much of it is purest gold. While the period following the destruction of
Jerusalem was a reflective and a retrospective age in which the teaching
of the earlier priests and prophets gained wide acceptance, it was also a
creative era. Fully half of the literature of the Old Testament and all of
the important writings of the Apocrypha come from these tragic five
centuries. Although the historical records are by no means complete, the
great crises in Israel's life are illuminated by such remarkable
historical writings as the memoirs of Nehemiah, the first book of
Maccabees, and the detailed histories of Josephus.

The majority of the writings, however, reveal above all the soul of the
race. Out of its anguish and suffering came the immortal poems found in
Isaiah 40-66, the book of Job, and the Psalter. Instead of the distinctly
nationalistic point of view, which characterizes practically all of the
writings of the pre-exilic period, the interest becomes individual and the
outlook universal. During these centuries Israel's prophets, priests,
and sages became not merely teachers of the nation but of humanity.
Conspicuous among the great teachers of his day stands the noble sage,
Jesus the son of Sirach, who gleaned out and presented in effective form
that which was most vital in the earlier teaching of his race. In his
broad, simple faith in God and man, in his emphasis on deeds and
character, as well as ceremonial, and in his practical philosophy of life
he was a worthy forerunner of the Great Teacher whose name he bore.

This period represents the culmination and fruition of the divine
Influences at work in Israel's early history. It was during this period
that Judaism was born and attained its full development, Israel accepted
the absolute rule of the written law, and the scribes succeeded the earlier
prophets and sages. Out of the heat and conflict of the Maccabean
struggle the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees sprang into existence