A Discourse Concerning The Antiquity And Origin Of The Points, Vowels And Accents That Are Placed To The Hebrew Bible (Part 4)
Chapter 7
The improbability of the time and place assigned for the invention of the points.
We are now to prove that it is very unlikely the punctuation was invented and placed into the text by the Jewish Masoretes of Tiberias in A.D. 500. Which may be made to appear from several considerations:
(1) First, from the several circumstances of that people of the Jews, at and before A.D. 500 in the land of Judaea, which render them very unfit for such an undertaking, then and there, as the punctuation is.
Now these circumstances relate to the state, either: [1] of their learning, and its decrease at that time, as Buxtorf describes it in his Tiberias; or: [2] of their civil and temporal calamities, at and before that time, as Dr. Owen relates them (See Considerations p.224).
[1] First, as to the state wherein their Jewish learning stood at that time, it was briefly this:
{1} Firstly, the Jewish historians have kept the succession of their learned men for 1,000 years, from the time of our Savior; and by their account, as well as all other history of those times, there remained neither learning, nor learned men of any eminency, in Judaea, any longer than A.D. 340, or thereabouts; for about the year of Christ 340, in the person of Rabbi Hillel, ceased the promotion to the dignity of rabbi in the land of Israel (Tzsemach David, fol. 47). And if the dignity ceased, it is unlikely that the profession should flourish any longer; and from that time and onward they give us an account of their learning and learned men in Babylon.
{2} Secondly, seeing as the Jewish writers have been so careful to preserve the history of the Mishnah, and of the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, it is very unlikely they should pass over so great and glorious an invention as was this of the authors of the punctuation, in so deep silence, had there been any such. And the rather, because:
{3} Thirdly, the Jews flourished at that time in Babylon, whilst those of Palestine were very low; and therefore it is most improbable to imagine that the wealthy and famous Babylonian Jews should leave the eternal praise of this work to the poor Jews of Tiberias only. And that because:
{4} Fourthly, the Jews’ Talmud of Babylon has not only obscured, but even extinguished that of Jerusalem; so that the Jews, to this day, are governed by the Babylonian Talmud. It is therefore very unlikely that any such Masoretic curiosity as might oblige all their nation, should not have the honor drawn to those of Babylon also.
{5} Fifthly, it is very unlikely that that which required the approbation of the whole nation, should be so silently imposed on them all by some men of Tiberias, at such a time, when for that present, and many hundred years after, the flourishing schools of the Jews were at Babylon.
Elias Levita confesses the Masoretes were of differing ages, as in p.ו3. And the truth is that the Masoretes were hundreds and thousands, for many years, one generation after another; and we know not the time of their beginning, nor the time of their ending.
How likely then is it to be that those of Tiberias in A.D. 500 must invent and place all the punctuation, when all he brings to prove it is no more than this: that some rabbis commend the skill and accuracy of the Masoretes of Tiberias; but proves not what time those Masoretes of Tiberias lived in, whether in A.D. 500 or before?
[2] Secondly, as to the state of the Jewish nation, with respect to their calamities, at and before A.D. 500, rendering them unfit for such a work as the punctuation; which requires such leisure, ability and learning, as is only produced under a prosperous state.
Now these are briefly the scenes of their misery, before A.D. 500:
{1} First, from A.D. 68 until A.D. 72 were hundreds of thousands of Jews destroyed, as the translator of Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 3.8) reckons up out of Josephus, and that the captives, at the taking of Jerusalem, were 97,000. And the number of all that died during the siege within Jerusalem, were one million (See Josephus’ Jewish Wars 7.17).
{2} Secondly, another scene of misery was under Hadrian in A.D. 136. (Eusebius, Chronicles, ad ann. 136). Of this Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 4.6) says: “When the Jewish rebellion waxed vehement and grievous, Rufus, lieutenant of Judaea, being sent with a great power from the emperor, forthwith slew an innumerable multitude of men, women and children, destroying their regions and countries.” (With a destruction, says Dr. Owen, seemingly equal to that of Jerusalem under titus Vespasianus).
