This age produced nothing of a literary character except polemic replies in Latin to works written at this time to prove Christianity from the Jewish Scriptures. _Theme for discussion_: Why do you suppose the higher clergy opposed the mingling of Jews and Christians and the lower, favored it? CHAPTER XL. ARABIA. The Land and the People. The Peninsula of Arabia is bounded on the southwest by the Red Sea, on the southeast by the Indian Ocean, on the northeast by the Persian Gulf, and on the north touches the mainland of Palestine and Syria, reaching to the Euphrates (see second map). So that we might say it lies between three continents. It is divided by geographers into three parts: 1. Arabia Felix (fortunate)--the largest--all the land between the three seas. 2. Arabia Petraea (stony)--the end adjoining the Peninsula of Sinai. 3. Arabia Deserta--the desert between Palestine and the Euphrates. The old Ishmaelites used to dwell in Arabia Deserta--a land scorched by burning sands, with scant vegetation and brackish water. These Bedouins were brave, hardy, and of simple habits, but restless and rapacious. The description of the wild ass in the thirty-ninth chapter of Job well fits their character. The nature of the land made the building of cities and organized society impossible. Conditions encouraged a lawless life, and necessity, rather than choice, tempted the Bedouins to attack merchant caravans. A French proverb runs, "To know all is to excuse all." While not endorsing this dangerous maxim, we can see that their home largely decided their character. We are all influenced by surroundings in some degree. Yet some make the most of even hard conditions and barren soil. Not so the Bedouins. They never rose to greatness religiously--satisfied to worship stars and stones and to gratify the wants of the hour. So they have not advanced. But of the Arabs of central and southern Arabia we have a better story to tell. Arabian Jews. Long before the fall of the second Temple--probably before the fall of the first--Jews found their way to Arabia. By the time they made their presence felt there, we find them established in separate groups or tribes.