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.
700–601 BC
1 work
c. 700 BC
Hebrew
The tunnellers of Hezekiah
Cut into the rock where two teams digging from opposite ends met beneath Jerusalem. It records the moment the last three cubits were breached and each team heard the other's voices calling through the stone, and the water ran to the pool.
1–100
2 works
c. 75
Greek
Bellum Judaicum
Flavius Josephus · c. 37 – c. 100
Seven books on the revolt of 66–73 by a man who commanded in Galilee, surrendered, and then watched the siege of Jerusalem from the Roman side. It ends with the burning of the temple and the last stand at Masada.
c. 100–120
Hebrew or Greek, surviving in Syriac
The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
Anonymous
Baruch is shown that Jerusalem fell because angels pulled its walls down before the Chaldeans could claim the honour, and that the true city was shown to Adam before he sinned. It closes with a letter to the nine and a half tribes.
101–200
1 work
c. 150–200
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
James speaks from the temple steps and reports that the Lord embraced and kissed him and called him beloved, then is thrown down, stoned, and crushed with a fuller's club while praying for his killers.
301–400
4 works
333
Latin
Itinerarium Burdigalense
Anonymous
A bare itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem listing every staging post and change of horses, with terse notes on the holy places seen at the end.
c. 348–350
Greek
Cyril of Jerusalem · c. 313–386
Lectures delivered to candidates for baptism through Lent, then five more given in Easter week explaining the rites they had just been through for the first time.
c. 381–384
Latin
Itinerarium Egeriae
Egeria
A woman's letters home from a three-year journey to Sinai, Jerusalem, and Edessa, describing what she saw and, at length, exactly how the Jerusalem church kept Holy Week.
c. 350–390; authorship disputed
Greek
Cyril or John of Jerusalem
Five addresses given in Easter week to those baptised days before, explaining at last what had been done to them: the renunciation facing west, the anointing, the threefold immersion, the white robe, and the eucharist, taken with the hands making a throne for the King.
401–500
1 work
c. 5th century; older material within it
Greek
The church of Jerusalem
The eucharistic rite of Jerusalem, with the fullest of all ancient anaphoras: a long thanksgiving over creation, the Sanctus, the words of institution, and an explicit invocation of the Spirit on the gifts. It contains the hymn Let all mortal flesh keep silence.
601–700
4 works
c. 630
Hebrew
Anonymous
Written as Persians and Byzantines fought over Jerusalem. Zerubbabel is shown the end: a Messiah son of Joseph who dies in battle, a Messiah son of David who does not, Hephzibah the mother of the Messiah fighting with a staff, and Armilus, a monster begotten on a stone statue, whom the nations worship.
634
Greek
Sophronius of Jerusalem · c. 560–638
A newly elected patriarch's statement of faith, insisting against the imperial compromise that Christ has two natural activities, not one.
25 December 634
Greek
Sophronius of Jerusalem · c. 560 – 638
The patriarch of Jerusalem explains to his congregation why they cannot go the five miles to Bethlehem this year: the Saracens are on the road, and the sword of the godless is at the throat of the city. He tells them their sins are the cause and that repentance is the defence.
c. 679–688
Latin
De Locis Sanctis
Adomnán of Iona · c. 624–704
A description of Jerusalem, Palestine, and Egypt taken down from a Frankish bishop shipwrecked on Iona, complete with sketch plans of churches.
701–800
1 work
c. 778–780
Latin
Hodoeporicon
Hugeburc of Heidenheim · 8th century
An account of a seven-year pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem and back, taken down from the traveller's own dictation, including his arrest as a spy and a smuggled jar of balsam.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1106–1108
Old Church Slavonic
Daniil the Pilgrim · 12th century
An abbot from Rus travels to Jerusalem under crusader rule, measures distances between holy sites, and is allowed to place a lamp on the tomb for his own people.
1601–1700
1 work
1672
Greek
The Synod of Jerusalem
A synodal confession rejecting Lucaris point by point and defining Orthodox teaching on scripture, the sacraments, and the church against Calvinism.
16 of 1780 works