This was most violent at the city bitter, not far from Jerusalem, and belonging to it; which when taken, and Bar Kochba their seducer destroyed,
“This whole nation,” says Eusebius, “was banished, and generally the whole country of Jerusalem, by the laws, decrees and appointment of Hadrian, so that by his commandment it was not lawful for these silly souls to behold their native soil; no, not afar off, from the top of an hill. This city (namely: Jerusalem) then, to the utter ruin of the Jewish nation, and the manifold overthrow of the ancient inhabitants, being brought to confusion, began to be inhabited of strange nations; and after that it was subdued to the Roman empire, the name was quite changed; for unto the honor of the conqueror Aelius Hadrianus, it was called Aelia.”
By this second desolation, (as Dr. John Owen observes) they were brought very low, made weak and contemptible; unspeakably diminished in their numbers, and driven into obscurity all the world over.
“Now,” says Dr. John Owen (p.224), “that there was formerly a school, and learned men at Tiberias, is granted – Jerome hired one learned from thence – but that they continued there in any esteem, number, or reputation, unto the time designed by our authors for this work, is not made to appear from any history of Jews or Christians.
Yea, it is certain, that about the time mentioned, the chiefest flourishing of the Jewish doctors was at Babylon, and some other cities in the east, where they had newly completed their Talmud, the great pandect of the Jewish laws, as they themselves everywhere declare.
That any persons considerably learned were then in Tiberias, is a mere conjecture; and it is most improbable, considering what destruction had been made of them at Diocaesaria and Tiberias, about the year of Christ 352. By Gallus, at the command of Constantius (Socrates Scholasticus 2.27) by whom the Jews were overthrown in battle, and the city Diocaesaria laid level with the ground.
Now that there should, after all these destructions of the Jews, be such a collection of them, so learned, so authorized, as to invent this work, and impose it on all the world, no man once taking notice that any such persons ever were, is beyond all belief (p.224).”
Objection 1: Capellus answers, first, he is not precise as to when, where, and by whom the points were invented.
Response: Then he should not insist on those words of Ibn Ezra: from them we have all the punctuation; nor should he so often contend for it, and suppose it proved.
Objection 2: Capellus says that they might come from all parts to Tiberias.
Response: This is said, without and against all history or testimony of those times. But the argument is that so noble a work is not mentioned in history: and he does not attempt to prove it is.
Objection 3: He says: “Yet there may be some one learned man or other there, to begin this work unobserved.”
Response: But how could the private work of one rabbi be forthwith embraced by all the world that receive the Scriptures? And placed through all Bibles, and yet no notice taken of the author in the history of those times?
Objection 4: But there were schools at Tiberias in A.D. 374.
Response 1: And yet there might be none by A.D. 500. Response 2: And if there were schools then, yet no history says they pointed the Bible.
Objection 5: Jerom hired a Jew from Tiberias, learned in the tongue, who died in A.D. 400.
Response 1: There might be a learned Jew there, and yet no school there. Response 2: There might be a school in A.D. 400, and yet none in A.D. 500. Response 3: Or if there were a school, still they might not be in a condition to be able to point the Bible.
Objection 6: Jewish histories are late, fabulous, and to be suspected.
Response: Unless they are for Capellus: but what is this to the point? We say there is no history that takes any notice of these things, and they are the dreams of Elias and Capellus, which we have no reason to embrace, were the Jewish history worse than it is.
Objection 7: Why was there no history of the Tiberian Masoretes reforming or correcting the punctuation, as well as of their being the authors of it?
Response 1: There was more need to have the authors who de novo pointed all the Bible, to be very well known and approved too, before their work was universally received, than there was need of having those who did only collate and compare the copies that were received, to be so much known. But – Response 2: There is notice taken of the skill and accuracy of the Masoretes of Tiberias about correcting the punctuation, though there is none about their being authors of the punctuation – as was observed from the testimony of Ibn Ezra, and others.
Objection 8: It is not strange, that the first inventors of noble arts have been unknown; as the use of the loadstone, the mariner’s compass, bells, guns, printing; the Greek accents; the stops, such as comma, colon, etc. The new Greek and Latin letters, etc.
