Well, ZC will tell you that as soon as you translate them, they aren't the scriptures anymore, but only a translation of the scriptures.
Having a bit of experience with languages and translations myself, I tend to agree with him. Language shapes the way we think. There are expressions and words even in a language as close to English as German which can't be perfectly translated. And you're not talking about modern German to modern English, you're talking about 3000 year old Hebrew and 2000 year old Greek to modern English.
As far as your assertion that anybody with an eighth grade education can understand scripture ... parts they can, parts they can't. Take it up with 2 Peter 3:16.
Apparently you don't get it...Here is just the example the verse is talking about...
2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Peter is not talking about people that don't possess a Phd, he's talking about people who are unlearned in the scripture...