d like to put my name in the Bible in a secret and cool way.” And voila! Here today we have Shakespeare’s name cleverly inserted into the Bible!

Or maybe what really happened is that King James wanted to get Shakespeare something really cool for his 46th birthday. James was planning on getting Shakespeare what he had gotten Shakespeare for several of his previous birthdays and Christmases- a new stiff frilly white collar that sticks out funny. But then the Queen said, at tea time, as they were walking over the London Bridge, and listening to the Beatles, “Oh, James, my quite husband, don’t get Shakespeare another quite dreadful quite collar, that’s quite boring. You should secretly encode his name in the Bible.”

And James said “Hey that’s a great idea!”

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa

P.S. I can't take credit for coming up with all the ideas in this blog post. I don't know who originally counted the words in psalm 46 and came up with that weird story about Shakespeare being mentioned in the KJV Bible. I think I heard it on my mission from somebody. You know how stuff like this gets passed around. But seriously, isn't that crazy? Yes it's crazy.