So, year by year, they make new copies directly the old are worn out,
and this they have done for long ages. And so careful have they been
in making the copies, that although all was written by hand, there has
practically been no alteration in the words for more than two thousand
years. God had indeed well chosen the guardians of His Book.

Let us try to picture to ourselves a young scribe of those old, old
days, with his dark hair and big, serious eyes, and dressed in his
white robe.

He has been very patient and industrious for many months past, working
early and late; now, at last, he is to be allowed to copy one of the
sacred books.

'My son,' his old teacher has said, 'take heed how thou doest thy work;
drop not nor add one letter, lest thou becomest the destruction of the
world.'

'Oh, may the Lord keep my attention fixed, may He hold my hand that it
shake not!'

So, with a prayer on his lips, the young scribe begins his work.

And it is through such patient, careful work as his that the older part
of our Bible has come down to us from the half-forgotten ages of the
past.

[1] Cyrus became King of Persia 546 B.C., conquered Babylon 538, died
528 B.C.

[2] Cuneiform writing made by order of Cyrus.

[3] The Codex Babylonicus, the earliest known Jewish manuscript, dates
from the year A.D. 916.

CHAPTER VI

THE ATTACK ON THE SCRIPTURES

[Illustration: (drop cap B) A Greek Warrior]

But troubled times came again to Jerusalem. The great empires of
Babylon and Assyria had passed away for ever, exactly as the prophets
of Israel had foretold; but new powers had arisen in the world, and the
great nations fought together so constantly that all the smaller
countries, and with them the Kingdom of Judah, changed hands very often.

At last Alexander the Great managed to make himself master of all the
countries of the then-known world. Alexander was an even greater
conqueror than Nebuchadnezzar had been. He did not treat the Jews
unkindly; he neither interfered with their religion nor took treasure
from their temple.

Yet while Alexander did God's people no outward injury, his influence
and example led them astray.

For Alexander was a Greek, and the Greeks, although at this time the
cleverest people in the whole world, were a heathen nation, and as such
did many foolish and wicked things. Alexander himself offered
sacrifice to Venus, Jupiter, and Bacchus (the pretended god of wine and
stron