LIBRARIES. A library is a collection of books, large or small, purposely brought together by, and in the possession of, an individual or an institution (as contrasted with an accumulation of books in a book store, which is not a library). Often a library possessed by an individual ultimately becomes part of an institution more or less public, such as the J. Pierpont Morgan Library of New York. While books frequently are mentioned in the Bible, and sometimes in detail, from “the book of the generations of Adam” (Gen 5:1) to the “books, and above all the parchments” which Paul requested Timothy to bring to him in Rome (2 Tim 4:13), nowhere is there a reference to a library of books existing in Israel. Solomon, however, did complain that “of making many books there is no end” (Eccl 12:12), which would imply that he was well acquainted with an existing body of lit.

There are numerous individual allusions in the Bible to the writing of books and to the places where they were deposited. The books of Moses are mentioned more frequently than any others. As early as Israel’s victory over Amalek Moses was commanded to “Write this as a memorial in a book” (Exod 17:14). Though nothing is said as to where it should be deposited, it is interesting to note that the next line reads, “and Moses built an altar.” This antedated the building of the Tabernacle. Soon after the giving of the Decalogue “Moses wrote all the words of the Lord,” and, apparently on the next day, “he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people” (Exod 24:4, 7). The NT adds the comment that Moses “sprinkled both the book itself and all the people” (Heb 9:19). Again, it is here recorded that Moses built an altar. In the great code of Deuteronomy there is a famous passage that Israel’s future king should “write for himself in a book a copy of this law, from that which is in charge of the Levitical priests” (Deut 17:18). The priests and Levites were definitely acknowledged as the keepers of these sacred volumes. There is a similar statement toward the end of the Decalogue: “When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites...[to] take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God” (Deut 31:24-26).

There are various titles for these writings of Moses in Israel’s later history: “the book of the Covenant,” “the book of the Law,” etc. Joshua referred to these Mosaic writings (Josh 8:31, 34; 23:6), as did Ezra centuries later (Ezra 6:18). Much of the Pentateuch came to be called “the Book of the Covenant,” and was the volume lost for an undefined length of time and discovered by Hilkiah in the Temple (2 Kings 18:18ff.; 23:2, 21; 2 Chron 34:14, 15). Permission must have been granted to borrow these volumes or to copy them, for Jehoshaphat (870-848 b.c.) sent certain Levites to teach in Judah who had “the book of the law of the Lord with them” (2 Chron 17:9).

In an earlier period, when the Israelites had enthusiastically received Saul as their anointed king, Samuel “told the people the rights and duties of the kingship; and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord” (1 Sam 10:25). Both Jeremiah and Isaiah were admonished frequently to write certain warnings sent of God in books (Isa 30:9; Jer 25:15; 30:2; 36; 51:60).

From these allusions one thing seems clear: these writings commanded by God were in some way identified with the Ark, and later with the Tabernacle, and generally were under the care of the priests and Levites. This would seem naturally to imply that there was a library in the Temple in Jerusalem, but of this the Scriptures say nothing. The famous Ger. scholar, Sellin, supposes that there were temple archives at Ophra, Dan, Shiloh, Shechem, and Gibeon, but concerning this the Scriptures are silent.

For many generations there was no record of the book of Moses or of any other Biblical books. After the destruction of Jerusalem Daniel, far away in Babylon, “perceived in the books the number of years which, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet” must pass (Dan 9:2). Perhaps Daniel had memorized these passages, but it is more likely that he had a copy of Jeremiah with him or accessible to him.

In the middle of the 5th cent. b.c., when some of the Jews returned from captivity, the people asked Ezra to read to them from “the book of the law of Moses” (Neh 8:1ff.; and 13:1ff.). This implies that not only did Ezra possess a copy of the law of Moses, but that the people knew that he had it. Nothing is said of priests and Levites.

In spite of all these references to the writing of the books and sometimes of the assignment of them to the care of the Levites, there is no specific reference to a library, nor even a hint that there must have been extensive collections of books in Israel. Not only were there copies of the lit. which is now included in the OT, but these Scriptures refer also to other books not included in the canon, such as the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Num 21:14), the Book of Jasher (Josh 10:12, 13); the Book of Nathan the prophet and the Book of Gad the seer (1 Chron 29:29) and the Chronicles of the Seers (2 Chron 33:19). Besides all these, there must have been collections of treaties, genealogies, business transactions, etc. The first eleven chapters of 1 Chronicles demand an extensive collection of genealogical records.

There is, however, a remarkable reference in the OT to a library in Persia. When the enemies of Israel complained to Darius about the Jews, they asked that a search be made in the king’s treasure house in Babylon concerning the decree of Cyrus permitting the building of the second Temple. “Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in...the house of the archives [or rolls] where the treasures were stored” (Ezra 5:17; 6:1; see also 4:15). Jerome tr. “house of the archives” by bibliotheca, a clear reference to an official library. The Book of Esther states that the story of Mordecai “was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king” (Esth 2:23), and the statement is repeated in 1 Esdras 6:21, 23. When the king was not able to sleep, “he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king” (Esth 6:1). There is a final reference to what is prob. a more extensive record of “the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia” (Esth 10:2).