Response 1: Our wonder is not barely, that the author of this noble work of the punctuation is unknown; but our wonder is that if they were known to be the Masoretes of Tiberias, A.D. 500, as Elias says they were, that all the world should receive it from them – and yet no history give any account of them. And:
Response 2: If, as Capellus fancies, it were 500 years in composing, it is the more a wonder that none of these artists, for 500 years successively, should be taken notice of, and yet their work universally received, as they did complete it gradatim [gradually].
Response 3: His instances are not to our point; for our reasons do principally shew who they were not, rather than who they were. And our arguments tend to show that – whoever invented them, whether the authors were known or unknown – it is very unlikely that the Masoretes of Tiberias in A.D. 500 were the authors.
Response 4: Men are more ready to receive a gift in the dark than they are to obey without knowing who commands them and what is commanded them. The arts instanced in, are of real profit and advantage – and who refuses their profit until they know the author? Nay, many are so ungrateful, as to forget their master, and would be thought to be the authors of what they have learnt from others: but the punctuation renders the Scripture to be a law, a rule of obedience; and all men will know who commands them, before they will obey; and will see what it is they are commanded too.
Objection 9: Capellus says that the usefulness of it might introduce it.
Response: Then were the Jews better than Capellus would have had them; for he wants to be rid of it, that he may have room for his critical amendments of the text: however, it remains very improbable, that it was invented at the time and place assigned for it, as we have shown; which was the business of this chapter.
Chapter 8
The improbability of the persons to whom the invention of the points is assigned, manifested from several considerations. First, from the nature and principles of the Masoretes of Tiberias, the supposed authors of them, compared with the nature of the punctuation itself.
The Jewish Masoretes are said to be the authors of the points: but this, we say, is very improbable, if not impossible to be; which appears, by comparing the punctuation itself with these Masoretes.
The punctuation is certainly a most divine and excellent thing, and what was far above the wit of man to make since Ezra’s time: nothing less than the infallible influence of the same spirit by which the Scriptures were first given forth, being able to produce the certain sense of all the most obscure prophecies, and difficult places of Scripture, as we shall manifest in the second part: we are here only to enquire who, and what kind of men these Masoretes were, and how they could be thought meet or able for such a work; an account hereof being already given to our hands by Dr. John Owen (On the integrity of the Hebrew, etc. pp.240-242), and by Dr. Lightfoot in his Centuria Chorograph. We need only collect in brief the substance of them.
First, men they were, (if any such were, says Dr. John Owen) who had not the Word of God committed to them in a peculiar manner, as their forefathers had of old, being no part of his church or people; but were only outwardly possessors of the letter, without just right or title to it: utterly uninterested in the promise of the communication of the Spirit, which is the great charter of the church’s preservation of truth (Isaiah 59:21).
Secondly, men so remote from a right understanding of the word or mind of God therein, that they were desperately engaged to oppose his truth, in the pooks which themselves enjoyed in all matters of importance, unto the glory of God, from the beginning to the ending: the foundation of whose religion was infidelity, and one of their chief fundamentals an opposition to the gospel.
Thirdly, men under the special curse of God, and his vengeance, upon the account of the blood of his dear Son.
Fourthly, men all their days feeding themselves with vain fables, and mischievous devices against the gospel, laboring to set up a new religion under the name of the old, in despite of God.
Fifthly, men of a profound ignorance in all manner of learning and knowledge, but only what concerned their own dunghill traditions; as appears in their stories, wherein they make Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, help Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem; with innumerable such like fopperies.
Sixthly, men so addicted to such monstrous figments, as appears in their Talmuds, as their successors of after ages are ashamed of, and seek to palliate what they are able; yea, for the most part, idolaters and magicians.
And to the same purpose, Dr. Lightfoot, in his Cent. Chorograph. (speaking of this opinion, that the Masoretes pointed the text) says:
“I do not admire the Jews impudence, who found out that fable; I admire Christians’ credulity, who applaud it. Recount, I pray, the names of the Tiberians, from the first foundation of a university there, to the expiring thereof, and what do you find but a sort of men, being mad with, or above the pharisees, bewitching and bewitched with traditions, blind, crafty raging; pardon me if I say magical and monstrous?
