posted
I once heard that Shakespeare helped translate on of the psalms in the King James version of the Bible and somehow inserted his name in the text. Anyone heard of this??
Posts: 119 | From: Nashville | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by buzzkirk: I once heard that Shakespeare helped translate on of the psalms in the King James version of the Bible and somehow inserted his name in the text. Anyone heard of this??
Hmm... ::musing mode::
Yeay, though I walk through the valley of the "Will Shakespeare woz 'ere" shadow of death, I will fear no "Will Loves Anne H" evil, for thou art with me....
::/musing mode::
Nahhhhh, can't see it working myself....
Talk
-------------------- ...Can you tell tripe from truth?
Don't be an ignoranus:- an ignoranus is someone who is both stupid, and an ars*hole! Posts: 1833 | From: The West Riding of God's-own county: Yorkshire UK | Registered: Sep 2002
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If you take Psalm 46 and count 46 words from the beginning ignoring the introduction "To the chief musician ...."), you get the word "shake". Then if you count 46 words from the end (ignoring the final word "Selah"), you get the word "spear". "Shake-spear"-get it? Plus, William Shakespeare was 46 years old in 1610, the year [before] the King James Bible was published.
But I've heard that some earlier English Bibles (i.e. long before Will could read or write) had the same "shake-spear" coincidence in Psalm 46, though I haven't confirmed it.
I seriously doubt that he had anything to do with the King James Bible. Still, it's an interesting fallback to use when handed a Chick tract...
Marrya
-------------------- Windows cannot open this file. To open this file correctly, defenestrate, then try running the file again... Posts: 5383 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Jan 2003
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KeithB
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
Also Shakespeare was known as someone who spoke "little Greek and less Hebrew" so it would not have been *totally* out of line to use him as a consultant.
I saw this story in a Martin Gardner "Mathmatical Games" column in Scientific American. It was one of his "Dr. Matrix" columns.
Biondi said what amounts to an urban legend from the Age of the Renaissance had William Shakespeare, quill in hand, secretly contributing to the florid English translation of the Bible.
One still-unconfirmed, but persistent rumor linking Shakespeare to the bible, said Biondi, involves the 46th word in the 46th Psalm which is "shake" and, 46 words later, the word, "spear."
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by KeithB: Also Shakespeare was known as someone who spoke "little Greek and less Hebrew" so it would not have been *totally* out of line to use him as a consultant.
KeithB
The line from Ben Jonson is "small Latin and less Greek". There's no indication that Shakespeare knew any Hebrew.
Posts: 1699 | From: New York | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
My Shakespeare professor in university believed this one. I don't remember all of the details, but I remember her saying that Shakespeare had a friend who helped write the King James; he didn't do it himself. IIRC, she told us about an acrostic - where the first letters of 10 successive lines spell his name. Unfortunately, that's all I remember. Sorry.
quote:Originally posted by buzzkirk: I once heard that Shakespeare helped translate on of the psalms in the King James version of the Bible and somehow inserted his name in the text. Anyone heard of this??
Weird...I just finished reading Sandman: The Wake last night where Will Shakespeare is talking to a priest and being thanked for all his hard work on the psalms. He confesses to the priest that he hid his name in them even.
Still no idea whether it's true or not but I do believe he wrote A Midsummer's Night Dream for Morpheus, though
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"My father says that almost the whole world is asleep - everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant, total amazement." Posts: 232 | From: Calgary | Registered: Jul 2003
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