Ridiculous KJV Bible Corrections:
Psalm 46, Shakespeare in the KJV?

by John Hinton, Ph.D.
jhinton@post.harvard.edu

Psalm 46:1 KJV <<To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth.>> 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.

My thanks go to Will Kinney for this hilarious "correction" of the Bible that is going around some circles, and for the argument that puts this piece of nitwittery conclusively to rest. It was so amusing that I had to pass it on. According to Brother Kinney, he has had several church-goers repeat a story to him that claims that King James wanted to honor the birthday of William Shakespeare, or the 46th birthday as most versions have it, so he had it inserted into the 46th Psalm in verses 3 and 9. Note, that I have capitalized the words in question to draw attention to them; they are in lower case in the actual text. At first I thought this was a joke, but then I realized that it made too little sense to be satire. This is, after all, 21st century America. I did check it out on the internet and found many sites that present the debate. I can easily see some Bible-scoffing church-goer coming up to me some day and trying to challenge me with this line, although, I doubt that he will actually be wearing a giant bow tie, floppy shoes, and a big red nose as the guy that I am envisioning. It may turn out that someone actually did start the whole story as a joke, but it does not matter, because it still might find its way into some seminary professor's commentary someday, or as a footnote in a future revision of the Living Bible or a similar "version" of the Bible. Kinney provides all of the evidence needed to silence anyone making this wacky claim by pointing out that the same words appeared in Taverners Psalm of 1539, Matthews Bible of 1551, as well as the Great Bible of 1569 and the Geneva of 1599. Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. I will add that ra'ash does mean to shake, quake or tremble, and xanith always means spear, so even if we did not have the examples that predate Shakespeare's birth, it would still be a really dumb attack on our Bible. Nevertheless, just like the idiotic claim that King James was a sodomite, the story will undoubtedly be repeated ad nauseum no matter how thoroughly it has been discredited.

The preceeding is part of a series of examples of KJV verses that arrogant would-be scholars have tried to correct and showed themselves to be fools. These examples are for the benefit of those who would like more ammunition to defend God's Word against the attacks of the arrogant Bible "correcting" modernists. I hope that some of you find them useful.

Your servant in Christ,
John Hinton, Ph.D.
Bible Restoration Ministry
A ministry seeking the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent Bibles in all the languages of the world.