These various “books” which have been briefly referred to—and they represent but a small number of the available _data_—are sufficient evidence to show that there was a considerable amount of literary material for use among those who desired it. The question may be asked whether in these early days there were so many people able to read as to make the wide distribution of literature likely; it may be replied that probably there was a larger percentage of men among the Jews able to read and write than among any other nation during the period of which we are speaking. But, as a matter of fact, the actual number, whether small or great, of those able to read was not the important point; for where one read and expounded, there were a number who would listen, and thus be influenced by the contents of a “book.” We have an interesting example of this in Ecclesiasticus l. 29, where, according to the Hebrew text, Ben-Sira speaks of those who attended his _Yeshibah_, i.e. lecture-room or academy; there can be little doubt that Ben-Sira’s book (Ecclesiasticus) formed part of the instruction there given.[274] But as Ben-Sira speaks of the _Yeshibah_ as a well known institution we may be sure that others existed. In one way or another, then, men became acquainted with and were influenced by the contents and teaching of “books”; and when a distinction had come to be made between “books” which were permitted and “books” which were forbidden, a strict vigilance was kept by the religious authorities in order to suppress unorthodox “books.” Among these unorthodox “books” there was one class which was regarded as very dangerous, and therefore strictly forbidden, viz. those which dealt with the subject of Apocalypse; to these some attention must next be devoted. SUMMARY The Hebrew root _gānaz_ and the Greek word _apokryphos_ must be properly understood if the subject of canonical and uncanonical books is to be discussed. Originally, _gānaz_ meant “to store up,” and then “to store up in secret,” thus “to hide,” and especially to hide secret wisdom from the masses; later, it came to have the technical sense, in reference to books, of “withdrawing from use.” The Talmudic use of the term is important; when there used in reference to books it means that such books, on account of their heretical teaching, must be withdrawn from public use; the word is never, in the Talmud, used of canonical books themselves nor of the books of our Apocrypha.