The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
600–501 BC
5 works
traditionally c. 600 BC; survives in fragments
Greek
Epimenides of Knossos
A poem in the voice of Minos addressing Zeus, from a Cretan seer said to have slept fifty-seven years in a cave and to have cleansed Athens of a plague by loosing sheep on the Areopagus and sacrificing each where it lay. It rebukes the Cretans for building Zeus a tomb: they are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies — but you are not dead, for in you we live and move and have our being.
c. 650–600 BC
Hebrew
Anonymous
Two tiny rolled sheets of silver worn as amulets, found in a burial chamber above the Valley of Hinnom in 1979 and unrolled over three years. Both carry a version of the priestly blessing: may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace.
c. 589–587 BC
Hebrew
Hoshaiah and the garrison of Lachish
Ostraca found in the burnt gate-chamber of a fortress destroyed by the Babylonians. An officer writes that they are watching for the signal fires of Lachish, because they can no longer see the ones from Azekah — and complains of a prophet whose words weaken the hands of the people.
c. 750–300 BC; the Judah entries c. 550 BC
Akkadian
The scribes of Babylon
Terse year-by-year records of what the king did. One tablet notes that in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar he encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of Adar captured the city and seized its king, appointing one of his own choice and taking heavy tribute back to Babylon.
539–538 BC
Akkadian
The court of Cyrus the Great
A clay barrel buried in the walls of Babylon after Cyrus took the city, declaring that Marduk sought a righteous ruler and took him by the hand — and that he has returned the gods of the sacked cities to their sanctuaries and settled their peoples back in their homes.
5 of 1780 works