KJV Word of the Day: Haply

I figured that since I was reading through the KJV this year I would highlight an unusual word in the KJV once per day if I come across them. I do this with the help of the King James Bible Word book which defines and traces the use of these words. I'm enjoying highlighting them as I read through the KJV.

Today's word is haply which I came across in Acts 5.39: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

KJV Word Book: HAPLY means by hap or chance, hence “perchance,” “perhaps.” It is used 6 times in KJ: “if haply” (1 Samuel 14:30; Mark 11:13; Acts 17:27); “lest haply” (Luke 14:29; Acts 5:39; 2 Corinthians 9:4). For some reason the revisers of the New Testament in 1881–1901 joined the word “haply” to “lest” in 20 cases where KJ did not have it. In 7 of these cases “lest haply” was substituted for “lest at any time”; in the other 13 “lest haply” took the place of “lest.” The RSV has eliminated “haply.” In almost all cases the element of contingency is sufficiently expressed by the simple “if” or “whether” or “lest.” RSV uses “perhaps” (Luke 3:15; Matthew 25:9); “might” (Acts 5:39; 27:29); and “in the hope that” (Acts 17:27).

It is an interesting fact that the original edition of KJ (1611) had “happily” in 2 Corinthians 9:4. This then meant the same as “haply,” as may be seen in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, IV, 2, 57 or Hamlet, II, 2, 402. The latter passage reads:

“Hamlet: That great baby you see there is not yet out of his

swaddling clouts.

Rosencrantz: Happily he’s the second time come to them; for

they say an old man is twice a child.”