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The Old Testament was transcribed from centuries of stories passed down from generation to generation, but the process of writing it down did not occur until about 600 BC.
It was (and is) the basis for Judaism.
Very few ancient languages had the ability to, or bothered to record history. Hebrew was one of them, but not until, as said above, until about 600 BC. So the Old Testament was a kind of 'ghost authors' construction based on verbal stories, fragments of old parchment, and archaeological remains passed down through generations. (Anyone collecting paper records or items will be aware of the problems of proper storage of such materials. Although parchment is far more durable than paper. By the middle ages, parchment could be made that would last a thousand years.)
Ghost authors write books, then another author, more famous, publish it under their name.
The New Testament, the basis for Christianity, gives the impression that it was a record of history as it happened, but that is not the case, it was written decades after the supposed events, again based on folklore and hearsay.
The only actual written, historical text, and the earliest, is the Epistles which are based on St Paul's letters to various Christian groups, about 50 - 60 AD, and the Acts of the Apostles (about 75 - 90 AD) is first hand work, written by Luke.
By about 2nd - 4th century it became increasingly obvious that the various groups and versions of the 'scriptures' contained different and sometimes contradictory passages.
Only then was the New Testament formed and decided what it would contain.
Even then, successive translations, copying and re-copying introduced various errors and various interpretations.
Even now, depending on which version of Christianity you follow, the Bible will contain different 'books'.
