seen from the following rules laid down by the Rabbis to be observed on such occasions: "A Sepher Torah (Synagogue Copy) must be transcribed from an ancient and approved manuscript, only with pure black ink (the manner of preparing the ink is described), upon the skin of a clean animal, prepared expressly for the purpose by a Jew; and the sheets or skins are to be fastened together with strings made of the sinews of a clean animal. Each skin must contain a prescribed number of columns, of a limited length and breadth: each column must contain a regulated number of lines and words; and all except five must begin with the letter ו. The scribe must not write a single word from memory. He must attentively look on each individual word in his exemplar, and orally pronounce it before writing it down. In writing any of the Sacred Names of God, he is required to solemnize his mind by devotion and reverence: and previously to writing any of them, he must wash his pen: before writing the ineffable name JEHOVAH, he is to bathe his whole person! The copy must be examined within thirty days after its completion. Some authors assert that the mistake of a single letter vitiates the whole manuscript: others assert that it is permitted to correct three such errors in any one sheet; if more are found, the copy is condemned as profane or unfit for religious purposes."[1] So extreme was the care taken,—as ordained, doubtless, by Divine Providence for the preservation of that Sacred Word, of which, as declared by the Saviour's mouth, not "one jot or tittle" was to perish!
In a later age, arose a body or, rather, a succession
- ↑ Porter's Principles of Textual Criticism, Book II, Chap. II.
