This is a unique companion to the Bible. Leading chapter by chapter through key biblical stories—from the Creation and the Tree of Knowledge through the Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land—Kugel shows how a group of anonymous interpreters radically transformed the Bible and made it into the book that has come down to us today. Here we can witness the development of the Bible as It Was for its ancient readers and listeners in late biblical times, and how it remains, in some respects, up to our own day.