used signs to indicate k'ri ("read") and k'thib ("written"), meaning that although they

allowed a word to remain "written" the margin indicated how it must be "read." No one

MS. contains the whole Massorah, but most important copies contain portions of it. An

abridgement was necessary in order to conveniently place the notes in the margin, and

this abridgement was called Masora parva, the little Massorah; this being found too

short, a fuller abridgement was prepared called Masora magna, the great Massorah. The

specimen contains both, the little Massorah being written in the margin a little left of the

columns, the great Massorah being written at the top and bottom of the page.

Uncial letters on very thin vellum in the fifth century.--This is one of the three earliest

and most important MSS. of the Scriptures containing both the Old and New Testaments.

It includes the four books of the Maccabees and the Epistles of Clement of Rome. There

are evidences that the text has been corrected by several different hands. The MS. is

usually indicated by the letter A.

Above this MS. are two photographs of pages from the CODEX SINAITICUS,

indicated in books dealing with the manuscripts by the Hebrew letter aleph, and the

CODEX VATICANUS, indicated by the letter B. The Sinaiticus was discovered at the

monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai by Constantine Tischendorf in 1844, who

rescued forty-three pages of this precious MS. from the fuel box of the monastery. The

VATICANUS contains the whole Bible in Greek, written in the fourth century. As its

name indicates, it is in the great Vatican Library at Rome.

A PALIMPSEST manuscript containing portions of the Gospel according to Luke, in

Greek, in large Uncials of the sixth century.--This Greek has been partially effaced, and

at the right angles to it there has been written right across it a treatise in Syriac. These

palimpsest manuscripts present considerable difficulty to those engaged in translation and

collation of the text.

The Peshitto (or "simple") Syriac version.--The Old Testament was translated into

Syriac about the second or third century after Christ, the copy in The British Museum is a

copy made in the year 464; it is the oldest dated copy of the Bible in existence. It is

interesting to look upon the writing of this MS., as it presents, with just a few dialetic

differences, the language spoken by our Lord and His disciples (known as Aramaic).

In this case will be found a collection of great interest to the Bible student. Here may

be seen the scroll of the law, with its breastplate, pointer and mantle. The Rabbis teach