[bibleprotector]

So are you saying that since English speakers misread it (not grasping the reference to the practice of the Pharisees in their obsession to avoid any taint of unclean meat in their diet), that their misuse of the term in the sense of exertion had become so common that the KJB translators simply incorporated that misuse?

No, that the proper use, namely, to strain at the gnat to take it out, was already so used in 1583 and 1594, and common enough that it came to be used rather than "strain out" which was seen in the Bishops' Bible, etc.

You seem to be saying that, but also you seem to be using an argument Will Kinney also used, that I don't understand:

Thus, straining at a gnat describes the action of using a filter to capture insects while pouring out wine, and not that the strainer is immediately withdrawn from the wine once something has been caught, since no one ordinary stops filtering until the wine ceases from being poured. This example and explanation should be indicative of all such objections that can be brought up.

This makes no sense to me, I'm afraid. Straining OUT gnats also describes using a filter to capture insects, and I see no implication in either case that the strainer is withdrawn once something has been caught.

The word "strain" is used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary: "To take out a liquid (something) by straining, ... to strain out a gnat ... strain a gnat". The particular action being described is not emphasising that the gnat goes out, but either: that the strainer was employed at it, that is, to get at it; or, that the word "at" meant "at the time", that is, when a gnat was found, at that time, it was strained.

"Out" would be inaccurate, slightly wrong information.

I can see that perhaps the translators incorporated a common misuse of the term, but I also think that misuse detracts from the meaning Jesus intended so that it ought to be corrected.

The translators were not misusing the term, even as the Elizabethans Greene and J. King were not misusing the term. The term was misunderstood since that time, perhaps already by Shakespeare in 1609. Moreover, since it is the very accurate sense, "at" not "out", why would we turn Jesus' speech to something less fitting, or think that the KJB needs to be "corrected"?