Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/167

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER VIII

The Persian Period

The first appearance in the Old Testament of that technical name for library which links the older with the more modern names for libraries the—House of Books—is in connection with the archives of Cyrus at Ecbatana. Here about 520 B.C. the proclamation which Cyrus issued in 536 for the return of the Jews was found "laid up." The occasion is well known and the detail is of unusual interest

In the times, of Darius, when Zerubbabel under the inspiration of Haggai and Zechariah was rebuilding the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, the Governor of the region, Tattenai and his associates, feeling that it was dangerous to let the

[131]