Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/79

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CHAPTER III


The Egyptian period

The Egyptian period of Bible history begins with the immigration of Jacob and his sons into Egypt and it ends with the Hebrew Emigration at the Exodus. It fringes back, however, directly to the first visit of Abraham (Genesis 12: 10-20) and indeed to the Mizraim of Genesis 10:6, while on the other hand it fringes forward through frequent points of contact to the time when Palestine was under the Ptolemies, to the flight of the Virgin, Pentecost, Apollos and the Logia of Jesus.

Already at the time of Abraham's visit 1950-1900 B.C. more or less, libraries had been flourishing in Egypt for a long time. Not merely public records but religious

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