How many authors wrote the Bible?

Writers of the Bible offers us evidence that the Good Book is, in the words of Michael Coogan, "an anthology of literature made over the course of many centuries by different people."

Coogan is a Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College and Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. He goes on to say:

Think of an analogy: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, which covers over a thousand years, from Beowulf into the 20th century. The Bible covers a similar span. The earliest texts in the Bible likely date to before 1000 B.C., and the latest texts go at least to the 2nd century B.C., and for Christians, into the 2nd century A.D. So it is an anthology of the literature of ancient Israel and early Judaism, and for Christians, of earliest Christianity, as well.

Like any anthology, it's selective. There were many other texts that the ancient Israelites and early Christians produced that we no longer have. We have reference in the Book of Numbers, for instance, to the Book of the Wars of Yahweh. Yahweh was the name of the God of Israel. And it must have been a wonderful book, but all we have is a kind of learned footnote.

It is one episode in Nova's "archeological detective story," The Bible's Buried Secrets.

The entire show will be available online, today.

Update

The program is online in 13 chapters, each available in both Quicktime and Windows Media Player format.