A few curious facts to consider:
- The Authorized Version was first published 400 years ago, in 1611.
- In 1611 William Shakespeare was 46 years old.
- In the AV translation of Psalm 46 …
- … the 46th word from the top is translated “shake” (v. 3)
- … the 46th word from the bottom is translated “spear” (v. 9)
It is highly doubtful this was pulled off by Shakespeare himself. But perhaps this was the work of a sneaky translator or editor? Perhaps this acknowledges Shakespeare’s literary influence on the AV translators? Or perhaps this is just a mere coincidence of great statistical proportion? We will probably never know.
Tony Reinke 
The Bible Code conspiracy theorists go wild :D
G’day Tony
If you check more carefully, you’ll see that the above is not exactly true.
I like what Kyle Butt says about this:
http://bit.ly/kw18Hu
I agree with many points of the article. If it was intentional it was not Shakespeare’s doing, that much is quite obvious. The numbering clearly does not include the pre-script (“To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth”) or the “Selah.”
I have been fascinated with the idea that the Earl of Oxford was Shakespeare. Wonder if he had anything to do with the translation? The Earl was in Italy where some of the settings of Shakespearean drams were set and Shakespeare of the name could not and apparently was never there where personal knowledge could be secured to make the plays authentic. But what do I know?
Ha! I’ve met some of those “Bible code Conspiracy Theorist”!!! If you look hard enough you could find all sorts of things in God’s Word but I might stick to reading and studying and not worry about the so called co-insidences. :-)
[…] May 1, 2011 by strengthenedbygrace Tony Reinke: […]
I am no great fan of bible code conspiracists. The message is the thing with me. I do look at it from the intellectual angle as it is inspired by the Omniscient Being and therefore must reflect a wisdom commensurate with that reality…And it does. The problem is that the profundity is expressed in terms of the utmost simplicity, and the human mind has a hard time comin to grips with the depth of of such lucid and limpid writings. I long postulated such a likelihood and was pleasantly surprised by a comment that stated our difficulties with the Bible lie in its transparency.