What fools, what sots, as to such a divine work! Read over the Talmud of Jerusalem: consider how Rabbi Judah, Rabbi Chanina, Rabbi Chajia, Bar, Ba, Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Jonathan, and the rest of the great doctors among the Tiberians, do behave themselves: how seriously do they do nothing? How childish are they in serious things? How much deceitfulness, froth venom, smoke, nothing in their disputations, etc. If you can believe the points of the Bible to proceed from such a school, believe also all their Talmuds. The pointing of the Bible savors of the work of the Holy Spirit; not of wicked, blind, and mad men.”
Thus far Dr. Lightfoot. This account is full and sufficient at present; we shall only consider the exceptions to this argument.
Objection 1: It is said that they do not ascribe the punctuation to the Masoretes, but only suppose they placed the shapes of the points, etc, according as they had received the true sound of all the punctuation, by tradition, use, and custom, by which they might have been able to point it truly (See Considerator Considered, pp. 200, 206-207, 210-212).
Response 1: We have briefly shewed already in our proemium [preface], that this was impossible to be done; for multitudes of the shapes are not distinguished by the sounds at all.
Response 2: No memory of man can once receive or take up so much as the very aomalies of the punctuation; how much less all the pauses, and the whole punctuation? And how could all this be kept from age to age without points, when now we have points and no one is able to point the Bible without a copy? The rabbis acknowledge they have lost the knowledge of the sense and meaning of many words in the Bible, in that time; and how was it possible they could preserve the true sound of every point in the Bible, when they had so lost their tongue, and the true sense and meaning of many words in it?
Objection 2: We answer them out of their own objections, for they say:
(1) First, the Septuagint and Chaldee paraphrase, read otherwise than we or the Masoretes do read, which they do not, as to the shape, but the sound of the points, etc. And hence conclude the points were not in their time.
Now we may better conclude from hence that the sounds which the Masoretes expressed by the punctuation, were not in the time of the Septuagint or the Chaldee paraphrase; but since their time they are very greatly altered.
Again: when Buxtorf says, as to the Chaldee paraphrase, that: “That on the law agrees well with our punctuation; but those on the prophets go off most from the present punctuation;” Capellus replies, the reason of that might be, because, first, they were more used to read the law, and it was written more plainly; but it was more difficult to understand, and so rightly to sound: the words of the prophets being more dark.
Response: But if the true sound had been kept, there would have been no difference; and yet we see the present punctuation does all alike true. But if through such difficulty in the prophets they had missed the right pronunciation, and lost it in many places by that time, it was then impossible it should be preserved to the time of the Masoretes, so pure and entire as it is pretended.
In vain therefore is the succession of their learned men alleged, and that the Bible was constantly read by them: for it is known, the language had ceased to be vulgarly spoken or understood for 1,000 years. The Septuagint, etc. (as themselves say) had lost the pronunciation long before.
The learned men of each country differed from each other in the sound of vowels and letters too, as those of Galilee, etc. In Christ’s time: and we see, where a language is vulgar, the pronunciation and sound used in one age and county, differs from that of another, as here in England, etc. And so in Scotland, though the Scots do read our English Bible, yet they give it a very different tone or sound than we do; how much more when a language is lost, the first part of it that departs, is the tone or sound: it is fabulous therefore to imagine that that part should continue longest, which always is gone first; and to suppose that a few priests, that esteemed the Mishnah above the Bible, should or could preserve the true sound of the text for 1,000 years; when nothing is more unconstant in all nations, than the sameness of sounding their vowels, and wherein every age and county makes an alteration.
So that after all these evasions, if the Masoretes invented the shapes of the points, etc, then the sounds could have no better origin than the shapes have, or their variable custom, which is equivalent; and the punctuation itself, on that account, could have no better foundation than their reputation: which how unfit they were for such a work, and how unsuitable the work it self (to wit, the punctuation) is to such workmen, let all men judge.
Chapter 9
The improbability of those persons pointing the text, to whom the invention thereof is assigned, further manifested from the nature of the masora, and the design of their masoretic observations in general: and in particular, from the nature of their notes on the verses of the Bible.
