Thank you for sharing these insights into the sordid cultural history of the KJV. One clarification, however: ALL translations are partly mistranslations, influenced by the cultural biases and limited knowledge base of the translators—so errors like these are inevitable. The mistake many people make is in assuming that there is a fully accurate translation of any text whatsoever.

The root of the problem lies in the nature of language itself. All three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are predicated on the assumption that there is an eternal and inerrant “Word of God” embedded for all eternity in their respective “sacred books” (I.e. the Torah, the Bible, the Qu’ran). But this is balderdash!

According to modern linguistic understanding, words consist of three variable elements: signifier ( the exact sounds and symbols that constitute the word); signified (the category of shared experiences with a linguistic community, whether specific or generalized, to which that word is commonly understood to denote), and the referent (the unknowable “thing itself,” real or imagined, specific or generic) to which the word refers. But since each of us has a unique experience of the world, no word or words can ever have the exact same referent; we can only share the signified within our own linguistic community (and even here, misunderstandings abound); and ANY translation is an approximation of the culturally shared meanings of one linguistic community, within the (very different) cultural context of another. So there is no eternal “word of God.” There is only the moment to moment choices we all must make between kindness and cruelty, responsibility towards others or self-indulgence at others’ expense. In other words, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The rest is commentary.