PETER Mullen’s piece on this year’s 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible interested me (Echo, Jan 4).
William Shakespeare would have been 46 when the King James version was first published. In Psalm 46, the 46th word from the beginning is SHAKE, and the 46th word from the end is SPEAR.
The thought is that, after translation, the Psalms were given to the leading writers of the day to render into the best poetic English.
If so, Shakespeare cleverly left his mark on Psalm 46.
This only works with KJV 46th Psalm. Later translations use different words and lose this subtlety.
Alan Hall, Darlington
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