The Bible As A Work Of Historical Fiction.

According to Wikipedia, "Fiction is the classification for any story or universe derived from imagination - in other words, not based strictly on history or fact. ... Fiction constitutes an act of creative invention, so that faithfulness to reality is not typically assumed; in other words, fiction is not expected to present only characters who are actual people or descriptions that are factually true. The context of fiction is generally open to interpretation, due to fiction's freedom from any necessary embedding in reality; however, some fictional works are claimed to be, or marketed as, historically or factually accurate, complicating the traditional distinction between fiction and non-fiction."

Further, "Realistic fiction typically involves a story whose basic setting (time and location in the world) is real and whose events could feasibly happen in that real-world setting; non-realistic fiction involves a story where the opposite is the case, often being set in an entirely imaginary universe, an alternative history of the world other than that currently understood as true, or some other non-existent location or time-period, sometimes even presenting impossible technology or a defiance of the currently understood laws of nature."

Reasons why the Bible most certainly appears to be and probably is a work of historical fiction.

#1) The Bible reads as if it is a series of rather unconnected self-contained short stories. Examples could include the Garden of Eden, the Flood, Sodom & Gomorrah, the Tower of Babel, Abraham & Isaac, etc. Each seems to be a self-contained story.

#2) There's no independently verified historical / archaeological evidence that is contemporary with Biblical times that any of the major players in the Bible (i.e. - Adam & Eve, Noah, Moses, Jonah, Solomon, David & Goliath, etc.) ever existed and that any of the major events (i.e. - the Flood; the Exodus; the Battle of Jericho, etc.) that are related ever happened.

#3) Many of the Biblical tales are wildly improbable at best (i.e. - the Garden of Eden narrative; the Exodus, etc. and often downright scientifically impossible (i.e. - the creation of life (especially of Adam & Eve), the Universe and everything; Jonah and the 'whale'; the Sun standing still in the sky; the resurrection, etc.).

#4) Like nearly all works of fiction, the Bible contains many hundreds of dialogues and monologues without any explanation (adequate or otherwise) as to who was Johnny-on-the-spot writing down these pithy quotations in real time. Some of these Biblical quotations could only have been scribed down by Peeping Toms or spies and some quotations are noted and logged before any humans even existed that could have wrote them down!

Regarding Bible Quotations: And just who would have even thought to be writing all of these monologues and dialogues down at the time, even assuming that some unknown scribe was Johnny-on-the-spot and just happened to have pen-and-paper (or equivalent) at the ready?