“We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly.”
1) The transmission of inspiration / revelation from God to the initial hearer.
(Since there are multiple "filters" that can come into play in that process, what someone "hears" or "senses" often is not what the speaker "meant".)
2) The transmission of inspiration / revelation from the hearer's mind to the page.
(Since many scriptural accounts are recorded long after the receipt of the original inspiration / revelation, what someone hears or senses often is not totally consistent with what that person originally heard or sensed.)
3) The transmission of the writer's intent and understanding from one language to another
(Even intra-language translations can be problematic, as in the case of many Biblical translations into "easier to understand" language. Further, since something often is translated into one language from another language [German to Japanese for the Bible, for example] before being translated by someone else within that same language, this transmission process can add error repeatedly - and a translator / scribe can change words within the same language - e.g., the Joseph Smith Translation, in theory, is no different than the numerous modern translations used within the rest of Christianity.)
4) The gap between when something occurs or first is expounded and when it is recorded
The longer period of time that passes from when the original account occurs to when it is recorded, the more exponentially difficult (and, really, impossible) the transmission becomes to complete correctly - especially when the literalness or figurative nature of the story is lost over time, leaving those who finally record it to guess as to its originally intended purpose.
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