Unique in its Unity and Continuity
The Bible, at first sight appears to be a collection of literature mainly Jewish. If we inquire into the circumstances under which the various Biblical documents were written, we find that they were written at intervals over a space of nearly 1400 years. The writers wrote in various lands, from Italy in the west to Mesopotamia and possibly Persia the east. The writers themselves were a heterogeneous number of people, not only separated from each other by hundreds of years and hundreds of miles, but belonging to the most diverse walks of life. In their ranks we have kings, herdsmen, soldiers, legislators, fisherman, statesmen, courtiers, priests, and prophets, a tent-making Rabbi and a Gentile physician, not to speak of others of who we know nothing apart from the writings they have left us. The writings themselves belong to a great variety of literary types. They include history, law (civil, criminal, ethical, ritual, sanitary), religious poetry, didactic treatises, lyric poetry, parable and allegory, biography, personal correspondence, personal memoirs and diaries, in addition to distinctively Biblical types of prophecy and apocalyptic.
For all that, the Bible is not simply an anthology; there is a unity which binds the whole together. An anthology in compiled by an anthologist, but no anthologist compiled the Bible.
F.F. Bruce, Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester
Writers of Varied Backgrounds
Kings—David, Solomon
Political leader—Moses
Governor—Daniel
Priest—Ezra
Lawyer—Paul
Military general—Joshua
Shepherd—Amos
Tax collector—Matthew
Doctor—Luke
Cupbearer—Nehemiah
Fisherman—Peter, James, and John
Written in a Variety of Literary Genres
Poetry
Historical narrative
Song
Romance
Didactic treatise
Personal correspondence
Memoirs
Satire
Biography
Autobiography
Law
Prophecy
Parable
Allegory
Unique in its Unity and Continuity
Unique in its Influence of Western Civilization
Unique in its Availability
Unique in its Survival of Persecution
Unique in its Manuscript Evidence
Unique in its Fulfillment of its Prophecies
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