Is the Bible Unique?

As a Christian, I believe that the Bible is the word of God. But what does it mean for the Bible to be the word of God? To many people, this status given to the Bible entails a couple of misguided assumptions, one of which I would like to deal with in this brief article. This first assumption concerns the uniqueness of the Bible. Some would say that the Bible's uniqueness is a sign of its authenticity as God's word. It is assumed that being God's word, it is unlike any other book in its class. It's set apart from all other human writings. There is nothing in the world like it. But what if the Bible is not as unique as some assume? What if the Bible was not that different from other literary works of its own time? Would it lose its status as God's word, or rather, would it confirm that this is truly what one would expect God's word to be like? I affirm the latter. What I want to point out in this article is that the Bible is not as unique as many have thought ,and that Christians shouldn't be afraid to say so. Within the last 150 years, archeology has discovered ancient texts dating back to the second millennia B.C that contain stories and customs which find similiarities with the biblical accounts. Amongst these stories are an ancient Babylonian creation story and a flood story. How do we as Bible believing christians understand the Bible in light of these findings? Should it baffle us that these other stories predate the writing of scripture? Do we forfeit Scripture's claim to be the word of God? Were the liberals right in saying that the Bible is just another book? To these questions, I give an emphatic "No". For this is precisely what I should expect the Bible to look like. It should be written in the popular styles and genres of its day so that the people can understand it. This is how God reveals himself.