The collection of ancient Israelite and Jewish texts — comprising Torah, Prophets, and Writings — composed and compiled over roughly five centuries, that became the founding scripture of Judaism, the Old Testament of Christianity, and a primary source for Islam, shaping the moral, legal, and literary imagination of Western civilization more than any other single work.
One collection of texts, written over five centuries by dozens of authors in a small territory on the eastern Mediterranean, became the foundation of three world religions and the moral grammar of Western civilization. It contains creation myths, legal codes, poetry, prophecy, history, and erotic love songs. It has been read as the literal word of God and as a human document shaped by history. Both readings continue.