Raggytash says: It would seem to me that if Christians cannot agree on how to translate the original texts of the bible or transpose their own particular nuances into the original text they don't actually know what they think they believe.

It would be silly to insist on one and only one translation of the Bible. Translating just doesn't work that way, because words in one language don't translate directly into another. To do a scholarly study of a translation, one needs two or three reputable translations to get a fairly clear understanding of the original. Better yet, the scholar should know the original language of the document.

There is only one accepted edition of the Quran, and that's in Arabic. There's good reason for that - a translation can only be an approximation of the meaning of the original document.

But the Bible was never meant to be an incontrovertible document, and I can't think of any part of the Bible that is written in legal language - or even in theological language. It's a collection of stories, exhortations and sermons, poetry, and other literary forms - all scrambled together. It's meant to tell the story of a faith, not to be a doctrinal statement. It's meant top inspire, not primarily to be a legal directive to be followed exactly.

-Joe-