Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/143

 and the key to the public library history of the period, both sacred and royal, as regards contents at least, is to be found in them, while in turn the key to the understanding of this technical book form itself lies in the understanding of the "word" as technical book form. This cannot be too strongly stated and the fact justifies a somewhat detailed discussion.

The "word" in Hebrew is used of books, speeches, sayings, oracles, edicts, reports, formal opinions, agreements, indictments, judicial decisions, stories, records, regulations, sections of a discourse, lines of poetry, whole poems, etc., as well as acts, deeds, "matters," "affairs," events and words in the narrowest sense. It is thus very exactly, as well as literally, translated in the LXX by "logos" which as a technical book term (Birt. Antikhes Buchwesen pp. 28-9) means any distinct composition long or short, whether a law, an epigram or a whole complex work.