b

fo Morinus himself understood it, and owns it; but this is ftill more clear and manifest from their own writings: in a book of theirs, in great repute with them, it is observed, that the patrons of tradition explain boughs of thick trees, used in the feast of tabernacles, Lev. xxiii. 40. of a tree whofe leaves are treble, according to Exod. xxviii. 14. but, fays the Karaite writer, this is contrary to the nature of the language, for this y (in nay) is with a Kametz, but that is with a Sheva; fo in another work they fay, the Rabbanites affirm, that what is written in the law needs explanation by tradition, but we do not believe fo; but that what is written, its explanation goes along with it," meaning in the vowel-points; and a little after fome pointed words are used. The Karaites own, that their copies of the Bible agree with those of the Rabbins, because the difpofition and order of the books of Scripture were made by Ezra, who lived before the fchifm; and as to the various readings of Ben Afber and Ben Napthali, many of which are about the points and accents, they rather agree with the latter; but it greatly displeases them, that in some places the points are changed and others put in their room for modefty-fake, as in 1 Sam. v. 6, 9, 12. and chap. vi. 4. 2 Kings vi. 25. by which it appears they are very tenacious of the points, and are not for altering them on any account; which they would never be sticklers for, could they be thought by them to be the invention of the Rabbins, and additions to the Scriptures made by them. Mordecai, the famous Karaite, in 1699, and his affociates, are unanimous for the antiquity and coevity of the points with the lettters; his words, in answer to fome questions fent him by Triglandius are these, "All our wife "men with one mouth affirm and profefs, that the whole law was pointed and accented, as it came out of the hands of Mofes the man of God:" how false then is it what Morinus fays, that "All the Jews, the Karaites alfo, though enemies of the traditions, and the Kabala, believe, as a most certain "tradition, that the book of the Law which Mofes delivered to the Ifraelites, "was without points and accents;" but F. Simon is against him, and affirms, that the Karaites readily receive the Bible with the vowel-points, accents, and Maforab. The above Karaite goes on, and fays, "Far be it that the invention "of points and accents was made after the finishing of the Talmud, for this is

Epift. Buxtorff. ep. 70. in Antiq. Ecclef. Orient. p. 362. '

• Addareth Eliahu apud Trigland. de Sect. Kar. p. 32.

R. Caleb, Afarah Maamarot, manuf. apud Trigland. ibid. p. 117.

• Chillouk manufc. apud Trigland. ibid. p. 189, 190. f Dod Mordecai, c. 12. p. 150-157. 8 Epift. Buxtorfio in Antiq. Ecclef. Orient. Ep. 70. p. 394.–

Difquifit. Critic, c. 4. p. 25. & c. 12. p. 93, 95•

"largely to be confuted; for the divifion of the Rabbans and Karaites was long before the finishing of the Talmud, as has been proved: and if there "were no points nor accents in the time of the divifion, but were found out only after the finishing of the Talmud, then there would be different copies "of the law and of the prophets in our hands; that is, copies in the hands "of the Karaites, pointed different from the pointing of the copies in the "hand of the Rabbans; for in the places where the Rabbans have contra"dicted the vowels and the accents, and fay, " Do not read fo and fo," they "would not have faid, "Do not read," but absolutely they would have pointed according to their will and fenfe; of which he gives inftances in "which they might have fo done; and obferves, that many of the Rabbans "affert, that the points and accents were equally as ancient as the letters; as "R. Azariah in Meor Enayim, and R. Samuel Arkevolti in Arugat Habbofhem :" and he goes on and fays, that "the copy of the Scriptures which we have is "the fame that the Rabbans have; in this there is no divifion, no difference "between us; for the difpofition or order of the Scriptures was from the ment "of the great fynagogue, thofe good figs, on whom be peace, at which time "there was no diffenfion between them; wherefore with us there is nothing "full and deficient, neither first and last, no Keri and Chetib, but what are in "the order of the Scriptures which is now in the hands of the Rabbans; and "the most correct books are the most in esteem with us, and we follow, or "depend upon the reading of Ben Naphtali:" and it is certain their Bibles had the fame Maforetic notes and obfervations in common with the Rabbanites; fo it is obferved by them', that the letter in twenty places is written at the end of a word but not read, which agrees with the prefent Maforah. R. Aaron, a Karaite, published a Hebrew grammar in 1581, in which he never deserts, as can be observed, the modern punctuation of the Bible, and confults the Maforab in words written defectively, or in any other irregular way, and is full of Maforetic obfervations, fuch as the Rabbanites produce; and a Karaite', of the fame name, who wrote a commentary on the law in 1294, frequently refers to the points, and makes mention of the names of them, as Tzere, Patach, Sheva, Hataph-cametz, Cholem, Shurek, Dagesh. This fect, the Karaites, would never have admitted the prefent punctuation, if they had not believed it obtained in the Bible of old, and came from God himself; and as others relate,

