: there ever was in manufcript, or in print, a copy of the Hebrew text, in all things conformable to the Maforetic notes and readings in the margin, or in which these are inferted in the body of the text, call them corrections, emendations, various readings, or what you pleafe; but if thefe cannot be shewn, then whatsoever Bible, that does not conform in the text to the Maforab in the margin, with much greater propriety may be called Anti-maforetic than Maforetic. As to authority, the Maforetes never claimed any; their Keri is no command to read fo or fo, nor even a direction how to read, and much less a correction of the text, as if it was faulty; it is only a fuggeftion, that so it is read in fome copies; for the word for which p ftands in the margin of some Bibles, is not the imperative p Kere read, but is p; and is either the same with p fomething read, or with a reading, that is, a various reading. And if the Maforetes ever pretended to any authority, as they have not, it is not regarded; for notwithstanding their antiquity, their readings, and what is agreeable to their notes and obfervations, are not admitted into the text, but are obliged to keep their place in the margin; and where then is their authority? Thus, for inftance, in defiance of Maforetic authority, as it is called, and notwithstanding the Maforetic note in the margin, the fecond yod is continued in on Pfal. xvi. 10. and in defiance of the punctuation of the word, which is different from all other places, where the word is manifeftly plural, as in Pfal. lii. 9. lxxix. 2. cxxxii. 9. and cxlv. 10. 2 Chron. vi. 41. in all which places Segol is put under Daleth; but here Sheva, as it is in other words, in which the yod is redundant also, and the word to be read fingular, as Debareca, 1 Kings viii. 26. and chap. xviii. 36. Dameca, 2 Sam. i. 16. Yadeca, ■ Kings xxii. 34. Prov. iii. 27. Abdeca, 1 Kings i. 27. Ragleca, Ecclef. v. 1. with others and in defiance of the Talmud alfo. There are but two places I have met with in the Talmud, where the text is quoted; and in both of them the word is without the yod; fo that if these, especially the first, had aný authority, the yod would not continue in that word. The different schemes men have formed, for reading Hebrew without the ancient points, fhew the neceffity of them, and the puzzle they are at without them; but what need men rack their brains to find out a fcheme of reading that language, when there is one fo fuitable, ready at hand for them, confifting of vowel-points, which for their figure and pofition cannot be equalled by any; which are so contrived, that they take up fcarce any, or very little more room, T. Bab. Eruvin, fol. 19. 1. & Yoma, fol. 87. 1. than than the words do without them; which neither increase the number of letters in a word, nor make it longer, nor give it any unfightly appearance? Whereas, for inftance, Mafclef's fcheme, befides the augmentation of letters, makes the word look very aukward: and if it was thought the prefent vowel-points were too numerous, and too great an incumbrance to words, one would think, men might content themselves with reducing their number, and not throw them all away but the great offence taken at them is, that they tie down to a certain determinate fenfe of the word, and that they cannot bear, but choose to be at liberty to fix what fenfe upon it they please. Great complaint is made of the ignorance of the Maforetes in pointing; and an instance is given of it, in their pointing the word Cyrus, as to be read Coref or Choresh, though indeed they had no hand in it; but admitting they had, and whoever had, there does not appear to be any juft blame for it. It is true, it may be thought fo, if the Greek pronunciation of the word must be the rule of punctuation: but the original name is not Greek, but Perfic; and which, in that language fignifies the fun. So Ctefias and Plutarch say: whether Cyrus had his name from the fun being seen at his feet, while fleeping, which he three times endeavoured to catch with his hands, but it flipt from him; and which, according to the Magi, portended a reign of thirty years, is not certain now the word for the fun, in the Perfic language, is Chor or Cor, the fame with Or, Job xxxi. 26. and it is now called Corfbad: hence the god of the Perfians is called Oromazes, and sometimes Oromafdes", Hormusd, and Ormufd; this fhews the propriety of the first point put to the word, a Cholem and not a Shurek; and it may be observed, there is a fimilar word used for the fun in other eastern languages, and is pronounced Cheres, Job ix. 6. to which may be added, that the oriental verfions, both Syriac and Arabic, read the word for Cyrus in all places in the Bible, with o, e, and Shin, according to the Bible-pronunciation. It was ufual with the Perfians, to give men names taken from the fun, as Carfbena, Efth. i. 14. and Orfines in Curtius: as for the Greek pronunciation of the word, it is not unusual with the Greeks to pronounce a Cholem by an pfilon, as Tzor, Lod, Beerot, by Tyrus, Lydda, Berytus. In like manner may the punctuation of Darius be vindicated, which is Darjavefch, Dan. v. 31. in much agreement with which, this name is Aapriatos, Dareiaios with Crefias, and is a word confifting of four parts, and fignifies a VOL. III. i In Perficis ad Calcem Herodot. Ed. Gronov. p. 687. * In Artaxerxe, p. 1012. 1 Cicero de divinatione, 1. 