How easy is it to translate a Hebrew and Greek into English? How do you KNOW it is translated accurately?

Translation is a science and art. You need not be overly concerns about the quality of standard modern translations of the Bible. There are many checks and balances. There are difficulties translating from one language to another since not every word and phrase always has an exact equivalent. Another obstacle is cultural and time frame. The events recorded in the Bible took place long ago and in a world very different than the modern West. But there is a ton of scholarship so there really isn't a guessing game.

It is impossible to translate the TaNaKh (Hebrew Bible) perfectly into English. The two languages are different enough that some words simply don't have exact equivalents, and the grammatical structure is different, which in itself changes the meaning somewhat. So, even though Hebrew never quite became a "dead language" and we can read and understand Biblical Hebrew perfectly well, we can never render it exactly-right in English. Every English translation, however carefully done, will be nothing more than an approximation. I cannot answer regarding Greek, but I read TaNaKh in Hebrew daily.

No, that's not quite the case. There was a huge break in time between the people who wrote down Egyptian hyroglyphs and those who've tried to decipher than again and speak and understand that old (ancient) form of Egyptian. That is not true for Greek and Hebrew. The world has had Greek scholars all along though the language has changed. The same for Hebrew esp because the Jewish people have always preserved it as a language. And in recent times ancient paleo-hebrew writings using the older alphabet have been discovered. As far as how do we know it has been translated accurately that has to do with those lingquists who have all studied it and then translated it, often people who don't even get along with each other. When they, over centuries all come to the same conclusions as to what a passage says/means we can conclude it's been translated correctly. Or you can check it painstakingly out yourself. I did so once by going through some Bible passages, verses, word by word back to the find out what Greek or Hebrew word it come from. Then, looking up that word in the appropriate dictionary. After a while I learned which translators I preferred because what I found is what they had said in their translations. It also helps to understand the rules ethical translators use to convert what is said in one language into another. I suggest you look at the accountability practices of the Wycliffe translators and also check into Tynedale's disputes with his first with the Catholic versions. Both are some of the best/first to translate Greek/Hebrew into (old) English. Almost every Jewish school boy learns his bible by first learning to read Hebrew and studying Torah in Hebrew.

Greek doesn't always translate straight across. Greek uses lots of participles that often require extra words in order for it to make sense in English. Also, Greek has no indefinite article ("a"/"an" in English), so those have to be put in as needed. Additionally, Greek has a middle voice in addition to active and passive, while English only has the latter two.

I read Greek.

Buy a Strong's Concordance and a Bible that has the corresponding numbers under each word and you can look them up. There is another help by a Greek author named something like "Zodiates". I have a Greek English interlinear New Testament.

http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#en|el|go...

This seems to work very well.

Logic would dictate that about 500 years worth of experts doing just that, have come up with the correct translation neighbor.

look it up. I have a bible that one side is Hebrew and the other side is English. I'm self teaching myself the original languages of the original bible. I use the NAB and Douey Rheims bible and they are very close in translation. It takes time and patience but is worth it. I've been studying them for 7 yrs now

Let me think, hyroglyphs are pictographs.

Hebrew and Greek have actual letters that correspond to actual words.

Plus, people still speak those languages and read it. By the millions.

How easy is it? Well, learn Hebrew or Greek, then you'll know.