Sayce's book looks at the factual evidence that exists to support the accounts written in the Old Testament. As he argues at the beginning: "The credibility of Scripture has been assailed since the beginning of the present century on the ground that the narratives contained in it are not contemporaneous with the events they profess to record, 1, because they represent an incredible amount of civilization as existing in the ancient Eastern world, and are inconsistent with the accounts of classical writers; and, 2, because writing was little known or practiced by the Jews at so early a period. It is shown that both these arguments are overthrown by the discovery and decipherment of the ancient monuments of Egypt and Western Asia, which prove the minute accuracy of the Biblical accounts and the prevalence of books and readers in early times."