The Bible – Really a Library First, some facts about the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books, written by many authors. It took more than 1500 years for these books to all be written from start to finish. This makes the Bible more like a library and sets it apart from other Great Books. If the Bible was written by just one author, or a group that knew each other we may not be surprised at its unity, but the authors of the Bible are separated by hundreds and even thousands of years. These writers come from different countries, languages, and social positions. But their messages and predictions connect with each other and the facts of history recorded outside the Bible. The oldest copies of the Old Testament books (the books before Jesus) that still exist today are from 200 BC. Existing copies of the New Testament are dated from 125 AD and later.