- The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, the Pontifical Bible Commission
The Bible is composed of 73 religious books, which are divided into the Old Testament (written over a 900-year period) and the New Testament (written over 100 years).
The authors exercised considerable literary license in telling God's story, using such literary forms as parables, allegories, fables, short stories and letters.
These various literary forms have led many Scripture scholars to call the Bible a "library" containing books of poetry, laws, history, fiction, songs, and philosophy. For example, Genesis deals with origins - of the world, of human beings, of Israel and its ancestors. Leviticus is a liturgical handbook. Deuteronomy is a law book. Joshua is a historical-theological narrative, while Ruth is historicized fiction.
- Little Blue Book, Diocese of Saginaw