Bible revision

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
O ye sons of men,

how long will ye turn my glory into shame?
How long will ye love vanity,
and seek after leasing?

Both these verses are from the Authorised Version of the Bible, which was the Bible that virtually all Christians used till about the seventies of the last century. When I became a Christian in 1953 everyone used and quoted from it. The only other version freely available was the Moffatt translation, but it was frowned upon because it was considered too modernistic. There were two main reasons why we have so many modern translations. At the period I am alluding to, many young converts found the quaint Jacobean English of the AV too difficult. There was a desire for something more simple and readable. Also great advances had been made in our knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. Masses of papyri had been uncovered in Egypt and these discoveries had thrown much light on the koine Greek used in the New Testament. Then there were men like Tischendorf who had discovered ancient manuscripts which were much older than those used by scholars working in the first decade of the seventeenth century.
Another major problem in reading the AV was the enormous change brought about in our language by three centuries of history. The quotations from above illustrate this problem vividly.
In the first from 2 Thess 2 we read that the Mystery of Iniquity letteth and will let. This phrase has a semi legal connotation and means simply that this evil entity will stop and hinder. Unfortunately modern usage has achieved a complete about turn. To let in modern parlance means simply to allow.
The second quotation is from Psalms 4. Leasing obviously in the above verse is not approved by God. I actually came across a story concerning a missionary giving up the lease on his property after reading this verse. But anyone who has studied Middle English knows that leasing is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning lying. It has nothing to do with the modern practice of leasing properties.
In a future post I will chat a bit more about Tischendorf and my thoughts about the amazing number of modern translations