Lewis Browne says in Stranger Than Fiction:
"The Bible is a whole vast world of wisdom, beauty, and moral truth —
but it is not a chronicle of literal history. Its episodes and chronicles were in the
mouths of desert tribesmen for long centuries before ever they were written down. For
long centuries they were passed on from father to son, growing grander and more
wonderful with each generation. So that by the time they were set down in
writing, the literal truth in them, like the vein of gold in a mountain, was
crushed
and tortured and broken in a thousand places."
The former rabbi Lewis Browne was once asked by a colleague about his early career. "You were a rabbi, eh?" the man remarked. "Were you unfrocked?" "No," Browne replied. "Just unsuited!"