for a long time the texts were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. the bible was written long ago in aramaic, hebrew, and greek. translations were made later into latin and some other languages. now there are translations in english and many other languages. the books of the hebrew bible—what christians call the old testament—were not all written at the same time. it took hundreds of years (about 1200 years). the process of putting it all together began around 400 b.c. the books of the new testament, which was originally written in greek, began to be collected together in about 100 a.d. it tells about events that happened between 4 b.c. and 70 a.d. these events included the birth, life, death and resurrection of jesus. it also tells how his followers went around spreading his message. it ends with a description of how the world will end when jesus returns to earth. most of the writers of the new testament were apostles of jesus. these were people who said they had seen jesus alive after his crucifixion.