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they all added a word together, and where they took away, they all took away equally. And what they took away is not needed, but what they added is needed. But that what has been said may be clear to you, that they marvelously translated in agreement according to God's economy and by the concord of the Holy Spirit, and did not differ from one another, so that by knowing and being persuaded by this you may consent to our word, I will provide you here with the proof of these things in a brief account. In the one hundred and fortieth psalm it was written in Hebrew thus: «Adonai elach karithi ismael iebbeta akol», which is translated, «Lord, I have cried to thee, hear me; attend to the voice». But the Hebrew does not have «of my supplication». See, then, how it is found to be lame. But the seventy-two translators, having added «of my supplication», made the verse not lame and translated, «Lord, I have cried to thee, hear me; attend to the voice of my supplication». And see how well-corrected the psalm is sung. Understand then from this very brief account concerning their similar additions placed everywhere by the same translators, that the words were well added for the expression and benefit of the nations who were to be brought to the faith of God and to acquire the inheritance of life from the divine words of the Old and New Testament. In the same way Origen, doing well, as he did concerning the asterisk, so also concerning the obelus he made the notation. If only, then, he had done the other things so well. For having put together on one page the six interpretations and the Hebrew writing with Hebrew letters and the words themselves, he set against it another page with Greek letters but Hebrew words for the comprehension of those not knowing Hebrew letters, so that through the Greek they might know the meaning of the Hebrew oracles. And thus in what are called by him the Hexapla or Octapla, by placing side by side in parallel the two Hebrew pages and the six of the translators, he gave great benefit of knowledge to the lovers of good things. If only he had not also erred in his own compositions and wronged the world and himself by dogmatizing badly concerning faith and badly expressing most of the scriptures. But I will take up the narrative again concerning the obelus. We said, then, that the obelus is called a spear; and this is a canceling sword. Therefore, where the word is found lying in the Seventy-Two but not carried in the Hebrew, it is shown by the notation of the obelus placed beside the word that the word has been removed from its original place, that is, from the ground of the scripture, as not existing in the place of the book. And these things I have narrated concerning the asterisk and the obelus. It remains to narrate also concerning the limniscus and hypolimniscus. The limniscus, then, which is written thus as the preceding sign has it, which is one line mediated by two pricks, or points, one being above and the other below, they say is found physically among physicians, and was named from surgery on the body, with two simple cuts being divided or cut, and in the middle of the two divisions of the cut place, because of the two simple cuts on either side, the body forming the shape of an obelus. And of a motus, which is a linen cloth, cut into a thin and long shape, being inserted from one division and passing through to the other, it was well called a limniscus by the physicians themselves because the motus, being washed, pools in the fluids of the place. Wherefore he also placed this shape of the sign beside the divine words, so that, whenever you might somewhere rarely find in the interpretation of the Seventy-Two a dissonant word, yet not one lacking nor one added to those similar to it

