Thank you for taking the time to read the article and to make thoughtful comments.

You write: "I'm constantly reminded that the Bible, whatever version you are reading, is a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation...."

Technically, we're more dealing with translation of copies. Most of the reputable translations do work with original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.

"... and there is not one single page of the original bible around, except maybe in Fort Knox."

Or Area 51 :-) Yes, to our knowledge, we don't have any of the original autographs. I don't think this is a deal-breaker given what we know about ancient copying practices and the overwhelming number of ancient copies that we have, but...

"I hope you will follow up on this post."

I will and thank you for helping me identify what issues I should address in the follow-up.