Have you ever looked at the copy of that leather-backed book on your bookshelf or nightstand and wonder how we got it? How the individual books came to be or how these particular books ended up in the Bible we have today? Was it the result of someone just randomly choosing a bunch of interesting stories for bedtime reading? Or did it happen when some committee of religious people got together and decided what to leave in and what to leave out?

In truth, very few people open their Bibles and give thought to how it came to be or how or why the 66 books in it are there. Most of us just open the Bible and start reading, feeling comfortable in our belief that what's in the Bible is what God wanted to be included. The way it all came about is actually a very interesting story — far more interesting than the scenarios listed above.