The NT gives no hint of actual collections of books, but from our Lord’s experience in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:17) it is clear that the synagogues then, as today, had copies of the OT writings.

The fact that no libraries or archives of Israel have thus far been found is more amazing in consideration of the fact that vast collections of records, narratives, and other texts were amassed by Israel’s neighbors. Few have been found that could be called Israelite. In the 1930s eighteen ostraca in a Heb. script from about 588 b.c., relating to the siege of Lachish, were discovered. They related to the siege of the city, but were really emergency correspondence, not a library. North of Lachish, on the southern edge of the Valley of Jezreel, twelve cuneiform tablets were discovered at Taanach that could be dated about 1450 b.c. before the arrival of Israel. Albright said in 1944 that he hoped there would be “a rich harvest of written documents at Megiddo and Lachish,” but such a hope has not been fulfilled. Farther N, at Ras Shamra, forty m. SW of Antioch, was found a large collection of texts and letters, mostly religious, from the middle of the 2nd millennium b.c. In southeastern Syria in this generation 2000 tablets of the 18th cent. b.c. came to light, and 370 clay tablets of the 14th cent. b.c. were found at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt.

Probably the greatest collection of tablets yet found are those which composed the library of Sargon (722-705 b.c.) and which are now in the British Museum, 25,000 in number. In the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal (662-626 b.c.), 20,000 tablets representing 10,000 different texts, also rest there. It was called by Sir Frederic Kenyon “the first great private collection of books known to history” (The Bible and Archaeology [1940], p. 4). More recently archeologists unearthed a large number of tablets, estimated at 20,000, inscribed during the first half of the 2nd millennium b.c. at Nuzi. Fifty m. SE of Babylon in the temple area at Nippur, some 50,000 tablets dating from the 4th and 5th centuries b.c. were found. Dr. Oppenheim has stated that “A library in our sense, a systematic collection of texts, copied for the purpose of being in a collection, existed only in Mesopotamia.” E. C. Richardson, in his work on Biblical Libraries, written in 1915, wrote, “The fact is that there were thousands or even tens of thousands of collections, containing millions of written books or documents in Biblical places in Biblical times.”

The large libraries of the Gr. and Rom. world were gathered after the close of the OT period. Most of the LXX prob. was produced at the great library of Alexandria in the middle of the 3rd cent. b.c. The libraries of the Early Church, such as the one used by Origen at Caesarea in the 3rd cent. a.d., do not belong within the Biblical period, and are consequently outside the scope of this article.

In the year 1947 occurred what has been designated as “the greatest manuscript discovery of all times.” For the most part, the thousands of tablets found in different libraries of the Near E do not relate directly to Israel or to the OT records of Israel. From the caves in the hills at the NE end of the Dead Sea were recovered a large number of complete and fragmentary scrolls dealing with the lit. of the inter-testamental period, and containing specimens from every book of the OT except Esther. This body of MSS was gathered or produced by the pious men of the Qumran community between 200 b.c. and a.d. 50. Some of these MSS, such as Daniel and Isaiah, were written as early as 165 b.c. Some of them had never been seen before, or at least not in entirety: the Manual of Discipline, the Damascus Document, the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, etc. The library contained a very interesting Aram. work, A Description of the Heavenly Jerusalem. The greatest treasure was the Isaiah Scroll, which is almost identical with the Heb. text of Isaiah that has been used by Jews and Christians alike for centuries. The relation of all this material to the history of Israel, to the origin of the Early Church, to textual criticism of the OT, etc., will be occupying scholars for years to come.

Bibliography In 1914 the famous authority on bibliography, Dr. E. C. Richardson, librarian of Princeton University, wrote a work on Biblical Libraries, which carried the sub-title, “A Sketch of Library History 3400 b.c. to a.d. 150.” In an abbreviated form, this became the basis of his article on this subject in the ISBE, Vol. III, pp. 1882-1886. Nearly sixty years have passed, so that this work needs careful revision. A great deal of valuable material can be found in the article on “Archaeology” by D. J. Wiseman in the New Bible Commentary, 66-71. See also the article by O. Betz, “Dead Sea Scrolls,” in the Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary, Volume I, pp. 790-802. There is also valuable material in A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia (1964), and in Sir F. Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology. There is much detailed information in G. F. Owen, Archaeology and the Bible (1961), and in an article by M. Jastrow, “Did the Babylonian Temples Have Libraries?” JAOS (1906), 27:147-182.

The lit. on the DSS is enormous. The following are suggested: F. M. Cross, Jr., The Ancient Library of Qumran; J. Van der Ploeg, The Excavations at Qumran; M. Mansoor, The Dead Sea Scrolls (1964).