1 Menachem in Dod Mordecai, c. 10. p. 130. that Menachem was a Karaite, vid. Trigland. de fect. Karæorum, c. 11. p. 187.

* Vide Wolfii Acceff. ad Notitiam Karæorum, p. 37. & Biblioth Heb. p. 119:

! Vide Simon, Disqu, Critic, c. 12. p. 95, 96. vide Maffechet Sopherim, c. 6. f. 4.

late, they ftrongly affirm, that the vowel-points of the Hebrew Bible are from Mofes and the prophets. The fenfe of the Karaites about the points is with me an invincible proof of the great antiquity, and against the novelty of them; for from the time that this fect rose up, it was not poffible for the Pharifees, Rabbanites, Maforetic, or traditionary Jews, call them by what names you will, to have introduced fuch an invention as the vowel-points, in any period of time whatever, but these men would have objected to them as fuch, and would never have received them; it is to me a demonstration that the vowel-points were in being before the fchifm was, which was about the time before given, and were univerfally regarded by the Jews fo early, as of a divine original.

A. 164. Ante Chriftum.

a

The Keries and Cetibs, of which Elias fays there are 848, are various readings, or differences of the marginal reading from the written text. That these are of great antiquity is certain; fince they are not only mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, but in the Jerusalem Talmud, particularly the various reading of Haggai i. 8. and in the book of Zobar; though when these marginal readings were firft made or began to be made, is not certain: the Jews fay, they are a tradition of Mofes from mount Sinai; but that cannot be, fince his books were not then written, and much less the books of the prophets; fome Christians indeed are of opinion, as Broughton, Ainsworth, and Wafmuth, that both the text and marginal reading, are of divine infpiration; and it must be owned, that in many places they may be both taken into the fenfe of the paffage, and much enrich it, and both are taken in by our tranflators in Prov. xix. 7. and in the margin of 2 Sam. xxiii 13. and in other verfions; but they are by others fuppofed to be put by Ezra and the men of the fynagogue, on the return from the captivity, who, upon revifing the books of Scripture, and feveral copies of it, obferved various readings; fo Kimchi on 1 Kings xvii. 14. fays, the copies were perplexed or disturbed in the captivity; they found one copy fo, and another fo; and fome they did understand, and fome of which they did not choofe to put into the text, nor to caft away, and therefore put one within in the text, and the other without in the margin, to be used at difcretion; and in his preface to the former prophets he obferves much the fame:

Legeri Epift. Hottinger. in Thefaur. Philolog P. 54.

a Præfat. 3. ad Ma foret.

b T. Bab. Nedarim, fol 37, 2. Sopperim, c. 6. f. 5. 8. & c. 7. f. 1-4. & c. 9 f. 8.

C

Maccot, fol. 32, 1.

In Deut fol. 119, 3. & 226, 3.

Schulchan Aruch. par. c. 141. f. 8.

e T. Bab. Nedar. ut fupra, f Vide Ben Chayim Præfat. ad Bibl. Heb. col. 1.

