of stone in front, probably similar to those in the Egyptian temples, and
had seven great gates built of hewn stone and provided with doors and
bronze hinges. Its roof was wholly of cedar wood, probably brought from
the distant Lebanon, and its walls appear to have been ceiled or adorned
with stucco, as were those of Solomon's temple. It was also equipped with
bowls of gold and silver and the other paraphernalia of sacrifice.
Here were regularly offered cereal-offerings, burnt-offerings, and
frankincense. The petitioners also promised that, if the Persian officials
would grant their request, "we will also offer cereal-offerings and
frankincense and burnt-offerings on the altar in your name, and we will
pray to God in your name, we and our wives and all the Jews who are here,
if you do thus until the temple is built. And you shall have a portion
before the God Yahu, the God of Heaven, from every one who offers to him
burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

Historical students have long been familiar with the fact that late in the
Greek period the Jews of Egypt built a temple to Jehovah at Leontopolis,
in the Delta (cf. Section CXV:iii); but these recent discoveries open
an entirely new chapter in Jewish history. They indicate that probably
within a generation after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, in 586
B.C., the Jewish colonists in Egypt built for themselves far up the Nile,
and possibly at other points in this land of their exile, a temple or
temples to Jehovah; that they remained loyal to God and the institutions
of their race; and that in the midst of cosmopolitan Egypt they preserved
intact their racial unity. In the light of these discoveries it is also
clear that because of their character and numbers and nearness to
Palestine the Jews of Egypt, even at this early period, were a far more
important factor in the life and development of Judaism than they have
hitherto been considered. These discoveries also afford definite grounds
for the hope that from this unexpected quarter much more valuable material