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BIBLICAL LIBRARIES

chamber and archive—all of these in the upper city, close to the main entrance to the temple and recalling in their arrangement the similar arrangement of forum, council chamber, archive in Athens—the natural and common case of Greek or Roman cities at this time. This archive was of course the public Greek archive corresponding to the library archives of Alexandria and the various departments of Egypt, it was an "archive" by name, not a "library" and may thus possibly refer to offices, not documents, although in any event there were doubtless records in the offices. Adjoining the council room and archive was the Temple with its superb porticos, used for teaching, and the inner temple with its treasuries and equally fine, if not equally great, porticos, likewise used for teaching. Somewhere in the temple was the "Chamber of hewn stones," where the Sanhedrin sat, also a "conversation hall" and a sacred archive

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