This course will invite students to read the Bible as they might a novel or poem, considering its text as text, and not as an oracular source of truth. Although we speak of “the Bible,” this course will work to deconstruct the notion that this library of writings from the Judeo-Christian tradition is one book or even one clearly defined set of books. We will read the Bible using the tools of literary criticism, focusing more on narrative structure, literary devices, and intertextual exchanges than theology. Doing so will emphasize the human contributions to texts whose authorship has traditionally been attributed to God. Learning to read the Bible as literature reveals the remarkably beautiful ideas and moving language that have led to the preservation of these texts while also preparing students to better understand works in the Western tradition, many—and perhaps most—of which have been written in response to or in conversation with this Judeo-Christian canon. Although the Bible is not a book, it has been the inspiration for many books, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, which students will be better prepared to appreciate after this course of study.