Lost Books

Nehemiah's talking about a book that had been lost. This is the rediscovery of the book. Coming home to the book (look at how important it is that everyone understands) is coming back from exile.

There was a lost book that was discovered when Josiah was rebuilding the Temple. 2 Kings 22.

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴‘Go up to the high priest Hilkiah, and have him count the entire sum of the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; ⁵let it be given into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the Lord; let them give it to the workers who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house, ⁶that is, to the carpenters, to the builders, to the masons; and let them use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷But no account shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.’

8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.’ When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, he read it. ⁹Then Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, ‘Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the Lord.’ ¹⁰Shaphan the secretary informed the king, ‘The priest Hilkiah has given me a book.’ Shaphan then read it aloud to the king.

11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. ¹²Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king’s servant Asaiah, saying, ¹³‘Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.’

That was before the exile. Nehemiah is about returning from exile. During the exile, when the land was lost, the exiles remembered their story and again rediscovered the book. Bits of books they already had, bits they put together, bits that were their own history.

Lost books. The library of Alexandria. Books you lend to people. Books you once had and books you can't quite remember. Books out there propping up tables, left on trains, adrift in the world.

the original autographs of the New Testament which it has pleased God not to protect from the accidents and fortunes of scribal transmission

(Vincent Taylor, preface, The Text of the New Testament, 1963, second-hand copy, 18s net, formerly the property of Illegible O'Loughlin, 1969)