I always thought the Bible was the bible on all things biblical.

When people voted on it?

From the beginning it was spoken out from the mouth of God.

When God spoke the Word and man wrote it down.

Modern scholarship is revealing more and more in this important area. The Bible is the most important book in the history of mankind, and it is well that science and learning can be used to explain its many contradictions and profundities. The books in the Old Testament were fluid and uncertain for centuries in the early history of the church. The Jews took a big step after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. when their rabbinical authorities rejected all books not written in Hebrew. The Christians differed from this stance and incorporated some of the books written in Greek in the Septuagint. The Protestant reformers, who in essence, were Judaizers, in that they wanted to get closer to the early Jewish Christians of the First Century, adopted the rabbis' interpretation, and that is why the Protestant Bible has fewer books than the Catholic and Orthodox Bible in the Old Testament. The Jews had no influence on the formation of the New Testament and many books circulated for the first five or six hundred years of the Church, and long after the Council of Nicaea, contrary to the unhistorical blather of the Da Vinci Code and other works of that ilk. Finally about the sixth or seventh century, A. D., the present books of the New Testament were defined as canonical by the Church and the other books cast out. I conclude that the Epistles and the Acts were generally written before the Gospels. The Gospels probably were mostly written after the Fall of Jerusalem, 70. A.D. and the Epistles mostly before. Revelation was written somewhere towards the end of the century since the Number of the Beast refers to the Emperor Nero. Some skeptics have scoffed that the various prophecies in the Gospels, especially about the Fall of Jerusalem, were written, conveniently, after the Romans had already leveled the city. Historical research will continue to unfold the mysteries of the Bible, but putting dates into context definitely helps those, who want to be helped, I guess.

Who cares? It's here now and that's what matters.

From the earliest times, The Word was spoken by God and told by listeners down through generations. At some point, man became too afraid of the voice of God, and, with good reason. They wanted a mediator, Moses to listen and tell them what He said. They would, then, agree to do as told, but, later, do their own will instead. Many times, God was angry. I'm sure His voice would terrify most of us to this day. During this time, only the Levitical priests and scribes could read, and, so they were to repeat scripture in the temple. The true written word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned by the prophets, later translated into the languages we speak today. Man has gotten so far from The Word, most will listen to a man's interpretation over God. Interpretation and translation are two different things. Translation is neccessary. Interpretation should come from study and prayer, not man's oppinions.

At the point at which the words were inspired and penned down by their original author from the human point and from a divine perspective see Magu's point.

The Bible has always been with us, ever since the beginning of humanity, but not in the form as we know it. Our Bible now consists of the Law (first five books of the old testimate), History (Kings, Samuel etc), Poetry (Psalms and Proverbs etc), Prophecy, the Four Gospels, History of the church (Acts), Letters and apolocyliptic prophecy (Revelation). But in the beginning when humanity was created, they would have had the basic commands of God written down (about circumcisism). But when Israel was formed and Moses led the Israelites into the promised land, they would have had the book of Genesis to remind the Israelites of their origin. Then after God gave Moses the whole Law, Moses wrote the other four books (Exodus, Deuteronomy etc). So for about one or two thousand years after God gave the Law, the Israelites had the first five books of the OT. Then when David was born and after his death, and the death of Solomon, they would have added the history and the Psalms and Proverbs. Then as the prophets spoke eg Jeremiah, Jeremiah or who ever God assigned to record his words, would have written the book of Jeremiah and likewise with the other prophets. So the OT was slowly built up. We know this is true because in Acts, I think it may have been Philip asking someone what they were reading, because they saw someone reading the book of Isaiah. In Apostle Paul's days, the Gospels would have been written and passed down as sacred writings. As Paul, and Peter and John and James and Jude went on, their letters were added to the Bible. Then finally the Lord gave John his vision and thus Revelation was written. Eventually scholars and the church put the whole Bible together into one big book. The Bible has always existed, but now through time, it is now the book it is now.

When enough uneducated people believed in all the propaganda and made a book something it wasn't. People in that time period were completely ignorant and could be manipulated by a small group of people with power that inflicted their will and beliefs on the unfortunate. Just think if those in power today could convince the masses to live and die by a book, it would happen in red hot second!