BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
again to Judea, and the New Testament, beginning with Judea, covers the whole Greek and Roman world. Biblical library history and world library history are, therefore, not far apart as to their boundaries, from the very beginning until the end of Bible times.
The main line of Bible history until about 2000 B.C. has little or nothing to do with Palestine, Egypt, or even Syria; it is almost wholly Mesopotamian. Up to the time of Abram's emigration from Ur by way of Haran, the history of Biblical libraries and the history of Babylonian and Sumerian libraries is one and the same. It was, moreover, a place and period full of library interest. Most of the cities mentioned in the Bible in this period are now known to have had collections of books in those days and these very works, thanks to their burial, continued together until very recent times, when a couple of hundreds of thousands
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