Going by Bible, the languages were the by products of an ambitious attempt by man to reach the heavens. In story of Tower of Babel, language was created as an instrument of confusion. Though I am not taking a firm stance of whether these events are historical or allegorical in nature, I admit that there could not have been a more ingenious way to stall the construction with minimal collateral damage. Coming to more recent times, the new testaments introduces us to the gift of speaking in special tongues. Bible itself was written in three different languages, depending on the times and surrounding social situations. I believe the language that have been used to convey to us the Word of GOD has reasonable impact on its understanding.
I was born in a nation that was once colonized and bought up as an migrant in another country. My parents moved out of their native place long before they got married but still deeply held their roots close to their hearts. These turn of events did equip me to understand more languages that an average human would. Hence Bible, was heard, understood and interpreted by me in different ways, in different times and in different languages.
Since I studied in an English school, it had always been my language of choice when it came to reading. This was aided by the fact that my skills in reading and writing the other languages were at best poor. While I heard the same scripture portions that was being read aloud by someone else in a different language I did feel a hint of difference.Though at a macroscopic level the meaning conveyed were same, at microscopic level the words could be interpreted differently. In fact there have been instances where interpretation could be very different. An example can be the liberal change over of 'Eagle' in English to 'കഴുകന്' or Vulture in the Malayalam Bibles. These can also happen when one reads different publications of the same language. Once might find in English the King James' Version different from New International Version which in turn would be different from Good News Version.
It may be argued that language is always evolving or all might not be comfortable with the complexity of certain version. I am in agreement with these justifications. I also believe that if the core essence of the scriptures can be conveyed without willful distortions, simplification would mean more people would get to know the Word of GOD - which is great. I feel many of the factions and denominations of the church are at odds with each other because they believe that their version of interpretation is infallible - which is rather stupid. It's no fault of the language - it was created for confusing!
