[jluetjen]

Why didn't God write the Bible in plain English/German/Greek/Hebrew/etc??? Since God's native language is "Godish" I guess, and none of us is equipped to understand that, I guess he picked some people who spoke the local languages to transcribe it.

I remember watching an American movie in Germany years ago when they were usually translated with sub-titles. It was funny how a whole sentance would sometimes get condensed down to 3 or 4 words. Speaking some German I can tell you that the got the gist of the American English, but not necessarily the subtlety. My favorite anquished translations I've found in Chinese airline magazines where it's pretty obvious the translators learned English as a second language from someone for whom it was a second language. They're often accurate -- but funny. You really get a sense of how different the Chinese language is to English.