I grew up in a Latvian household and was baptized at 18. I had read chapters in the Bible and as a little boy was convinced that the Bible was first written in Latvian. When I heard sermons at a church in New York City, they always contained references to sheep, shepherds, camels and olive trees — things that you never saw on Broadway. Heck, you never saw any trees on Broadway, period! Now, years later, I have learned I am one of millions of people who had no idea which translation of the Bible their version came from; how other cultures have struggled trying to identify with the geography and culture-based metaphors found in the Bible; or how some brave people have tried to make the Bible understandable.

The Bible has to be the most translated and mistranslated document in world history. The most anecdotal comment about it comes from an evangelical preacher, who, as the joke goes, declared, “If the King James version of the Bible was good enough for the apostle Paul, it is good enough for me.” Trouble was, ...