SecretAsianMan

Most of the topics here are about the accuracy of the Bible, this topic is meant to discuss the literary merits of it.

My a.p. literature teacher (a self admitted non-religious person. I personally respect him, and he is quite possibly my favorite teacher of all time.) believes that the works of Shakespeare are second only to the Old Testament from a purely literary perspective (he says he believes the Bible was written by men).

I'd like to know what people here at IIDB think of this claim. Is the Old testament a great piece of literature?

On that note, how do you personally classify literature as "great"?

I've only been able to read parts of it myself; I lost interest when it started to use "begot" too many times, so I can't really say that I have an opinion on the subject.

Serios discussion, please, but humorous fillers are welcome.