Accurate Translation of the Bible?

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What constitutes an accurate translation?  It's a discussion I have at the start of every Bible study.  Do we translate word for word or do we translate ideas or both or what?  The fact that we keep coming up with new translations indicates that we're still working on this and trying to translate the Scriptures into our language.

So, it is with great interest that I read a post over at Koinoniablog.net by Bill Mounce who as worked on the ESV and the NIV.  It seems he's gaining an appreciation for more of a "dynamic" or "functional" or "idea" translation. 

So, what constitutes an accurate translation?

I think most of our gut reactions would be: "word for word." An accurate translation is one that is as least interpretive as possible, one that reflects the grammar of the Greek and Hebrew. The basis of this claim is structural. We have been trained to think that if we stick as close to the form of the foreign language as possible, then we are being more accurate.

But I have been wondering if accuracy is really a matter of structure. I have long held that accuracy mandates the distinction between dependent and independent constructions, and I still hold to that. But beyond that, I wonder if a "literal" translation that makes no real sense in English can accurately be called "literal," or even a translation that makes a biblical writer sound almost illiterate. We know this is not true in the case of idioms; we rarely translate the idiom "into the ages or ages" word for word. We translate the meaning as "forever." But what about other Greek and Hebrew constructions that when translated make no sense?

I am not talking about natural language, translating into the modern English idiom of our own subculture the way the NLT does. I am simply wondering if a "word of word" translation that makes no real sense can in any way be called "accurate."

In seminary I used the New Revised Standard Version.  That was my formal choice for study.  But now that Peterson's The Message transliteration is out and the New Living Translation, there's a lot of sources out there to help with understanding a passage.  I still pull out the NRSV or NIV when I want to do a more formal study.