Alexandrian library
J. Michael McGill mmcgill@inetworld.net
Sat, 4 Jul 98 01:07:54 -0000 (00899532474, 199807040805.BAA06621@inet1.inetworld.net)
MCGILL
According to The World Book Encyclopedia 1987:
"Alexandrian Library was the largest and most famous of the ancient
collections of scrolls. The Egyptian rulers Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II
developed it in the 200s B.C. It contained over 400,000 scrolls...the
greatest collection of scrolls in the ancient world...The Alexandrian
Library had a copy of every existing scroll known to the library's
administrators...Not a trace of the library remains today, and no one
knows for certain what became of it."
>From Encyclopedia Americana Deluxe Library Edition 1991 by Grolier
Incorporated:
"Alexandrian Library, the most celebrated Library in antiquity. It was a
remarkable collection of manuscripts from all over the Hellenistic world,
housed mainly in the museum and partly in the serapeum in Alexandria,
Egypt, roughly between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D...During the ptolemaic
period, the total collection of the library may have exceeded 500,000
volumes...The serapeum collection endured untill 391 A.D., when
CHRISTIANS, following the edict of the Emperor Theodosius, destroyed the
temple and its literary treasures. No books or buildings remain
today...Theodosius I, ((347-395), called the great, was the last Roman
Emperor to rule over a united empire...in 391-392 he prohibited pagan
sacrifices and closed a number of pagan temples...394 marked the end of
paganism and the establishment of Christianity as the official state
religion. In his effort to achieve religious unity Theodosius also issued
no fewer than 18 constitutions restrictive against those who rejected the
theological formula enunciated at the council of Nicea in 325[A.D]."
It seems the world influence and spread of Christianity was helped along
by Emperors and lack of freedom of religion.
Why did Christians destroy the greatest Library and collection of scrolls
in ancient times,
scrolls and writings that could have had some bearing on the Bible? It
seems man did a lot of selective choosing on his own of what was included
in the Bible and what scrolls or records were to be destroyed.