One can't ask for much more than this.
We do, however, need to recognize the difference between READING the bible, and UNDERSTANDING the bible.
In the READING part, since hardly anyone of us can actually DO that, we rely on 'experts' who study these things for years, to translate the language we can't read, into one we can.
Of course, there will be difference of thought over just what some passages or words really mean in the old language.
Problems arise if translators use what they THINK the text means, according to what they BELIEVE already, when they come to these problem areas.
About the only thing most of us plain, ol' Seekers can do, is to rely on what the he MAJORITY of translators, from a variety of background, agree upon.
No matter how MANY translations there are, each one should go back to the earliest known ancient manuscripts to use as a base.
We should let the Bible determine what our belief is, and not let our 'belief' determine for us what the Bible says.
I think your post was instructive, especially the last line, which stated,
“We should let the Bible determine what our belief is, and not let our ‘belief’ determine for us what the Bible says.”
Sounds great in theory, but as one can see, in practice it is not quite that easy...which explains, of course, why there are so many different Christian religions, with wide differences of belief between them, and supposedly all those beliefs based on Biblical understanding...people have been arguing and fighting for ages, on points of belief, and have come to absolutely no resolution, and I dont expect they ever will...in many cases, only one belief can be true, and yet the arguments continue...
For example, Catholics believe that Mary, remained a virgin, even after the birth of Christ...many other non-Catholic Christian churches, believe that after the birth of Christ, Mary resumed a normal sexual relationship with her husband Joseph and went on to have other children...these two views, extremely different from each other, and directly opposed to one another, are supposedly based on Biblical understanding, taking from Biblical scriptures...yet, they both cannot be true....Mary either remained a virgin after the birth of Christ or she did not...she either had other children or she did not...there are no nuances here, yet you have various Christian churches opposed to each other on this particular subject, and all is supposedly based on the understanding of Biblical scriptures...so it would seem, that your advice is easily given, but difficult to follow...