A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Ultimately, Christians believe that the Bible is The Word of God.
By this we mean that the Bible is the product of God's working with his people in such a manner that his instruction to mankind is in a written form that contains truth and is presented in a manner that is trustworthy.

Christians speak of the Bible being handed down to man by the inspiration of God through his Holy Spirit.

By inspiration Christians believe that God has through his Holy Spirit empowered men to record His will and message in a manner that conveys His will accurately.
Inspiration does not mean that God has dictated the words recorded, but that he has empowered the writer to communicate God's will accurately in the writers own chosen language.

Thus we have the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans in his own chosen language, Greek, but in that writing being empowered by the Holy Spirit to express the truth of God's will and message accurately.

The same principle applies to the books of both Testaments, the Old and the New.  The chosen language of the Old Testament having been Hebrew (with some sections coming to us in Aramaic, a language derived from Hebrew).
The chosen language of the New Testament having been Greek.
These languages are not some form of Holy Spirit language, but the common language of the people receiving the writings.

Jewish and Christian scholars believe that God has worked through his faithful people to evaluate, treasure, and collect the Sacred Writings that manifest God's will and purpose into Sacred Collections (the Jewish Collection and the Christian Collection).
The process of this evaluation and collection we call the canonization of the Scripture.
Canon is a technical term that refers to those books that have stood the test of religious accuracy and wide spread use, that manifest God's will and purpose, and that have become the standard of faith for the Jewish and Christian communities.

The net result of this process we refer to as the Bible, a collection of Sacred Writings from both the Jewish and Christian communities of faith.

Christians thus refer to the Bible as the inspired Word of God in that in the Bible they believe they can learn God's will and instruction for faith and life.

Theologically, Christians believe the Bible to be the joint product of God working through His Holy Spirit in the lives of men who recorded God's will carefully and accurately in the language of their day.

AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
It is difficult to know precisely when the process of writing the books of the Bible began, but conservative Christians believe that Moses began the process of writing the books of the Old Testament when he recorded what we now call the Pentateuch, that is, the first five books of the Bible.  (Some scholars believe that Job may have predated the Mosaic writings, but this is difficult to establish with any certainty.)

In subsequent years, Jewish scholars, theologians, prophets, poets and others recorded different historical, theological, and devotional materials that reflected God's dealings with Israel as he brought them out of Egypt and settled them in the promised land of Israel.

These writings which Christians call the Old Testament reflect God's unfailing love for his creation as He worked with them through sin, rebellion, repentance, and restoration, leading up to the coming of the promised Messiah who would bring final and ultimate forgiveness, atonement, and hope.  

Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah and that God achieved the atonement of his creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the establishment of his new Messianic community, the church.

Christians believe that the story relating to the salvation God was working through Jesus is reflected in the four Gospels of the New Testament, and that the remainder of the New Testament reflects the growth and struggles of the church.

Thus historically, the Bible is the story of God's dealings with his fallen creation, the working of His atonement that was realized in Jesus Christ, and his instruction to man regarding faith and religious practice.

Historically, the Bible was written by men inspired by God's Holy Spirit as they experienced the working of God in their lives, and that God's faithful people collected those writings as they were recognized as being "inspired".

The process of writing the books of the Bible took over 1600 years.  The process of finally recognizing the canonicity of the Bible spread gradually over the period of writing, but was finally recognized in regard in its present form sometime in the 6th century AD.  During this time individual books were being collected and recognized by the faithful and presented in collections we refer to as a corpus of writings.

For instance, the four gospels were recognized by the church as the only four reliable canonical Gospels sometime around 150 - 180 AD.  Before this the individual Gospels were treasured by churches in certain areas.   As other strange and heretical Gospels surfaced it became necessary to sift out the strange heretical and establish the reliable.  This we call the process of canonization of the Gospels.  Through this same period of church history the writings of Paul were collected into a Pauline Corpus to which the other Epistles of the New Testament were gradually added.  Revelation was late in being fully accepted since it was the favored theme of a radical heretical group.

Historically, then, the books of the Bible written over a long period of history, were gradually gathered by communities of faith, evaluated, treasured, and collected into first the Old Testament (or Hebrew corpus), then the New Testament (the Christian corpus), and finally the Bible (the Hebrew and Christian corpuses). 

A LITERARY PERSPECTIVE
The books of the Bible are not only remarkable pieces of historical and religious evidence for faith, but are also remarkable literary pieces that reflect different styles of writing scholars call different literary genre.

Under different historical and religious circumstance writers of the Bible chose to express their theological thoughts and concerns in a variety of literary styles, each literary style chosen to suit the need.

We must stress, however, as we briefly consider each of the literary styles of the Bible that behind them all was a significant theological purpose.  That theological purpose was heightened and dramatized by the literary style.

Each literary style was well know, recognized, and appreciated by the religious community for whom it was written.

We should look at Scripture as literary works as well as religious or theological works since different literary types (genre) convey a certain kind of message.

The Bible is a literary work, so when trying to understand it one must seek to understand how literature works.

The question we are attempting to understand here relates to where the Bible came from.  It came out of an attempt to describe in literary form deep religious and spiritual emotions and needs.

We should then attempt to understand how literature presents those theological or religious spiritual needs.

When looking at the historical books of the bible, such as Joshua, or 1 Kings, we should remember that behind the historical concerns and interests lie deep theological motives and motifs.  Behind the great poetical works such as Psalms, lie deep religious expressions and truths.  Behind the seemingly historical framework of Acts lie attempts to defend the Christian faith.  Behind the assumed biographical interests of the Gospel stories lie deep challenges to faith.

Our point here in understanding how the Bible came to us as literature we must look beyond its literary form for the theological truths the literary form carries.

There is more to defining the literary genre (style) of certain books such as history, poetry, gospel, and epistle than mere literary interests.  We must understand how the writers used their literary heritage as theological vehicles of truth.

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