Background Information for the Bible

Reader Haley is 16, attends a high school in the South, and has been an atheist for a few years.

She hasn’t read the Bible yet, but she wants to:

I’ve read on a few blogs that atheists tend to know more about the Bible than many Christians and I want to be one of those atheists. I want to be able to prove to people that I understand Christianity very well, perhaps even more so than they do. So once I get my hands on a Bible, I’ll not only read it, but analyze it with an open mind.

The problem is she doesn’t think she has much background when it comes to the Bible. I suppose a lot of the religious literacy we take for granted isn’t always as well-known as we think.

So Haley has a question for readers:

What factors should I take into account in order to read the Holy Bible with an open mind?

I would add: What background information should people know before they begin reading the Bible?