hundreds of writings and epistles passing from hand to hand, city to city, province to province in the Roman empire. There was the Gospel of Thomas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, the Epistle of Clement, the Acts of Peter, the Acts of John, the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Secret Gospel of Mark, the Protoevangelium of James, and hundreds more. Who decided which ones were inspired and which were not? To say it was the Holy Spirit, not men, who chose the twenty-seven writings is to sidestep the