LITERATURE 



281 



Judges. History of Israel under the administration 

 of thirteen Judges. 



Ruth. An Idyll of Jewish life in the period of the 

 judges. 



Samuel. Establishment of the kingdom under Saul 

 and David. 



Kings. Political history of the kingdoms of Judah 

 and Israel. 



Chronicles. Priestly history of the kingdoms o 

 Judah and Israel. 



I / r.i. Continuation of Chronicles. Priestly restora- 

 tion after the captivity. 



Nrlicmlah. Continuation of Ezra. The politica 

 restoration. 



INtlirr. A story of the Hebrew captivity. 



POETBY 



Job. A drama of the soul. 

 Psalms. Book of hymns. 

 SOMKS of Solomon. Hebrew pastoral poems. 



DIDACTIC POETRY OR BOOKS OF WISDOM 



Proverbs. Practical moral maxims. 



I leslastes. Practical moral reflections. 



MAJOR PROPHETS 



Isaiah. The Messianic prophet. 

 Jeremiah. The prophet of sorrow. 

 I /.kid. The priestly prophet. 

 Daniel. The apocalyptic prophet. 



1. Hosea, 



ft Joel. 



3. Amos. 



4. Obadiah. 



5. Jonah. 



6. Micah. 



MINOR PROPHETS 



7. Nahum. 



8. Habakkuk. 



9. Zephaniah. 



10. Haggai. 



1 1 . Zechariah. 



12. Malachi. 



BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

 Biography. Life of Christ as found in the four cos- 

 pels. Matthew. Mark, Luke. John. 



Historical. History of the Apostolic Church as 

 given in the Acts of the Apostles. 



Epistles. Continuation of the history of the Apos- 

 . tolic Church as given in the 



PAULINE EPISTLES 



Romans. Colossians. 



Corinthians, I and II, Thessalonians I and II, 



(Jnlatians, Timothy I and II, 



Ephesians, Titus, 



Phillipians, Philemon, 



Hebrews. 



GENERAL EPISTLES 



James, John I, II, III, 



Peter. I. II. Jude. 



Prophetical. The Apocalypse or Book of Reve- 

 lation. 



A8SYRIO BABYLONIAN 



Cuneiform inscriptions which eharacteri/e 

 early Persian tablets are found abundant in the 

 Knphrates Valley, and point to a common Aryan 

 origin. Very little is known of Assyrio-Baby- 

 lonian literature, but abundant material awaits 

 the faithful student in the inscriptions scattered 

 all through the valley. The Persians preferred 

 to write on stone, but the people of the Euphrates 

 region used the soft clay so abundantly at hand. 



The golden age of early Babylonian or Chal- 

 dean literature extends from 2000 to 1500 B. C. 

 Before this period, however, important works 

 had been written in Chaldea. The oldest 

 Chaldean l>ook is a work i \ | > , 



known v|M-,-i,,,,. M of Chaldean writini: is 

 a set of I. rick- thought f,, have IH-.-II made about 

 LMMX) B. C. A translation of the inscripttona 

 on the face of on.- of th,-,- I, rick- reads in thi> 

 way: "Beltift, his lady, has caused 1'rnkh. the 

 pious chief and kini: <>f I'r, kin,; of the land of 

 Accad, to build a temple to her/' From a vol- 

 ume of Chaldean hymns, somewhat similar to 

 the Rig Veda, is found a hymn written in most 



exalted language to Istar, the Babylonian Venus. 

 The Babylonian cities very early became the 

 seats of learning. Oral traditions were written 

 on clay tablets and these, collected, formed the 

 famous tile libraries. These libraries were rich 

 ! in works on ethics, astrology, law, mathematics, 

 grammar, history, fiction. As in all the litera- 

 ture of the East, fables abound. 



With the decline of Babylon (1500 B. C.), the 

 Assyrian empire takes its rise. For six centuries 

 the Assyrians confined their literary activity 

 to the old archives and historical records, but 

 in the reign of Shalmseser II., 858-823 B. C., 

 there was a revival of learning, and Cabah be- 

 came the seat of letters. Later, the library 

 begun at Cabah was removed to Nineveh. 

 There it reached vast proportions and under 

 Sardanapolus II, 667-547 B. C., it contained 

 ten thousand engraved tablets. This wonder- 

 ful library contained grammars, lexicons, law- 

 books, astrology, mathematics, books of magic, 

 omens, rituals, oooks of prayer and song. These 

 books were all catalogued and put into the 

 charge of librarians for the instruction of the 

 people. With the fall of Nineveh, 625 B. C., 

 the library was buried in the ruins of the palace. 



Later, Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, 601- 

 561 B. C., succeeded as the seat of power and a 

 great revival of learning followed. Again a 

 great royal library became the wonder of the 

 world, and again it was overthrown and buried 

 in the ruins of this later Babylon. 



Among the valuable records recovered from 

 these buried libraries are tablets which relate 

 the story of the Creator, the fall of Man, and the 

 Deluge. These tablets must have been copied 

 from older records, which date earlier than the 

 Pentateuch. 



ARABIAN LITERATURE 



The Arabs were a nomadic people, and among 

 such a people literature and the arts of peace 

 are of tardy development. Before the time 

 of Mohammed, Seventh Century before Christ. 

 these dwellers on the vast table-lands of Arabia 

 had no prose composition, but they were essen- 

 tially a poetic people. They gave vent to their 

 fancies in rude war songs and pastorals and 

 metrical tales. Fragments of their verse, eom- 

 posed at least one thousand years before Christ, 

 lave been preserved in their inscriptions. 



In the Fourth and Fifth Centuries, A.I)..; 

 lad become to them a refined art. and met: 

 contests were yearly established at the festival 

 of Okad. The most renowned poets crowned 

 at these festivals were Antar. Amralkeis, and 

 Pharafa. Their poem* were sus[>rnded in pub- 

 ic places, where all might read, and the victors 

 were awarded prizes at the public expense. 

 [)eep passion, fertile imagination, richness of 

 magery, and metrical skill are the chief char- 

 acteristics of all Arabian poet*. Their natation 

 ate tales of lo\ MKMfWl in 



misieal cadences, 1 iliar IM>\\ 



he h-t, !!.!. I h.-y have been repeated to us 

 n the "Thousand and One Night-" .,i,d oth, ( 

 anciful stories borrowed through translation 



In the Seventh Century. A. D., dawned a new 

 ra in Arabian life It was due to the teaching 



