The book we know as the Bible is not so much a single book as a library. It is a collection of books, written by different authors, at different times, and dealing with a wide range of concerns. We recognize this fact when we refer to the Bible as “the Scriptures,” a term that implies we are not dealing with one book but with many. Even our English word “Bible” was originally not a singular noun but a plural one, for it comes from the Greek term ta biblia, which means simply “the books.”