With the passage of time without a Second Coming of Christ, it became necessary for the Church to develop mechanisms for preserving the Gospel as handed down by the Apostles. It became necessary to deal with heresies and set standards for what writings should be considered authoritative. This led to the establishment of the Magisterium, which is not a committee of theologians but includes all the bishops throughout history. They are the successors of the Apostles. Much of this development can be traced in the New Testament itself. We wrestle with many of the same issues today. There really is nothing new under the sun where human is concerned.