the language, precisely reckoning them up when they had so done, and how often they are so used, as "and" for "and" for, and the like, when they might, if they had so pleased, have made them all regular, to their own great ease, advantage of their language, and facilitating the learning of it to all posterity, the thing they seem to have aimed at; so I cannot be satisfied why in that long operous and curious work of the Massorites, wherein they have reckoned up every word in the Scripture, and have observed the irregularity of every tittle and letter, that they never once attempt to give us out those catholic rules whereby they or their masters proceeded in affixing the points; or whence it came to pass, that no learned Jew for hundreds of years after, should be able to acquaint us with that way, but in all their grammatical instructions, should merely collect observations, and inculcate them a hundred times over, according as they present themselves to them by particular instances. Assuredly, had this wonderful art of pointing, which for the most part may be reduced to catholic rules, and might have wholly been so, if it were an arbitrary invention limited to no pre-existing writing, been found out first, and established as the norma and canon of affixing the vowels, some footsteps of it would have remained in the Massora, or among some of the Jews, who spent all their time and days in the consideration of it. 2. In the days of the Chaldee paraphrast, when the prophecies of the humiliation and death of their Messiah were only not understood by them, yet we see into how many several ways and senses they are wrested by that paraphrast to affix some tolerable meaning to them. Take an instance on Isaiah the liii. Jonathan there acknowledges the whole prophecy to be intended of Christ, as knowing it to be the common faith of the church; but not understanding the state of humiliation which the Messias was to undergo, he wrests the words into all forms, to make that which is spoken passively of Christ, as to his suffering from others, to signify actively, as to his doing and exercising judgment upon others. But now more than five hundred years after, when these points are supposed to be invented, when the Rabbins were awake, and knew full well what use was made of those places against them, as also that the prophets (especially Isaiah) are the most obscure part of the whole Scripture, as to the grammatical sense of their words in their coherence without points and accents, and how facile it were, to invert the whole sense of many periods by small alterations, in these rules of reading; yet as they are pointed, they make out incomparably more clearly the Christian faith, than any ancient translations of those places whatever. Johannes Isaac, a converted Jew, lib. 1. ad Lindan. tells us that above two hundred testimonies about Christ may be brought out of the original Hebrew, that appear not in the vulgar Latin, or any other translation. And Raymundus Martinus; ́noverint quæ ejusmodi sunt' (that is, who blamed him for translating things immediately out of the Hebrew, not following the vulgar Latin) ' in plurimus valde sacræ Scripturæ locis veritatem multo planius atque perfectius pro fide Christiana haberi in litera Hebraica quam in translatione nostra:' Proœm. ad pug. fid. sec. 14. Let any man consider those two racks of the Rabbins, and swords of Judaical unbelief, Isa. liii. and Dan. ix. as they are now pointed and accented in our Bibles, and compare them with the translation of the LXX, and this will quickly appear unto him. Especially hath this been evidenced, since the Socinians as well as the Jews, have driven the dispute about the satisfaction of Christ to the utmost scrutiny, and examination of every word in that fifty-third of Isaiah. But yet as the text stands now pointed and accented, neither Jews nor Socinians (notwithstanding the relief contributed to them by Grotius, wresting that whole blessed prophecy to make application of it unto Jeremiah, thinking therein to outdo the late or modern Jews; Abarbinel, and others, applying it to Josiah, the whole people of the Jews, Messiah Ben Joseph, and I know not whom) have been able, or ever shall be able to relieve themselves, from the sword of the truth therein. Were such exercitations on the word of God allowable, I could easily manifest, how by changing the distinctive accents and vowels, much darkness and perplexity might be cast on the contexture of that glorious prophecy. It is known also, that the Jews commonly plead, that one reason why they keep the copy of iFaustus Socin. de Jesu Christo Servatore. Crellius Cont. Grot. pag. 62. the law in their synagogues without points is, that the text may not be restrained to one certain sense; but that they may have liberty to draw out various, and as they speak more eminent, senses. cause. CHAP. VI. Arguments for the novelty of the Hebrew points, proposed to consideration. The argument from the Samaritan letters considered and answered. Of the copy of the law preserved in the synagogues without points. The testimony of Elias Levita and Aben Ezra considered. Of the silence of the Mishna, Talmud, and Gemara, about the points. Of the Keri and Chethib. Of the number of the points. Of the ancient translations, Greek, Chaldee, Syriac. Of Hierome. The new argument of Morinus, in this The conclusion about the necessity of the points. BUT because this seems to be a matter of great importance, wherein the truth formerly pleaded for appears to be nearly concerned, I shall wc iv wapódų very briefly consider the arguments that are usually insisted on (as in these prolegomena) to prove the points to be a novel invention; I mean of the men, and at the time, before mentioned. Particular instances I shall not insist upon; nor is it necessary I should so do; it hath been done already. The heads of arguments, which yet contain their strength, are capable of a brief dispatch; which shall be given them in the order wherein they are represented by the prolegomena; Proleg. 