The Bible has been in continuous use for nearly 2000 years and the larger part - the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament - is much older. It has played a central role throughout western history, as a source of conflict at many levels, and inspirer of heroic acts of witness both individually and collectively. Today it continues to inspire people working for a better world and a better humanity. It is the single greatest influence on the development of English literature, and subject of some of the world's finest art and music. Yet, surprisingly, its actual contents vary across different versions and translations, and remain a matter for serious debate to the present day. Here a distinguished team of scholars presents an authoritative account of that story, richly illustrated, and bringing to bear the latest findings. It tells how and why a collection of writings in Semitic languages and Greek that we now call the Books of the Bible came to be written over a period of about 800 years; and how even before the Bible existed as one volume its constituent parts were interpreted and subjected to a scrutiny that no other writing has had to endure. The story traces the several routes whereby what was to be called the canon of Scripture was determined, and controversies surrounding which writings should be regarded as authoritative. It describes how over centuries the writings were copied, translated, and printed; how interpreted in Judaism and in the churches in the East and the West, and it concludes with surveys of how the Bible is being used today in feminist criticism, and in the movements for theological liberation in Latin America, Africa, and Europe.