What books have most influenced how you view the Bible?
I’d say Karen Armstrong’s The Bible: A Biography, which showed me that Jews and Christians have never taken the Bible plainly until recently. Early Jews tried to twist scripture as much as possible to make it conform to the Oral Teachings, whilst the earliest Christians tried to allegorise the Bible as much as possible.
The Human Faces of God by Thom Stark has also helped me to deal with problem passages in scripture.
The books that have shaped the way I see and understand the Bible have been first the three books of Richard S. Hess, The Old Testament: A Historical, Theological, and Critical Introduction. Ancient Israel’s History: An Introduction to Issues and Sources. Israelite Religions: An Archeological and Biblical Survey.
The other’s have been Thinking Through Paul: A Survey of His Life, Letters, and Theology. by Bruce W. Longenecker and Todd D. Still.
The other is The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament Within its Cultural Contexts. By Gary M. Burge, Lynn H. Cohick, and Gene. L. Green.
The last one is Introduction to Biblical Interpretation by William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg and Robert L. Hubbard, Jr.
These books have shaped my way of seeing and understanding what the Bible is and how it works.