BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
etc., but with compartments in the side for large leather rolls like those represented on the Jewish glass work. These however, although among the very earliest known pictures of the book-chest with side opening (armarium), are of course much later (Birt 263-4), and it would be rash to say that putting Deuteronomy "in the side of the ark" refers to something of this sort, although it fits so perfectly. It fits moreover the circumstances of the refinding of Deuteronomy. When the old chest, with lid pierced to receive coin contributions, was opened to take out the money, the book was found at the same time. If this was not the case, a collection of book-chests is indicated, Deuteronomy being, like the Philistine mice, kept in a separate chest beside the ark. Those who wrote these documents thus clearly had in mind that the ark was first of all a book-chest, and since this much belongs to both J and E it seems equally
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