I have begun a little journey into the history of the scriptures, and have begun noticing many similar things to Terry - though I am not sure how to form what I am learning into text quite yet.
I guess the biggest thing I am learning is how many fragments of writings were put together and labeled as canoninical. (sp?)
The other thing I have been learning is that many OT books and NT books were not written by the names ascribed to them. For instance, the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were NOT written by Matthew Mark Luke & John. These names were added to these previously anonymous accounts because the church fathers figured this would give credence and authority to these accounts. On top of that, these conclusions regarding authorship are not guesswork - scholars and even many church scholars regard this as fact.
What is also interesting is other books of the bible that were considered canoninical clear up to the 3rd & 4th centuries and then were removed by the church fathers for a variety of reasons. What reasons? Some books gave way to much authority to women - and many of the early church fathers had a problem with women in positions of authority - even though Jesus never displayed sexist tendancies. There is substantial evidence that Pauls writings about "let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness" was added to Paul's writings after the fact ... even "cut-and-pasted", as many of the ancient writings have these verses in different places than the current bible does, and in some places was added to documents later. There are other books that were removed for similar reasons - reasons that threatened their authority.
There are many writings by early church fathers (and others) from the 1st-3rd centuries that document in detail the formation of what is now known as the Bible. The politics of what was finally considered "orthodox" is both amazing & horrifying.
There is much the Society simply chooses to ignore - they prefer we think "the bible MUST be inspired!"
I am not much of a scholarly type, so some of the books from Bart Ehrman that explain it simply enough. He also provides pretty detailed bibliographies if you are the type that likes to research further.
Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament (Hardcover)
The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
-ithinkisee