3. 38-40. 1. It is said then, that whereas the old Hebrew letters, were the present Samaritan, the Samaritan letters having been always without points as they yet continue, it is manifest that the invention of the points must be of a later date than the change of the letters, which was in the days of Ezra, and so consequently be the work of the post-talmudical Massorites. Pergula Pictoris!' This whole objection is made up of most uncertain conjectures. This is not a place to speak at large of the Samaritans, their Pentateuch and its translation. The original of that nation is known from the Scripture, as also their worship of God; 2 Kings xvii. Their solemn excommunication and casting out from any interest among the people of God, is also recorded, Ezra ix. Nehem. vi. xiii. Their continuance in their abominations after the closing of the canon of the Scripture is reported by Josephus, Antiq. lib. 11. c. 8. In the days of the Maccabees they were conquered by Hyrcanus, and brought into subjection by the Jews; Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13. cap. 17. Yet their will-worship, upon the credit of the tradition of their fathers, continued to the days of our Saviour, and their hatred to the people of God; John iv. When, by whom, in what character, they first received the Pentateuch, is most uncertain; not likely by the priest sent to them; for notwithstanding his instructions they continued in open idolatry; which evidences that they had not so much as seen the book of the law. Probably this was done when they were conquered by Hyrcanus, and their temple razed after it had stood two hundred years. So also did the Edomites. What diligence they used in the preservation of it, being never committed to them by God, we shall see afterward. That there are any of them remaining at this day, or have been this thousand years past, is unknown. That the letters of their Pentateuch were the ancient Hebrew letters, as Eusebius, Jerome, and some of the Rabbins report, seems to me (on the best inquiry I have been able to make) a groundless tradition and mere fable. The evidences tendered for to prove it, are much too weak to bear the weight of such an assertion. Eusebius speaks only on report; affirmatur; it was so affirmed, on what ground he tells us not. Jerome indeed is more positive; but give me leave to say, that supposing this to be false, sufficient instances of the like mistakes may be given in him. For the testimony of the Talmud, I have often declared, that with me it is of no weight, unless seconded by very good evidence. And indeed the foundation of the whole story is very vain. The Jews are thought and said to have forgot their own characters in the captivity, and to have learned the Chaldean, upon the account whereof they adhered unto it after their return; when the same men were alive at the burning of one, and the building of the other temple; that the men of one and the same generation should forget the use of their own letters, which they had been exercised in, is incredible. Besides, they had their Bibles with them always, and that in their own character only; whether they had any one other book, or no, we know not: and whence then this forgetting of one character, and learning of another should arise, doth not appear. Nor shall I in such an improbable fiction lay much weight on testimonies, the most ancient whereof is six hundred years later than the pretended matter of fact. The most weighty proof in this case is taken from the ancient Judaical coins, taken up with Samaritan characters upon them. We are now in the high road of forgeries and fables: in nothing hath the world been more cheated. But be it granted that the pretended coins are truly ancient; must it needs fol-. low, that because the letters were then known, and in use, that they only were so: that the Bible was written with them, and those now in use unknown. To salve the credit of the coins, I shall crave leave to answer this conjecture with another. The Samaritan letters are plainly preternatural (if I may so say), a studied invention; in their frame and figure fit to adorn, when extended or greatened by way of engraving or embossing, any thing they shall be put upon, or cut in. Why may we not think they were invented for that purpose; namely, to engrave on vessels, and to stamp on coin, and so came to be of some use in writing also. Their shape and frame promises some such thing. And this is rendered the more probable from the practice of the Egyptians, who as Clement Alexan. tells us, had three sorts of letters; one which he calls ἐπιστολογραφική, with which they wrote things of common use; another termed by him iɛpoypapun, used by the priests in the sacred writ-. ings; and the other iɛpoyλupun, which also was of two sorts, simple and symbolical. Seeing then it was no unusual thing to have sundry sorts of letters for sundry purposes, it is not improbable that it was so also among the Jews: not that they wrote the sacred writings in a peculiar character, as it were to hide them, which is declaimed against, but only that the other character might be in use for some purposes which is not unusual: I cannot think the Greeks of old used only the uncial letters, which yet we know some did; though he did not, who wrote Homer's Iliad in no greater a volume, than would go into a nutshell. But if that should be granted, that cannot be proved, namely, that such a change was made; yet this prejudices 2 Αυτίκα δὲ οἱ παρ ̓ Αἰγυπτίοις παιδευόμενοι, πρῶτον μὲν πάντων τὴν Αἰγυπτίων γραμμά των μέθοδον ἐκμανθανουσι, τὴν ἐπιστολογραφικὴν καλουμένην· δευτέραν δε, ἱερατικὴν ᾗ χρῶνται δι ἱερογραμματεῖς. ὑστάτην δὲ καὶ τελευταίαν, τὴν ἱερογλυφικὴν ἧς ἡ μὲν ἐστι διὰ τῶν πρωτων στοιχείων Κυριολογικὴ· ἡ δὲ συμβολικὴ, τῆς δὲ συμβολικῆς ἡ μὲν κυριολογεῖται κατὰ μίμησιν· ἡ δὲ ὥσπερ τροπικῶς γράφεται, ἡ δὲ ἄντικρυς ἀλληγορεῖ ται κατά τινας αἰνιγμούς· ἥλιον γὰρ οὖν γράψαι βουλόμενοι, κύκλον ποιοῦσι· σελήνην δὲ, σχῆμα μηνοειδὲς, κατὰ τὸ κυριολο youpavov dog. Clement. Alex. stromat. lib. 5. |