I was informed by someone, so don't know if this is right or wrong, that the story of christ was not written down for 200 years. before that it had been an oral tradition with stories being told and it being added to - I wonder what we would make of this if Emperor Constantine?? hadn't needed to unite his people by getting the book written and religion was still an oral tradition - Seems to me there would by now have been many different versions of 'the word'
That is part of the reason there are so many "books" of the bible, and some conflicting stories. They were oral traditions later written down by many different people. There were meetings of the early church to decide which books to accept and which to deny. There are many books that did not make the official cut.