Religious People Maby should Not read this.

[Lemur]

Well, for starters you can leave monks out of it. If memory serves, the first monastary was founded in the Desert of Skete somewhere between 100 AD and 200 AD (if I could be bothered to go to Wikipedia, I'm sure I'd have the date down better). The Old Testament pre-dates the first monks by at least 2,000 years, and probably much more.

So we can talk about dirty court scribes, or dirty village storytellers, but the monks are blameless.

Just a Girl, if you're really curious about the OT, there are some wonderful books you could read. Forensic linguistics have done a lot to tell us when certain parts of it were written, and quite a lot is known about the later editings and revisions (Almost all of which pre-date Christianity).

Remember, the Bible is not a book -- it's a library. A subtle but important distinction.

[edit -- addendum]

I see Pape has finally decoded the true meaning of Lot and his daughters. "What happens in Sodom stays in Sodom."