ational writings were coming to be held. It is
coincident with this that we find a priestly movement to draw a sacred
line around the more important writings of the nation.

Tradition has credited Ezra, the priestly coadjutor of Nehemiah, with the
first formation of the Old Testament Canon. The two traditions express one
and the same fact from the secular and ecclesiastical points of view. In
the exile, the stricken nation came to value and honor its national
heritage as never before. Its literary sense was quickened by close
contact with the civilization of Babylonia, whose great library
constituted one of the chief treasures of the central city. It was natural
that on their return to their native land the Jews should gather their
race-writings and found a National Library.

The genius of Israel had always been religious. Its very literature was
pre-eminently religious. That their venerable writings should be received
as sacred was thus wholly natural. They were in reality sacred writings.

Moreover, a large part of these writings, and that part largely drawn from
very ancient times, was composed of judicial decisions, legislative codes,
etc., around which veneration properly gathered. This veneration was
heightened by the popular traditions which assigned to Moses the bulk of
their legislation, and traced it through him to Jehovah himself. During
the exile a remarkable priestly development, which had been running on
through two centuries, at least, culminated in a completely organized
hierarchy and an elaborate cultus.

In the process of this final development in Babylonia the legislation and
histories of the nation were worked over by priestly hands in the priestly
spirit. The law of Moses was now for the first time completely set before
the people, and on the restoration to Judea was made the law of the land.
It became, therefore, in a new sense sacred.

The fresh, free inspirations of the prophets--inspirations most real and
divine--died out in the exile, smothered partly by this priestly
development.[12]

When no living prophet arose to make men hear the voice of God, men had to
hearken for that voice in the words of the dead prophets. In the
synagogues or meeting-houses which developed during the exile, when the
holy temple was in ruins, and which, having been found useful, were
continued in the restoration, the writings of the prophets were read each
Sabbath. The true writings of the chief prophets had ther