How did we get the Bible?

A friend of mine is dealing with this question for an upcoming Bible study. I sent these suggested questions and few thoughts for him to ponder over during his research. The following have been modified from the original message that I sent.

There are many interrelated issues to think through when dealing with this important question. Most of us think only about translation matters (or maybe not). What about the sufficiency of the Scripture or some other topic? Some of these issues are technical, some are theological, and some are more important than others at different times in history. Here are a few:

Revelation: How does God communicate with human beings? Is the Bible a revelation from God? What about the Lord Jesus as the one who revealed God to us in the New Testament?

Textual: What Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are available to us? If the original autographs (original documents written by the original authors) are not with us anymore then how do we know that the text contained in the Hebrew and Greek copies of the Bible are trustworthy/acceptable? What are the issues here and how do textual scholars solve them? Anything unsolved? 

Transmission: How were these books transmitted from original authors to us?

Translation: What are the issues faced by translators when translating the Bible into different languages? What are the most trustworthy translations? What about paraphrased versions? What about the KJV? NIV? Can there be biased translations? Which is better: a committee translation or translation done by an individual?

Inspiration: What does it mean? How do we know that these books in the Bible have authority over our lives and faith? How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God? What about other books in the world that make similar claims?

Canonicity: What standards were used to determine what books should be included or excluded from the Bible? Who decided? Were there any such standards in the first place?

Biblical Inerrancy: Do we have errors in the Hebrew and Greek copies of the Bible? What kind of errors and how do they affect the Christian faith?

The Sufficiency of Scripture: Related to the canonicity and revelation. Is the canon closed or open? Can new revelations be received from God? Is the Bible not sufficient for life and faith? Are people receiving new revelation? Can these insights be validly termed as revelation? How do these people differentiate the Bible's revelation from theirs? Are there different categories/classes of revelations? Who/what determines and validated any of this?