We may also recall that undoubtedly the main, if not the exclusive, interest of other scribes was religious. Even under the far more secular civilization of Assyria, the great library of Assur-banipal was composed in much the larger measure of tablets that dealt with religion in some or other of its phases. *The content is extremely varied: astrologic compends, the most important being 'As the God Bel,) fragments of the annals of the an dent kings, each event connected with the proper constellation; fragments of the Gil gamesh epos (Flood, Creation, Conquest of Tiimat by Marduk, Ascension of Etana, Hymns, Prayers, Psalms, Rituals for Exor cism, the State Prayer-book, historical texts, Letters, Contracts, Commentaries on older difficult texts, catalogs of words, and Ideo grams with interpolation)." Of these only the last five are secular, and the great predominance of the religious is apparent. Neither should we forget that in the Middle Ages, not very long over-past, the ability to write was con fined almost wholly to the clergy. It is then by no means strange that in the very primitive Hebrew state, the functions of scribe and of prophet should almost coincide, that the writ ings should deal almost wholly with some as pect of religion and should all be regarded as authoritative and sacred.
But when the conquests of Alexander began to spread Greek civilization over the Orient, including Juda, and still more, when the Jews of the Dispersion began to lead a larger life, to take an a half-pagan culture with some knowledge of the Greek language and even of Greek literature, we may believe that the power of the pen became far more widely dif fused and its products not only greatly multi plied but frequently secularized. It was no longer possible to identify even partially the prophet with the scribe, there arose a profane literature by the side of the religious, and it was found necessary to discriminate between them. Then dawned the day of strife over the Canon, over the question, *Does this book make the hands unclean?" Wisdom and After the close of the prophetic list, indicated later by saying, °When Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi died, the Holy Spirit left Israel" and even earlier, a new form of literature, the literature of Wis dom (Chokmah), began to flourish ; two illus trious specimens are universally known and received as canonic, Job and Proverbs; a third, Qoheleth or 'Ecclesiastes)), came later and met with less favor, but still, be ing ascribed to Solomon, made good its place among the listed. Also the Psalter, the Na tional Anthem, the lyric cry of suffering Is rael,* established itself as the book of Songs for the service of the second Temple, and there was no occasion to question Lamenta tions. Very different indeed was the 'Song of Songs,) a cento of love-lays, and we may jnstly wonder why such an erotic ever came to rank with the Writings, among them but not of them. The answer appears to be that it was not unjustly popular, parts of it being sung from an early day at yearly folk-festi vals (Taanith, 48), that it bore the illustrious name of Solomon and finally that Aqiba (at the Synod of Jamnia, 90 A.D.) had recommended it as an allegory of God's Love for his Peo ple Israel. Nevertheless, as already observed,
it was long doubted or rejected by many. The historic or quasi-historic books of Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles offered no ground of offense and seemed necessary to complete the Hebrew History, while Esther, as a glori fication of the Jew in exile, made strong ap peal to the national consciousness and there by established its claims, against long and strong opposition. Lastly, Daniel, as both in tensely national and intensely religious., was admitted to the company of Writings, though not of Prophets, where would have been its natural place but for its later origin (not be fore 165 ac.), and was peculiar in introducing a new form of literature, the Apocalyptic (revelative or visionary), which afterward attained to great dimensions as well as popu larity.
These works, then, at the time of the close contact of Jew and Greek, in the dawn of the critical consciousness of Israel, succeeded, not without dissent widespread and sometimes vehement, in securing a permanent foothold among expressions of race-conscious ness before the doors were shut in the street and no further admissions allowed. It was indeed high time for the cloture; for *of mak ing many books there was no end," and already a great throng were knocking and clamoring for admittance. Such were Baruch, Judith, Maccabees, Sirach, Tobit, as well as Jubilees, the Wisdom and the Psalms of Solomon, the As sumption of Moses, with the Apocalypses of Ba ruch, Enoch, Ezra, Noah and others. Had these been received, it would have been hard indeed to close the gates at all, and to have canonized all would have amounted at last to canonizing none; neither was there any clear principle of discrimination, and the com mon consciousness rejected them in a lump. Henceforth no more books sacred and authori tative could proceed from the Hebrew mind, all of whose literary energies were to be di rected toward the exploitation, explication and elaboration of the exhaustless treasures al ready securely gathered in the Law, the Pro phets and the Writings. Hence, under the un wearied hands of so many generations of Rabbis arose that stupendous mass of inter pretation and conunentary known as the Tal ;mut (Learning) in all its endless divisions, extensions and ramifications, which is thus seen to be a direct and inevitable result of the sealing of the Canon, of the authorization and sanctification of a definite body of na tional literature, so much and no more, even as this itself was the unavoidable reaction from the wide and intimate contact of Jew and Greek brought about by the conquests of Alexander and the domination of his succes is it strange that in Alexandria, a firm seat of Hebrew learning and influence, more liberal views with respect to the “Chitzunire prevailed than in Palestine and that the so-called Alexandrian Canon, had it not yielded to Palestinian authority, would have sensibly enlarged the volume of Writ ings. As it was, these ((Outsiders" were sent forth upon very uncertain seas, to be buffeted hither and thither for nearly 2,000 years, and only within the last decade to come into their critical rights.