If the Bible is true, then there is a spiritual realm/dimension that is both separate and connected to our physical world and God operates beyond all of it. And if that is true, then the attempts of ancient man to understand and explain these spiritual things will be confusing to us and lead to varying explanations which seem at odds but very well may not be. If that makes any sense....
The attempts of ancient man to understand and explain spiritual things will be confusing and lead to varying explanations...
This statement is more likely to be true if:
1. God inspired these men to interpret and reveal his message to man.
or
2. Men wrote their thoughts down and various writings were collected, merged, redacted, interpolated, voted on and published by the victors of orthodoxy.
#2 seems more likely especially when you consider the power and influence a "Holy Spirit" would have (in which case #1 would be more likely) and when you consider passages such as
John 17:20-23:
“My prayer is not for them alone (the disciples). I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.
-- My bolding.
Jesus prayed for the complete unity of his disciples and for all those who believe in Jesus. This prayer did not last even a decade or two after Jesus died, if you believe Paul's letters were actually written between ~AD 40-60. Just think of all the other believing sects that were deemed heretics and eventually banished by the catholic church.