Library

From BibleWiki

Very little is known concerning the methods employed by Jews in the collection and preservation of books. The Biblical writings are silent on this point. That there were royal archives in Jerusalem may be surmised with some show of reason, even though the terms "mazkir" (A. V. "recorder"; 2 Sam 8:16, xx. 24, and several other passages) and "sofer" (A. V. "scribe"; ib. viii. 17, and often elsewhere) do not necessarily point to the office of archivist. Nor does the place-name Kirjath-sepher (Josh 15:16; Jdg 1:11-12), which the Septuagint translates Πόλις Γραμμάτων (Vulgate, "Civitas Litterarum" = "Book Town"), afford any further evidence; though Quatremère in 1842 deduced from it the existence of a library there, and Sayce in 1895 called it "the literary center of the Canaanites in the south of Palestine" ("Patriarchal Palestine," p. 220; "Higher Criticism and the Monuments," p. 54).