@mogga - good morning! The world is awash with what was in the past mere folklore and fairytale, individual version per country, basic outlines similar. Since the beginning of the 20th century and maybe even earlier we have had sci fi authors making all kinds of assumptions - the most famous one probably Bram Stoker who led our minds to assume such creatures as Dracula existed (sadly based on a real human) - later the forebodings of mechanical man told by Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) - there was a whole spate of such authors and now we have Hollywood making them so real, that some 'modern' men (and women) actually believe in changelings and lizard people holding the fate of the world in their scaly hands
The Bible is to some people the word of G.d - to me it is conceivably inspired by G.d - but was written and amended over thousands of years by people - all with their own version of what is good and what is g.d. in their heads, all believing they are inspired, all of good will for the betterment of their society, their tribe. I am at the moment ploughing my way through a Bible which a good friend has sent me, and find that it's style and moral outlook changes distinctly from its very beginning as a tale of the creation of the world to the very detailed description of how to conduct your life in the later chapters - plus the admonitions which were added by Jesus' apostles and disciples as they travelled the Mediterranean and supplied moral guidance to their followers. Also it seems 'war is good' as long as it is fought by the 'true believers' - - not exactly moral, if you ask me, but all major religions have that tenet - so no exceptionialism for the Bible.
Similarities with other beliefes: when it comes to creation stories, there are similarities to those told by older civilisations before the nomadic Hebrew tribes took to writing - by the Sumerians, for example - they knew how to write - they have a story of paradise and of the flood - we now know there was an actual flood - global warming - back in about 7500 - caused ice to melt into the oceans - whilst in the meantime the Black Sea (situated at the Eastern extremity of Europe north of Anatolia (Turkey) had decreased (it is doing this right now) - eventually the rising waters from the Mediterranean seas poured into this land and filled the black sea 'like an overflowing bathtub' etc. - scientists have found proof through analysing the layers of sediments in and around the Black Sea. This story is in the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' - a Sumerian hero king - predating semitic herders by a thousand years.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/evidence-for-a-flood-102813115/However, if we analyse some of the Bible stories, we realise they come from earlier people in the region and have been incorporated into a story of the world totally unique to one section of the semitic peoples who populated the Middle East (and still do).
Also we surmise that a lot of the happenings in the bible were first transmitted by word of mouth.
We do know for certain that the detail of King David's reign was written after return of the Israelites from captivity in about 530BC
