I think I have the strongest contender for the most damaging mistranslated verse.
Here it is in a more modern translation where it is not a whole sentence but the end of a sentence:
Notice here that the KJV focuses upon appearances, and it would have us make the mistake of looking more sophisticated and holy then we actually are. It props up pretense and show. How dangerous! I wonder how much damage this has caused over the last century. Of course its not supposed to be read by itself, but verses like this one do get noted and spoken in isolation.
Did the KJV originally mean this? Its hard to know because language drifts around. The meaning of the words change over time.
[1Th 5:22 KJV] 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
That is the King James. Its a sentence with a beginning and a period at the end, and it is one that I used to ponder as a young person. There is something wrong with this verse, though. There is something rotten and not-Jesus about it.Here it is in a more modern translation where it is not a whole sentence but the end of a sentence:
[1Th 5:22 NIV] 22 reject every kind of evil.
Notice here that the KJV focuses upon appearances, and it would have us make the mistake of looking more sophisticated and holy then we actually are. It props up pretense and show. How dangerous! I wonder how much damage this has caused over the last century. Of course its not supposed to be read by itself, but verses like this one do get noted and spoken in isolation.
Did the KJV originally mean this? Its hard to know because language drifts around. The meaning of the words change over time.