Revelation 15:6

and there came out from the temple the seven angels that had the seven plagues, arrayed with precious stone, pure and bright, and girt about their breasts with golden girdles.

And there came out ... the seven angels ... All was in readiness for the judgment to be executed. The appearance of these angels seems to be significant, as indicated by the golden girdles resembling the apparel of Christ himself (Revelation 1:13), apparently conveying that they were wearing the livery of their Master and therefore engaged in his business, just as a jockey wears the colors of the owner in a horse race. The judgment belongs to Christ.

Arrayed with precious stone ... This is an additional description of the apparel of the angels. It is translated, "clothed in pure and white linen" in the KJV, which is undoubtedly correct. The way this change came about is interesting:

The word for linen is found in the Vatican and Sinaiticus manuscripts, and a very similar word meaning precious stone occurs in the Alexandrinus and the Codex Ephraemi manuscripts.[34] But the scholars of the ASV preferred precious stone, on the basis of the critical "law" that "the more difficult reading is likely to be the original."[35] But after ASV was published, the Chester Beatty Papyrus was found to support the KJV rendition.[36] On account of this, the RSV went back to the KJV translation.

It would be difficult indeed to find a better example of just how arbitrary and undependable the so-called "Lectio Difficilior" actually is. It has been invoked to justify a whole family of unjustifiable renditions. See "Excursus on New Testament Criticism" in my Commentary on James, 1,2 Peter 1,2, 3John and Jude, pp. 282-290.

[34] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 383.

[35] F. F. Bruce, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1969), p. 656.

[36] Martin Rist, op. cit., p. 480.