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προσέθεντο λόγον πάντες ὁμοῦ προσέθεντο, ὅπου δὲ ἀφείλοντο πάντες ἐπ' ἴσης ἀφείλοντο. Καὶ ὧν μὲν ἀφείλοντο οὐκ ἔστι χρεία, ὧν δὲ προσέθεντο ἔστι χρεία. Εἰς δὲ τὸ γενέσθαι σοι σαφὲς τὸ εἰρημένον, ὅτι θαυμαστῶς κατὰ Θεοῦ οἰκονομίαν καὶ ἐκ συμφωνίας πνεύματος ἁγίου συμφώνως ἡρμήνευσαν, καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους οὐ διηνέχθησαν, ὅπως ἂν ἐκ τούτου γνοὺς καὶ πεισθεὶς συναινέσῃς τῷ ἡμετέρῳ λόγῳ παρέξω σοι ἐνταῦθα διὰ μικροῦ λόγου τὴν τούτων ἀπόδειξιν. Ἐν τῷ ἑκατοστῷ τεσσαρακοστῷ ψαλμῷ ἔκειτο ἐν τῷ ἑβραϊκῷ οὕτως «Ἀδωναῒ ἐλὰχ καριθὶ ἰσμαὴλ ἰεββητὰ ἀκὼλ», ἅ ἐστιν ἑρμηνευόμενα «Κύριε ἐκέκραξα πρὸς σέ, εἰσάκουσόν μου· πρόσχες τῇ φωνῇ». Οὐκ ἔχει δὲ τὸ ἑβραϊκὸν «τῆς δεήσεώς μου». Ὅρα οὖν, πῶς χωλὸν εὑρίσκεται. Οἱ δὲ ἑβδομήκοντα δύο ἑρμηνευταὶ προστεθεικότες τὸ «τῆς δεήσεώς μου» ἀχώλαντον ἐποίησαν τὸν στίχον καὶ ἡρμήνευσαν «Κύριε ἐκέκραξα πρὸς σέ, εἰσάκουσόν μου· πρόσχες τῇ φωνῇ τῆς δεήσεώς μου». Καὶ ὅρα πῶς εὐδιόρθωτος ᾄδεται ὁ ψαλμός. Ἐπίστηθι τοίνυν ἀπὸ τοῦ βραχυτάτου λόγου τοῖς ὁμοίοις αὐτῶν κατὰ τὴν προσθήκην πανταχοῦ ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ἑρμηνευτῶν κειμένοις, ὅτι καλῶς οἱ λόγοι προσετέθησαν εἰς φράσιν καὶ ὠφέλειαν τῶν μελλόντων ἐθνῶν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ πίστιν ἄγεσθαι καὶ τὴν ἐκ τῶν θείων λόγων τῆς παλαιᾶς καὶ νέας διαθήκης κτᾶσθαι ζωῆς κληρονομίαν. Τῷ δ' αὐτῷ τρόπῳ ὁ Ὠριγένης καλῶς ποιῶν, ὡς περὶ τοῦ ἀστερίσκου ἐποίησεν, οὕτως καὶ περὶ τοῦ ὀβελοῦ τὴν σημείωσιν ἐποιήσατο. Εἴθε οὖν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα οὕτω καλῶς ἐποίησε. Τὰς γὰρ ἓξ ἑρμηνείας καὶ τὴν ἑβραϊκὴν γραφὴν ἑβραϊκοῖς στοιχείοις καὶ ῥήμασιν αὐτοῖς ἐν σελίδι μιᾷ συντεθεικώς, ἄλλην σελίδα ἀντιπαρέθετο δι' ἑλληνικῶν μὲν γραμμάτων ἑβραϊκῶν δὲ λέξεων πρὸς κατάληψιν τῶν μὴ εἰδότων ἑβραϊκὰ στοιχεῖα εἰς τὸ διὰ τῶν ἑλληνικῶν εἰδέναι τῶν ἑβραϊκῶν λογίων τὴν δύναμιν. Καὶ οὕτω τοῖς λεγομένοις ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἑξαπλοῖς ἢ ὀκταπλοῖς τὰς μὲν δύο ἑβραϊκὰς σελίδας καὶ τὰς ἓξ τῶν ἑρμηνευτῶν ἐκ παραλλήλου ἀντιπαραθεὶς μεγάλην ὠφέλειαν γνώσεως ἔδωκε τοῖς φιλοκάλοις. Εἴθε δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῦ συντάγμασι μὴ παρέπεσε καὶ τὸν κόσμον καὶ ἑαυτὸν ἠδίκησε κακῶς δογματίσας τὰ περὶ πίστεως καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν γραφῶν κακῶς φράσας. Ἀλλὰ περὶ τοῦ ὀβελοῦ αὖθις ἐπιλήψομαι τῆς διηγήσεως. Ἔφαμεν οὖν, ὅτι ὁ ὀβελὸς λόγχη λέγεται· ξίφος δέ ἐστι τοῦτο ἀναιρετικόν. Ἔνθα τοίνυν ἡ λέξις εὑρίσκεται παρὰ μὲν τοῖς ἑβδομήκοντα δύο κειμένη ἐν δὲ τῷ ἑβραϊκῷ μὴ ἐμφερομένη, ἐκ τῆς τοῦ ὀβελοῦ σημειώσεως τοῦ τῇ λέξει παρακειμένου δηλοῦται ὅτι ἀνῄρηται ὁ λόγος ἀπὸ τοῦ γεννητικοῦ τόπου, ἤτοι τοῦ ἐδάφους τῆς γραφῆς, ὡς μὴ ὑπάρχων ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τῆς βίβλου. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν περὶ τοῦ ἀστερίσκου καὶ τοῦ ὀβελοῦ διηγησάμην. Λοιπὸν καὶ περὶ τοῦ λιμνίσκου καὶ ὑπολιμνίσκου διηγητέον. Λιμνίσκον γοῦν, τὸν οὕτω γραφόμενον ὡς ἔχει τὸ προκείμενον σημεῖον, ὅ ἐστι γραμμὴ μία μεσολαβουμένη ὑπὸ κεντημάτων δύο, εἴτ' οὖν στιγμῶν, μιᾶς μὲν ἐπάνω οὔσης, τῆς δὲ ἄλλης ὑποκάτω, παρὰ ἰατροῖς φυσιολογικῶς ηὑρῆσθαί φασι, καὶ ὠνομάσθαι ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ τὸ σῶμα χειρουργίας, δύο μὲν ἁπλῶν τομῶν διαιρουμένων εἴτ' οὖν τεμνομένων, μέσον δὲ τῶν δύο διαιρέσεων τοῦ τμηθέντος τόπου διὰ τὰς παρ' ἑκατέρας ἁπλᾶς δύο τομὰς ὀβελοῦ σχῆμα τοῦ σώματος ἀποτελοῦντος. Μοτοῦ δὲ ὅ ἐστι λινοῦν ῥάκος, εἰς λεπτὸν καὶ μακρὸν σχῆμα ἀποτμηθὲν ἐμβαλλομένου ἀπὸ τῆς μιᾶς διαιρέσεως καὶ εἰς τὴν ἄλλην διαπερῶντος, λιμνίσκος ὑπ' αὐτῶν τῶν ἰατρῶν καλῶς ἐκλήθη διὰ τὸ λιμνάζειν κλυζόμενον τὸν μοτὸν ἐν τοῖς τοῦ τόπου ὑγροῖς. ∆ιὸ καὶ τοῦτο τὸ τοῦ σημείου σχῆμα τοῖς θείοις λόγοις παρέθετο, ἵν', ὅτε σπανίως που εὕροις ἐν τῇ τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα δύο ἑρμηνείᾳ διαφωνοῦσαν λέξιν, οὐ μὴν δὲ ἐλλείπουσαν οὐδὲ προστεθειμένην ταῖς ὁμοίαις αὐτῇ