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Rh subjects of the Christianised Empire at the end of the 4th century. It was a state of things which could not last long, and in a couple of generations after Ephraim hardly a single orthodox community was left in Mesopotamia. Let us not linger now over the ill-matched union of Greek and Semitic thought, but go back to the time when the Syriac-speaking Church was still free and innocent.

The Old Testament in Syriac first claims our attention, and chiefly because it may serve to remind us of one most important factor among the populations of the Euphrates valley, viz. the Jews. The appellation Pĕshiṭtâ (i.e. 'simple') by which this version is familiarly known to us does not seem to be older than the 9th century. It was probably given to distinguish it from the work of Paul of Tella, which is a translation made from Origen's Hexapla and consequently embellished with a