1. Vid. Hiller. Onomastic. facr, p. 615, 617. m Vid. Bochart. Phaleg. l. 1. c. 15. col. 61. Alexandri, p. 682. • Hift. l. 10. c. 1. great, Plutarch. ut fupra, p. 1026. et in Vita In Perficis, ut fupra, p. 641, 643. great, vast, vehement fire; and Esch, fire, is well known to be the deity of the Perfians, which was taken into the names of their kings and great perfonages, as was ufual in the eaftern nations. So Vahti, the wife of Abafuerus, or Va ehti, a great fire, Eftb. i. 9. Zeresh, or Zebar-efb, the wife of Haman, chap. v. 10. the brightness of fire; and it appears in Aftyages, a king of the Medes. Strabo fays', fome people called Darius, Darieces. Cafaubon' thinks, that Strabo wrote Aapaens, Dariaoues, which is near the Hebrew punctuation. I have fent the following Differtation into the world, not to revive the controversy about the things treated on in it, nor with any expectation of putting an end to it; no doubt, but fome will be nibbling at it: and though I may be very unfit to engage further in this controverfy, through weight of years upon me, and through the duties of my office, and other work upon my hands, fome third perfon may perhaps arife, to defend what may be thought defenfible in it. Should any truly learned gentleman do me the honour, to animadvert upon what I have written, I am fure of being treated with candor and decency; but should I be attacked by fciolifts, I expect nothing but petulance, fupercilious airs, filly fneers, and opprobrious language; and who will be righteously treated with neglect and contempt. To conclude; if what I have written fhould merit the attention of men of learning, and cause them to think again, though ever fo little; and be a means of directing fuch, who are enquiring after these things; and of engaging fuch who may hereafter write on thefe fubjects, to think more clofely, to write with more care, caution, and candor, and with lefs virulence, haughtiness, and arrogance, than have appeared in fome writings of late upon them, my end will be in a great measure answered. A CHAP. I. Of the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language. CCORDING to the Targum of Onkelos, on Gen. ii. 7. when Godbreathed into man the breath of life, that became in man bbaa min. a Speaking Spirit, or foul; or, as Jonathan paraphrafes it," the foul in the body of man became a Speaking spirit;" that is, man was endued with a natural faculty of fpeech; fo that he may be defined as well ab oratione, a fpeaking animal, as a ratione, a reasonable one; for fpeech is proper and peculiar to men when it is faid, man is endued, as all men are, with a natural faculty of speaking, it is not be understood, as if he was endued with a faculty of fpeaking fome particular language; but with a power and capacity of speaking any language he hears, or is taught, I fay hears, because unless a man has the fenfe of hearing, he cannot exprefs any articulate founds, or words: hence fuch perfons as are totally deaf from their birth, are always dumb, and can never speak any language. Adam first heard the Lord God fpeaking, before he uttered a word himfelf, as it feems from the facred history. The language Adam fpake, and which, perhaps, he received not the whole instantaneously, but gradually; in which he improved, as circumstances, and the neceffity of things required, and which was continued in his pofterity; this very probably is that which remained to the confufion of the tongues at Babel, and the difperfion of the people from thence. But of this more hereafter. Some have fancied, that if children, as foon as born, were brought up in a folitary place, where they could not hear any language fpoken, that at the usual time children begin to speak, they would speak the first and primitive language that was fpoken in the world. Pfammitichus, king of Egypt, made trial of this by putting two children, newly born, under the care of a fhepherd; charging him, that not a word fhould be uttered in their prefence; and that they should be brought up in a cottage by themfelves; and that goats should be had to them at proper times to fuckle them; and commanded him to observe the firft word spoken by them, when they left off their inarticulate founds. Accordingly, at two years end, the fhepherd opening the door of the cottage, both the children, with their hands stretched out, cried bec, bec. This he took no notice of at firft, but it being frequently repeated, he told his lord of it, who ordered the children to be brought to him; and when Pfammitichus heard them pronounce the word, he enquired what people used it, and upon enquiry found that the Phrygians called bread by that name; upon this it was allowed that the Phrygians were a more ancient people than the Egyptians, between whom there had been a long contest about antiquity. This is the account given by Herodotus; but the Scholiaft of Ariftophanes fays, that it was at three year's end the king ordered a man to go in filently to them, when he heard them pronounce the above word. And fo Suidas relates, that at the fame term of time, the king ordered one of his friends to go in filently, who heard and reported the fame; and all of them obferve, that the ftory is differently related by others; as that the children were delivered to a nurse or nurses, who had their tongues cut out, that they might not speak before them; and fo fays Tertullian: yet they all agree in the word fpoken by the children. But, as Suidas obferves, if the former account is true, as it feems most probable, that they were nourished by goats, and not women; it is no wonder, that often hearing the bleating of the goats, be-ec, be-ec, they fhould imitate the found, and say after them bec, which in the Phrygian language fignified bread; and fo food is expreffed in Hebrew by a word of a fimilar found beg, Ezek. xxv. 7. Dan. i. 8. and chap. xi. 26. and might as well be urged ins favour of the antiquity of that language; but this proves nothing. It may seem needless to enquire what was the first language that was spoken, and indeed it must be so, if what fome fay is true, that it is not now in being, but was blended with other languages, and loft in the confusion at Babel; and also if the Oriental languages, the Hebrew, Samaritan, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic, are but one language; which is more probable, as Ravius thinks, and fo may go under the general name of the Eastern language; and it must be acknowledged, there is a very great fimilarity between them, as not only appears from Ravius, but from the Pentaglot Lexicon of Schindler, and especially from the Harmonic Grammars and Lexicons of Hottinger and Caftell; and yet I cannot but be of opinion, that the Hebrew language stands distinguished by its fimplicity and dignity. The celebrated Albert Schultens Euterpe five, I. 2. c. 2, 3. reckons In Nubes, p. 150. c Voce Βεκκεσέληνε. A Difcourfe of the Oriental Tongues, p. 38, 39. |