There is certainly merit in that view. Nonetheless, you'd agree that something is lost in translation simply because different languages lack linguistic and conceptual equivalence.
Based on my own experience, I know that, for one reason or another, so many English coloquialisms cannot be translated into some of the languages I know. Instaead, they must be imported wholesale into another language.
Thus, the Russian tea maker is called samovar in English, and underground publications are know as samizdat in English as well as in Russian. But to an English-speaking person, these words are really meaningless, and represent no more than a label.
The same can be said of just about any other foreign word integrated into daily English, such as Orthodox, or Theotokos. As labels, they are associative rather than meaningful.
But, I will agree with Quix and you that the "core [my emphasis] Christian doctrine has survived time and languages". We can probably make the same claim with respect to the Hebrew OT, yet I am deeply convinced that to truly experience AND comprehend the Hebrew Old Testament is to read it in Hebrew, as the rabis seem to find a lot more in their verses than we do in ours.
The question is not whether something is lost in translation, but how significant that loss is. It depends on what we define as 'significant'. I would say that when it comes to Faith, living the fullness of the Faith is significant.
Some believe it can be achieved by reading asnd comprehending; others believe it is not. But, as Kolo aptly observes, the Orthodox, Catholics and some Protestants (traditional Anglicans and Lutherans) experience their faith through Liturgy.
The Orthodox Wiki says "Worship is faith in action. In the words of Georges Florovsky: 'Christianity is a liturgical religion. The Church is first of all a worshipping community. Worship comes first, doctrine and discipline second'. Orthodoxy sees people as liturgical creatures who are fully complete when glorifying God.
We can discuss the merits of the liturgical worship as opposed to non-liturgical Protestant approach, but it is clear that some Protestant sects condition their fellowship with God entirely on reading and comprehension of the written word, in which case excellence in Greek and Hebrew seems inevitably the way of becoming 'fully complete' in their relationship with God.
Thanks for your kind words.
Good points in your post.
Yes, that is completely fair to say.
The question is not whether something is lost in translation, but how significant that loss is.
Well put.