Why is the Bible out of date?

Okay, I know I haven't written in a while. The election and all. But I am getting over my PED (Post Election Depression--Look it up, it is a real disease) and I am ready to talk about life again.

So, I was at Toastmasters yesterday and had a fascinatingly disturbing discussion. A friend indicated that his problem with the Bible is that it does not transcend time. I asked him to expand on this thought. He said that the Bible is in stilted language. I asked him if he is referring to the Original Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, etc or was he referring to a particular translation? He did indicate that he is not fluent in the ancient languages in which the Bible was written. Thus, he was relying upon translations. We went on for some time discussing the problems with translations and the fact that we could not truly comment on the language used in the Bible unless we could read the original. This discussion was interesting and included discussion as to which translation is best. However, that is not the point of this posting.

The point that I would like to open up for discussion is this. Ultimately, my friend's argument boils down to this: The Bible was written in languages known only to a portion of the population, therefore it does not transcend the time/language barrier--Were G-D truly all-powerful, would He not have written it in such a way that it could be understood by all.

Please remember when discussing:
1. This friend of mine believes the Tower of Babel story is just a simplified childish story to explain what we now know to have much deeper roots.
2. This friend of mine does not buy the argument that translators are G-D's method of crossing the language and time barriers due to the imperfections of the translations.
3. This friend does not feel the argument extends to render all foreign language texts as not transcending time because they were not ostensibly written by G-D.

Charlie--If I have unfairly stated your position, please let us all know.

Have at it y'all and have fun.

G-D bless,

Jeff