Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/206

 from various other sources, whether Judas in fact gathered together the records scattered by the wars or not. This account written to the Egyptian Jews says that "it still exists. If you need to use any of the documents therefore, send some one to get them." Whether this lending library was a fact or not, it evidences a usage of about this time and adds one more straw to the testimony of Jerome and others as to the lending of books in Palestine, while it certainly conforms to the facts of usage in Egypt and Athens, where original documents were loaned to departments and copies made for or loaned to any one.

In 1 Maccabees, it appears not only that the archival system was in full operation from Judas on, and letters, decrees, treaties, and the like set up, largely on the holy mount or within the sanctuary, but copies of inscriptions and inscriptions which are copies of letters are mentioned,