Well, to me it represents one group's attempt to answer questions of the time. The early Romans collected all the stories they could, and assembled a book by voting for stories (the Bible) that told the most complete story from the beginning of everything to the end. Considering who the early Romans were (superstitious, like everyone of that era) the Bible was written to be a literal account of everything. As centuries passed, some other books were dropped by Martin Luther. In order to square up the Bible with findings from history/archaeology and science, parts of the Bible are now taken to be allegory, metaphor, poetry, or are simply ignored.

Human morality (reduce human suffering) has always informed civilizations, and the struggle has always been the same one - overcoming societal/religious rules, often enforced by kingdoms. Change takes time, especially when there is a deity or deities from which the rules are claimed to have come.

If you are interested in the historical origins of the OT, as backed up by historians with archaeological findings, the PBS show Nova did a 1-3/4 hour documentary on it, and you can view if on YT for free. One part of it shows that the name YHWH (they think pronounced "Yahweh") was the name for the god that came from a region named YHW.