What is the bible?

I am embarking on my new essay for the degree I don't need, the title if which is:

“I take up the Bible and I read. Here are a million or so printed words, in which divine gold and human clay are mixed, and I have to take the gold and leave the clay” Austen Farrer, The Inspiration of the Bible. Do I? What theologies of the inspiration of Scripture lead you to your answer?

I have chosen this as a title partly because of the huge endorsement Eugene Peterson gives Farrar in Eat this Book and it will give me the chance to read his work. If anyone knows how to get hold of The Glass of Vision by Farrar then I would be grateful- I have been unable to find a copy anywhere. If you wanted a good starter on Farrar then I commend 'The truth seeking heart'

In my reading I came across this quote from Farrar which I liked and so share.

‘What is the Bible like? Like a letter which a soldier wrote to his wife about the disposition of his affairs and the care of his children in case he should chance to be killed. And the next day he was shot, and died, and the letter was torn and stained with his blood. Her friends said to the woman: The letter is of no binding force; it is not a legal will, and it is so injured by the accidents of the writer’s death that you cannot even prove what it means. But she said: I know the man, and I am satisfied I can see what he means. And I shall do it because it is what he wanted me to do, and because he died the next day’