Once the Israelites left Egypt they soon assembled around Mount Sinai. There God took the mountain as a pulpit from which to address “His people.” God managed to get through the Ten Commandments before the people overloaded and shut down the proceedings.
They asked that Moses go up to God, get the rest of the message then come back and tell them about it (Exodus 20:18, 19). That was an acceptable arrangement and was adopted. Moses got the rest of the message and presented it to the people. They agreed it made sense. At which point Moses wrote it all down (Exodus 24:4). This is the first known written material to formulate and stabilize a record of God’s thoughts and dealings.
Over the next several months Moses spent many days up in the mountain with God. In that time he received information that became much of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. Numbers has a lot accounting of people and resources as they were organizing after leaving Egypt. A few interesting stories were interspersed among the ledgers. Deuteronomy, almost in its entirety, is the last words of Moses to the people before his death. It is a recount of how they got to this point. It is a concise review of important ideas God conveyed to His people. It pointed toward future expectations. It delineated blessings for adhering to God’s guidance. It delineated curses, consequences for forsaking His guidance. These are the writings of Moses. These are the core documents of the faith. Moses finished his work about 1400BC.
Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi close out the writings of the Old Testament about 450BC. Selected writings from this period (1400 to 450BC) came to be called “the Old Testament.” The writings of the Old Testament comprise history, biography, wisdom, poetry, prophecy gleaned from about 3600 years of experience. These are the Scriptures of Jesus and the apostles.
(A quick aside. I make deliberate reference to “history” and “biography.” Biographies are stories of individual lives – personal histories. They are record of life up close and personal. They record real lives, real choices, real trajectories, real outcomes in terms of an individual (and perhaps family and associates). “History” I relate to how aggregates of people (tribes, nations, cultures) have learned, lived, interacted. They are both history but from distinctly different perspectives.)
Over the centuries the Bible has been laughed at for its historical inaccuracies – stuff not in written history documented in other sources. People are laughing less and less as archaeology uncovers ancient civilizations, artifacts, inscriptions, and libraries that match names, dates and places spoken of in the Bible. Indeed, often what is learned from these digs helps fill in events recorded in the Bible. In so doing, for those willing to consider it, confidence in the Bible is strengthened.
But God Didn’t Literally Write It, Did He?
There is one, only one, document written by God Himself. He personally etched the Ten Commandments with His finger on stone – twice (Exodus 32:15, 16; 34:1, 27). All else was written down by people. Yet God is behind it all (2 Peter 1:19-21; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17).
It is not unusual for a person to want their memoirs written but for various reasons they have difficulty shaping such a document for a particular audience. They will tell their experience to a person skilled in words and communication, who then writes it all down for them. Peter expressed it this way: “prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” 2 Peter 1:21. John explained the path to print this way: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw” Revelation 1:1, 2.
A lot of the Bible is history, often as biography – observations written down. In some of it God is part of the story. It may also tell when God is absent and what happens in that absence. There are songs, prayers, wisdom one liners (Proverbs). Some writers were shown visions which they did their best to describe. Sometimes a writer took dictation: “Thus sayeth the Lord …” One way or another, God urged and inspired people to write. Then He saw that those writings were carefully handed down and preserved.
It may seem strange. If God is so great and grand, why couldn’t He write and explain all this for Himself?
That may be part of the problem. He is so above and beyond us what He may say and how He says it just might not make much sense to us. But if He can find a way to have people explain things to each other, it just might make more sense.
What comes from human experience and observation is more likely to make sense to other humans. You may have never heard a physicist try to explain something simple like acceleration. (Go online and watch some videos on “acceleration.”) Say what!? But if you drive a car you use the “accelerator” and the brake. Now it makes more sense.
Until Jesus, God had no human experience. We had little experience with God. However, with Jesus returning to the throne He carried human experience back with Him. Now there was new resource for communication with man – starting with the New Testament. After the life of Jesus there was another burst of writing for about 50 years. This became the “New Testament.” Four biographies of Jesus were written. The ascribed authors are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Paul wrote numerous letters. There were a few other contributors.