The Library
1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
100–1 BC
1 work
c. 50 BC – AD 50
Greek
Pseudo-Phocylides
Two hundred and thirty lines of hexameter moral advice under the name of an archaic Greek poet, and Jewish throughout without ever mentioning Israel, the temple, the sabbath, or circumcision — only the commandments that a Greek could also recognise as reasonable.
101–200
1 work
c. 180–200
Greek
Sextus
Around four hundred and fifty one-line maxims on self-mastery, speech, wealth, and desire, adapted from pagan gnomic collections with the seams still showing. A wise man is God's likeness; use the tongue sparingly; possess nothing you cannot lose without grief.
601–700
1 work
c. 630–650
Greek
Maximus the Confessor · c. 580 – 662
Two centuries of short, deliberately difficult sentences on God, creation, and the Word made flesh, arranged so that the reader has to supply the connections. God is always willing to become man, one of them says, in those who are willing.
3 of 1774 works