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.