Where did the Bible come from?

A youth group Sunday school lesson I taught this summer, I present this piece now, though it is a tad different than how it was presented and discussed in youth group. Hunter Irvine
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Hebrews 1:1-2 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (NIV).
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So what you have in history is God speaking!
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And what you have today in the Bible is the writing that some people wrote down about what God said, and about what God did.  They were witnesses!
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Key question: There have many people who have said that God spoke to them, that started false religions or that even did horrible things like kill people. How do we know that God truly spoke to authors of the Bible, or that the writings of authors of the Bible were inspired by God?
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For the Old Testament, many people were witnesses of the ministry of the prophets in the Old Testament. The Jewish community recognized the individuals as prophets.
For an example in the Old Testament, the ministry of Moses involved numerous people. They were involved with the miracles God was doing with Moses as His chosen leader. They were witnesses of his relationship with God, and the result is that the Old Testament is still a foundation of the Jewish people on the whole.
Thus, many Jewish people witnessed and identified prophets as people who listened to God.
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And in the New Testament, the Apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus, God incarnate. They were listening to God by listening to Jesus.
An example in the New Testament can be summed up by the claim of Peter the Apostle of how he was an eyewitness.
II Peter 1:16 “…we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
Apostles were the people who wrote the New Testament, or who had some sort of friendship with those few who wrote a New Testament book who were not apostles.
And as the Apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus, other people witnessed the Apostles do miracles, and they witnessed men who were willing to die for their Messiah.  Thus the Apostolic writings preserved witness to Jesus, and other witnesses preserved and took those writings to be sacred.
Thus, we have human witness galore!
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Second, the Holy Spirit is a witness!
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II Peter 2:21 “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Those prophets and Apostles listened to God, being enabled by the Holy Spirit to write what is truly inspired by God. And we must rely on the Holy Spirit to be affirmed of the witness of Scripture, and to correctly interpret it.
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Biblical Authorship
Remember two important points for both the Old & New Testaments:
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Regarding the Old Testament -
First, the authors, at least the vast majority, were either prophets, priests, or kings.
Second, the authors were all Jewish!
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Regarding the New Testament -
First, the authors were all Apostles or friends of an apostle. [An apostle was a person who spent much time with Jesus and witnessed Him do ministry work!!!]
Second, the authors were all Jewish except for one – Luke. (Luke was a friend of Paul, who was an Apostle. See I Colossians 4:11- 4:14).
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The concept of God's work, which impacted the Bible since the authors were people who listened to God, is all so wonderfully summarized by John Stott:
“Christianity is essentially a historical religion. God’s revelation…was not given in a vacuum but in an unfolding historical situation, through a nation called Israel and a person called Jesus Christ.”
[John R.W. Stott, Understanding the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 45.]