I'll say here what I'm currently thinking about how the Christian Bible was produced. Not everything about it, there are huge gaps in my information about, just what little glimpses that I think I'm seeing. There was a person who in English is called "Jesus," traveling in and between Galilee and Judea near the end of the Second Temple period, giving public talks and private lessons about God's kingdom, which in my understanding is people seeing God in Him and moved by that to want to learn together to live the way He says to live. I'm imagining that some of what He said and did was written down, but stories about Him and His teachings were mostly passed around by word of mouth. He chose twelve companions to travel with Him, and they memorized the stories that He told them and other people about Himself, them and His kingdom. Besides them, there were other people who believed in His teachings and promoted them. All along, there were people writing some of it down.
When communities started forming around Him and His teachings, there were gatherings where the stories were told and retold in the presence of some of the twelve and/or people who had been taught by them. It was nothing at all whatsoever like the telephone game, but it was also not everything that people sometimes think of as oral tradition. Those stories, including some in writing, continued to circulate that way until the gospels were written. Each of the authors, however many and whoever they were, took parts of those stories that were circulating and arranged them, to tell whatever story they were trying to tell. Also, the author or authors of the gospel of Luke wrote about what happened after the ascension of Jesus, from stories that were circulating, oral and written, and also possibly from their own experiences.
After the deaths of Paul and the twelve, the system of elder overseers appointed or approved by Paul or one of twelve evolved into an alliance of bishops and their subordinates, claiming authority by those appointments, and unwritten knowledge passed down from the twelve. There were decisions made, I'm not sure how, about what stories about Jesus and the apostles and what letters to use in their work and how. Different bishops or subordinates might have decided differently. Eventually those works were compiled and arranged to tell a story about Christianity. There were some variations until a decision of a council finalized them in the form or forms currently used by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.
During the reformation, some books were rejected or marginalized. I don't know if any were added or not. Again there were some variations, until 66 books were listed by the Westminster Confession of Faith, and most or all mainstream Protestant churches eventually agreed to use those same books.
earlychristiantexts.com
www.interfaith.org
Thanks, you're my hero.