The making of a book

It is safe to believe that the way God communicated to humans is more complex than we have been accustomed to think. In the past we too easily thought in modern terms about an author sitting down and writing a manuscript, which is then published as a book. (As authors we only wish it were that simple!) When thinking about how the Bible was written, many Christians modified the simplistic notion of authorship only slightly to included God’s Spirit revealing the specific words that an author wrote. But this model is foreign to the ancient world (and in reality, to the majority of book production in the modern Western word); it should not serve as the premise for formulation of biblical authority. The process was much richer and more sophisticated.—The Lost World of Scripture, page 293

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Having worked in publishing for 10 years, I can vouch for their statements about modern bookmaking! And having studied the ancient world, I can assure you it wasn't any simpler then...
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