Monday, October 19, 2026

It is the 19th of October 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A very happy Monday to you- a special hello to all the folks who came out to Here We Still Stand in San Diego this past weekend- an especially good conference this year. We debuted the long-awaited documentary- I’ll keep you all updated- among other things, you’ll see me looking very pensive.

 

We had a good time in my breakout- just kinda messed around and talked Bible translations and reception. We had a spirited Q&A, and I was asked by one Derek Sheek- he had a question about conspiracy theories and the Bible, and I couldn’t pull one out. Of course, this meant the whole drive home I was racking my brain trying to think of one and thus, today’s mailbag question.

 

X I’ve got two- the first is short and silly; the second… well, also silly but promoted by a popular book and movie.

 

So, the silly one is that Shakespeare translated the Psalms. In 1611, Shakespeare was still alive and writing- he would have been working on The Tempest. In fact, if he translated it a year before it was published in 1610, he would have been 46. And what Psalm do they think he put his “code” in? Psalm 46, of course- the story is that the old Bard secretly put his name in it. Count 46 words from the front, and you get “Shake”; count 46 words from the back, and you get “Spear”. Sure, you have to omit the Selah. And yes, it’s largely the same as the Coverdale Bible. Personally, my bet is that it was actually Ben Johnson.

 

Ok- the second is that the Canon of Scripture was decided at the Council of Nicaea- this is an old claim that made its way into The Da Vinci Code- it is meant to tell the story that the Emperor “really” forced the church to create a list to establish one form of Christianity by creating the Bible (this is a cousin to the “Nicaea invented the Trinity” stuff… generally ignorant stuff). But the story about the Canon being created actually comes from a 9th-century text called the Synodicon Vetus- that’s translated as “the old Synods,” and it's a work that briefly recounts the history of the major church councils. The work was printed by a Lutheran in 1601. It is anonymous and not treated seriously by scholars- but its account of the Council deciding the Canon has been repeated- perhaps most famously by Voltaire.

 

The Synodicon reported that: “The canonical and apocryphal books it distinguished in the following manner: in the house of God the books were placed down by the holy altar; then the council asked the Lord in prayer that the inspired works be found on top and the spurious on the bottom”.

 

That is, the books that were not canonical were transported beneath the altar; the canonical ones remained. This may be an older tradition than the 9th-century text, but it is not found in any earlier text. It should be noted that Jerome noted that the canonicity of Judith was accepted by some at that council- but the question of Canon has no single “silver bullet” answer. The Muratorian Fragment is a text- perhaps from as early as the late second century that lists most of the books in the New Testament. The standard places for determining which texts belong in the Bible are the “Festal letter” of Athanasius in 367 and then North African Synods in 393 and 397.

 

A good way to think about the Canon is that the Old Testament can be pretty easily determined once you decide whether or not you’re going to accept the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament with extra books) or the Hebrew Canon. As for the New Testament, it’s trickier, but there is an early shared core and then discussions about the texts on the fringes- James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation. We ultimately accept those in large part because we have repeated copying and quotations- accepted apostolic connection and doctrinal continuity. Let’s do more canon talk! Send me your questions at Danv@1517.org.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Exodus 40:

34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of October 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite conspiracy still involves the Jesuits and the Titanic… ask him about it… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who knows the real conspiracies involve birds not being real and Paul being dead- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.