| June 18 |  |
Editor says, what if Shakespeare's Bible Code got him fired? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1611, on this day forty-six year old William Shakespeare was dismissed from the employment of the Committee known as the First Cambridge Company following the discovery that hidden messages had been introduced into the translation of the Authorized King James Version.
To let future generations know that he had helped with translation, Shakespeare had devised a Secret Bible Code, noting in his diary that "If you count 46 words from the beginning, you will find the word shake. Now count the same 46 words from the end of Psalm 46, there is the word spear". Unfortunately for Shakespeare, his colleague Marlowe betrayed his confidence, immediately alerting the Committee's editors who discovered the following mis-translation:
The Bard gets FiredPsalms 46:1-3 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah". And Psalms 46:9-11 "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. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah".
Following his dismissal, Shakespeare purchased a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory where he resided for five unremarkable years until his death in 1616 aged just fifty-two.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2006-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Wikipedia Labels: Willliam Shakespeare, King James Bible, Translation, Bible Code, England.
~ The people who were working on the KJV were scholars, IIRC...why would they want a playwright and part-time poet? Shakespeare probably knew Latin, at least from school days, but I don't think he'd studied enough Greek to be any use to them, much less Aramaic or Hebrew.
~ He knew some Italian, and some Scots. But still, I doubt that translating the Bible would have interested him. He already knew the ending.
~ I suspect that Eric Oppen is right. Shakespeare's reputation as a titan of literature did not evolve in his lifetime--and the fact that he apparently knew little Latin and less Greek (the language in which much of the New Testament was written)--let alond Hebrew or Aramaic--it's unlikely he'd have been approached for such a task. The KJB was a controversial priject in its day (it was suspected of being a plot to revise the Bible to King James's political and religious liking--and needed all the prestige it cou;ld get from its translators' reputations.
~ In this ATL, he isnt a playwright at all. He has a modified skill set that makes it more (not less likely) that he was involved in the translation project. Result is an uninspiring life story and thus the justification for the Bible Code (an unlikely urban myth) is explained in this story by his lack of self-actualisation (boredom).
~ Many believe the great bard to be a closet Catholic, so I dought he would have had anything to do with any efforts to translate the bible. At the same time, tho men who did the work of translating the scriptures were all scholars interested in proclaiming the truth where the great bard was a the great creator of fiction.
Comment from Margo Barotta on Facebook: well at this era the church power was the dominant and we all know what was the opinion of religion men upon the scientist and writers specially the writers that stick in the business of church and religion .
19 hours ago ·
Comment from Arlena Arteaga Kelly on Facebook: I would not have read Romeo and Juliet in the 9th grade....
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
