Misinterpretation in KJV (XVII)

Mark 6:20 renders “observed him” when the Greek indicates Jesus was “protecting him” or “keeping him safe.”[1] The KJV’s choice obscures Herod’s protective concern for John the Baptist, suggesting mere observation rather than active safeguarding.

John 20:17 commands “Touch me not,” but the Greek verb is a present-continuous-imperative, indicating Mary Magdalene was already holding onto Jesus and should “stop holding” or “do not keep on holding” him.[1] This mistranslation has fueled theological speculation about why the risen Jesus forbade physical contact, when the text actually describes Jesus gently releasing himself from her grasp.

2 Corinthians 2:17 renders “corrupt the word of God” when the Greek term should be translated “peddle the Word of God,”[1] fundamentally changing Paul’s accusation from moral corruption to commercial exploitation. The image shifts from doctrinal contamination to mercenary preaching.

Galatians 6:11 reads “how large a letter I have written unto you” when Paul is actually referring to “large letters”—the physical size of the characters he wrote, not the epistle’s length.[1] This error has spawned interpretations about Paul’s eyesight problems, when he was simply noting his handwriting style.

Isaiah 4:5 mistranslates “canopy” as “defence,” and Isaiah 5:25 renders “refuse” as “torn.”[2] These errors obscure Isaiah’s poetic imagery and prophetic meaning.

The KJV compounds confusion by using different forms for the same person—Jesus and Joshua both refer to the same Old Testament character, while Cis and Kish, Noe and Noah, and Judas, Judah, Juda, and Jude represent identical individuals with inconsistent transliterations.[2]

The translators employed inconsistent renderings throughout—the Hebrew word dabhar appears as eighty-four different English words, panim as thirty-four, and in the New Testament, katargein appears twenty-seven times rendered seventeen different ways.[2] Most strikingly, Acts 12:4 translates the Hebrew word for Passover as “Easter,” the only instance where this occurs among twenty-eight total uses.[2]

[1] Rod Mattoon, Treasures from Philippians, Treasures from Scripture Series (Springfield, IL: Rod Mattoon, 2004), 300–301.
[2] John Ankerberg and John Weldon, The Facts on the King James Only Debate (Chattanooga, TN: ATRI Publishing, 2011). [See here, here, here, here.]