66

h

i

543 fame: "In the first captivity the copies were loft or removed out of their place (were out of order) and the wife men that knew the law were dead; "and the men of the great fynagogue, who reftored the law to its former "state, found variations in the copies, and they went after the greater num"ber (of copies) according to their judgment; and a place which they could "not clearly understand, they wrote the word and did not point it; or they "wrote it without (in the margin) and did not write it within (in the text) "and fo they wrote in one way within, and in another way without." It is faid in the Jerufalem Talmud " they found three copies in the court, (not "with Ezra, as Morinus renders it,) in one they found it written py, "Deut. xxxiii. 27. in two my; they confirmed the two (as the true reading) and rejected the one; in one they found it written by, Exod. xxiv. 5. in two y, they confirmed the two, and rejected the other; in one they "found it written ywn, Gen. xxxii. 22. in two nwy лns, they confirmed "the two and rejected the one." Some think thefe three copies were what belonged to the three bodies of the Jews in Judea, Babylon, and Egypt; and conjecture, that from the collation of thefe copies arofe the Keri and Cetib; though this refers to times after Ezra and the great fynagogue. Tranflators fometimes follow the Cetib, and fometimes the Keri, as do the Chaldee paraphrafes, which fometimes take in both, as in Pfal. xxii. 16. which is a proof of the antiquity of them: there is a various reading in Ifa. xlv. 5. Jonathan· ben Uzziel, and fo Aquila, an ancient Greek interpreter, tranflate according to the margin; and Symmachus and Theodotion, two other ancient ones, translate according to the textual writing, which is obferved by Jerom*; so that these various readings were known by him, though it has been denied, and were in being before the pretended Maforetes of Tiberias. Nay, the forms and figures of letters unufual, or of an unusual pofition, marked by the Maforetes are observed in the Talmud; fo that thefe Maforetic remarks were before those men were, faid to be after the finishing of that. Thefe readings feem to be defigned not as corrections and emendations of the text, but only fome as various readings, and others as euphemifms, to be regarded by readers as may feem good to them, and others as obferving anomalous punctuations; but in none was it intended that alterations fhould be made in the text, but that that

Taanioth, fol. 68, 1.

h Exercit. 1. 2. exerc. 12. c. 3.

Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Matt.v. 18 p. 140. Othon Lexic. Rabbin. p. 315.

* Vide Comment. in Ifa. c. 49, 5. in Hierem. c. 31, 40. fol. 160. Vide Loc. Heb. fol. 89. B. IT. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 30, 1, & 66. 2. Bava Bathra, fol. 109, 2. Sanhedrin, fol. 103, 26 Maffech. Sophetim, c. 9.f. 7.

that should stand as it is, and was found: but it seems better with Carpzovius to fuppofe that these marginal readings were made after the times of Antiochus, when the temple was purified and worship in it restored; and the autograph of Ezra, perhaps, and many copies of it being destroyed, though not all, (fee Mac. i. 59, 66. and iii. 49, and xii. 9.) it was thought proper to revife the books of the fcripture, and obferving different readings in the copies they found, they placed them in the margin for the faid uses; and therefore I have put the date of the original of them as above: now though thefe greatly respect words and letters, yet in fome inftances the change of confonants appears to be in the margin for the fake of vowels found in the text not fo fuitable to the consonants in it; and therefore the vowels must be in the text when the Keri was put in the margin, as the learned Pocock" has obferved in the Keri and Cetib of Pfal. xxx. 4. " for, fays he, unless the Maforetes, or whoever put the Keri in the margin had found ¬, so as it is "now pointed, with vowels agreeing to the word, what need had they "to fubftitute it? fince the fenfe as well, if not better, flows by reading it

-and without vowel ,מירדי but if in other copies they had found it ; מירדי 4

"points, why did not they dafh out the Vau, and read it fo? and if they "had found, with its own vowels, in which they read it, they would never have dared to have caft them away without neceffity, and put those "in their room, proper to an infinitive; as it is faid, the fame commonly is "the reason of others, in which Vau is poftponed to Kametz, 1 Sam. xxvii. 11. Joh. xv. 63. Pfal. ci. 5. and to Patach, Pfal. v. 9." fo that it appears to be the doctrine of the points, and the anomalous ones observed, that is sometimes the cause of the marginal Keri; fee Ifa. xxxvi. 12. where the points under the word in the text better agree with that in the margin, and seems to be the reason of the marginal reading. Some of thofe Keries may not be so ancient as the date above; but additions may be made by fome in later times; yet they seem chiefly to be of great antiquity, as appears by what has been obferved of the Targums and ancient Greek copies; and Buxtorff has given fome rules to difcern the one from the other.

A. 277. Ante Chriftum.

In this year, according to bishop Usher, Ptolemy Philadelphus king of Egypt, being defirous of erecting a library in Alexandria, employed Demetrius his

Critic. Sacr. p. 342.

" Miscellan. Not, in Port Mofis. p. 64, 65.

librarian

• Anticritica, par. 2. c. 4. p. 501.

Aunal. Vet. Teft. p. 480.