f Jehovah was not yet laid.

I. The Transformation of the Jews into a Literary People. The
destruction of Jerusalem transformed the Jewish peasants of Palestine into
a literary race. Before the final destruction of Jerusalem they had lived
together in a small territory where communication was easy and the need of
written records but slight. The exile separated friends and members of the
same families, and scattered them broadcast throughout the then known
world. The only means of communicating with each other in most cases was
by writing, and this necessity inevitably developed the literary art. The
exiles in Babylonia and Egypt were also in close contact with the two most
active literary peoples of the ancient world. In countries where almost
every public or private act was recorded in written form, and where the
literature of the past was carefully preserved and widely transcribed, it
was inevitable that the Jews should be powerfully influenced by these
examples. Furthermore, the teachers of the race, prophets and priests
alike, prevented by the destruction of the temple from employing their
former oral and symbolic methods of instruction, resorted, as did the
priest Ezekiel, to the pen. Thus the religious thought and devotion of the
race began to find expression in its literature.

The incentives to collect the earlier writings of the priests and prophets
were also exceedingly strong, for the experiences and institutions of
their past, together with their hopes for the future, were the two main
forces that now held together the Jewish race. Fortunately, the more
intelligent leaders realized, even before 586 B.C., that the final
catastrophe was practically certain, and therefore prepared for it in
advance. The decade between the first and second captivities also gave
them an opportunity to collect the more important writings of their
earlier prophetic and priestly teachers, while the Judean state was still
intact and while these earlier writings could be readily consulted.
II. The Literary Activity of the Babylonian Period. The literary work of
this period took three distinct forms: (1) The collection, compilation,
and editing of earlier historical writings. It was probably during this
period that the narratives of Judges, of Samuel, and Kings, which carried
the history down into the exile itself, received their final revision.
(2) Earlier writings were revised or supplemented so as to adapt them to
the new and differ