John Wycliffe in his 1382 English translation of the Latin ecclesia used chirche. For example, Wycliffe says for Acts 6: 1, "But Saul was consentynge to his deth. And greet persecucioun was maad that dai in the chirche, that was in Jerusalem."
William Tyndale did not follow Wycliffe in using chirche, which would have been conistent with the Catholic meaning of Church, but instead used congregation for ekklesia consistently except for two verses in Acts wgere he used churche to mean a pagan place of worship. For example, Tyndale's translation for Acts 8: 1 says "Saul had pleasure in his deeth. And at yt tyme there was a great persecucion agaynst the congregacion which was at Ierusalem."
Theodore Beza in 1556 returned to the use of church to translate ekklesia - and the Geneva Bible followed him, using church instead of congregation.
Did the same thing happen with the translation of II Thessalonians 2: 7? Did Tyndale break wih the Roman Catholic translation of II Thessalonians and then Theodore Beza, the Calvinist, returned II Thessalonians 2: 7 to the older Catholic version?
Jerome's Latgin Vulgate for II Thessalonians 2: 7 says nam mysterium iam operatur iniquitatis tantum ut qui tenet nunc donec de medio fiat
See the Douay-Rheims for an English translation of the Latin: "For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. "
But Tyndale does not follow the Catholic version of II Thessalonians 2: 7 and instead writes, "For the mystery of that iniquity does he already work, which only locks until it be taken out of the way."
Here is Theodore Beza's Latin version (1557) of II Thessalonians 2: 7:
"Jam enim peragitur mysterium
impietatis hu^us ; tantum qui nunc
obstat, obstabit usquedum e medio
sublatus fuerit."
7 Now we have the mystery
impiety hu ^ us; only now
an obstacle, an obstacle until the middle
The Calvinist Theodore Beza's 1557 translation of II Thessalonians 2: 7 differs from the 1534 translation of Tyndale, and returns to the meqaning of the Catholic Vulgate version.
Jihn Wycliff New Testament for II Thessalonians 2: 3-7;
http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/wycliffe/2th.txt
"No man disseyue you in ony manere. For but dissencioun come first, and the man of synne be schewid, the sonne of perdicioun,
4 that is aduersarie, and is enhaunsid ouer `al thing that is seid God, or that is worschipid, so that he sitte in the temple of God, and schewe hym silf as if he were God.
5 Whether ye holden not, that yit whanne Y was at you, Y seide these thingis to you?
6 And now what withholdith, ye witen, that he be schewid in his tyme.
7 For the priuete of wickidnesse worchith now; oneli that he that holdith now, holde, til he be do awe."
I have not been able to find out what the word priuete means in verse 7. I am not sure that Wycliffe is following Jerome's version of II Thessalonians 2: 7.
But it looks like the Catholic version of II Thessalonians 2: 7 makes it easier to arrive at the dispensationalist teaching that the man of sin, as literally one individual, is held back by a restrainer, the Church of the Holy Spirit, until the time of the tribulation, when the dispensationalist scenario will begin and the one man anti-Christ sits in a literal rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.
