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BIBLICAL LIBRARIES

Sesostris II. An inscription of the time of the first Sesostris and by a master of the sacred writings speaks both of the "House of sacred writings" and of the "King's writings" i.e. Temple and Palace archives. The inscription of Knumhotep II at Benihassan in the time of Sesostris II mentions land record archives. It is agreed by modern writers that early Egyptologists are "naïve" to have identified the visit of the thirty-seven Beduin to Egypt in the reign of Sesostris II, which is mentioned in this same inscription, with the visit of Abraham but, according to the most recent chronologists, the visit being in the sixth year of Sesostris fell in the year 1900 and Ibshe and his followers were contemporaries thus of Abraham.

Two hundred or so years after Abraham came the confused period of Hyksos' rule in Egypt, and just before this period, or about 1700, there is a most interesting and specific reference to libraries at Helio-

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