A few centuries later the Syriac version, which, from its close adherence to the original Hebrew, is called "the Pshito," i. e., the literal, likewise affords its testimony to the authenticity of the Hebrew text, as the rendering in this version also agrees, word for word, withh the original. This version was in common use among the Christians throughout Syria, and hence Ephraim, the celebrated Syrian divine and writer, who flourished in the fourth century of the Christian era, speaks of it as "our version."
Still a few centuries later, about the beginning of the sixth century, we have a most overwhelming testimony furnished, in the revision of the Biblical text undertaken by a celebrated body of Jewish scholars from the principal seats of learning in Palestine. It was found that during the many centuries in which the Hebrew Scriptures had to be multiplied by manuscript, a great many errors had gradually crept into the sacred text. These errors may have originated either from the paleness of the ink in the manuscripts from which the transcriptions were made, or from the carelessness of transcribers. In order to free the text from such errors, the scholars, above referred to, collected the best manuscripts extant, and by a careful collation were thus enabled to detect any faulty reading. Still so great was the veneration in which they held the sacred text that they would not take upon themselves the responsibility of making any alteration; they, therefore, suffered such erroneously written words, no matter how faulty or how evident the error, to remain in the text, and placed the emendation in the margin, merely placing a little circle or asterisk above the word in the text in order to draw the reader's attention to the existing mistake, and to direct him to look at the bottom of the page. These emendations are very numerous, and are now found in the margin of all Hebrew Bibles. Among these