Having discovered the improbability of the opinion of the novelty of the points, from the insufficiency of the evidence that is brought for the same, from the silence of the Jews about the matter; and from the improbability of the time and place assigned by this opinion for their invention; as also of the persons compared with the nature of the punctuation itself, we are now to consider the improbability of the persons to whom the invention of the points is ascribed, they being supposed to be the Masoretes, from the nature of the masora, and their notes on it.
Now these Masoretes are the authors of the masora, or the Masoretic notes and observations on the text of the Old Testament; which is their work, and all that is left concerning them whereby they may be known; so that such as this their work is, such are they themselves; and no otherwise can we conjecture of or concerning them, but only according to and by this their work, the masora.
Our second reason therefore, for the improbability of the persons to whom the invention of the points is assigned, is taken from the consideration of the nature of the masora, which is their work; and the design of their masoretic observations on the text of the Old Testament, compared with the punctuation, and the attempt of intruding the same upon the Scripture; and this in general we say, and shall prove by an induction of particular instances throughout all the parts of the masora.
That the masora, and all the parts of it, consists only of critical notes or observations about the text of the old testament, and the form of writing the same as they had found it received by the Jews in their time, with this single end or design, that no persons whatsoever in time to come, should presume to make the least alteration of the text, on any pretence, or for any reason whatever (and hence the masora is said to be sig letorah: a hedge to the law). And this shall be made appear by instances throughout all the parts of the masora.
On the other hand, the punctuation determines the sense of all the Scripture: it speaks what that makes it say, and nothing else. This might be placed by Ezra well enough, while the right sound was known, and men divinely inspired were among them: but for the post-Talmudic Masoretes to presume to introduce the shapes of innumerable significant points upon the text, thereby determining the sense of every word in the Bible, is a thing more contrary and opposite to the whole nature and only design of all the masora, and of all their masoretic notes, than ever was done: and therefore; it is altogether improbable that the Masoretes, or the authors of the masora, should be the inventors of the punctuation, and the intruders of the same upon the text.
Now to prove the truth of what is here asserted in general, about the nature and design of the masora, we shall produce instances out of all the parts of the masora; the very proposal whereof will evince what we affirm: that as they do nowhere own themselves to be the authors of the points, so their work was only to observe what de facto they found the text to be; and their only design thereby was to preserve it from being altered in any thing.
As to the matter of the masora, wherein it consists, Buxtorf (Tiberias, chapter 12) says that: “They are critical annotations concerning the Hebrew text of sacred Scripture.”
The text is considered: (1) as to the verses; (2) the words; and (3) the letters of it.
(1) First, as to the verses:
[1] The verses are all numbered through every book of the Bible, and the middle verse of each book is noted. Also the verses in every section of the law, and of every book of Scripture, are numbered by themselves, as for instance:
Genesis has 1,534 verses. The middle verse of it is Genesis 27:40: And thou shalt live by thy sword. Exodus has 1209 verses. The middle verse of it is Exodus 22:28. Leviticus has 859 verses; Numbers: 1,288; Deuteronomy: 955. All the Pentateuch [therefore] has 5,845 verses, though the precise number is questioned – and so of the rest. See Buxtorf’s Tiberias and Parkhurst’s Canon of Scripture (Part 1 p.88). According to this account, the Masoretes reckon the verses in all the Bible to be 23,206. Hence they are called sopherim: numberers, and are herein a hedge to the law, that not a verse should be lost, so that in this part of the masora, their work is only to note what they found the text to be de facto. And:
[2] Their design is to preserve it entirely from alteration. And:
[3] We may observe that the verses were distinguished before their time, or [else] they could not have been numbered by them, as being found by them so to be.
(2) Secondly, the verses are considered with respect to some words and letters that are found in them.
As for instance, one verse is noted, consisting of 42 words and 160 letters, and that is Jeremiah 21:7. This note, if they had made the verses themselves, would not have been a very wise observation.
And they note two verses only in the law that begin with the letter samech, namely: Exodus 32:8 and Numbers 14:19, and two verses end with samech, namely: Genesis 32:14 and Numbers 19:33; and there are two verses, they say, wherein vajomar is four times used, namely: Genesis 22:7 and 1 Kings 20:14; with many such like [observations] – the nature and design of which, is, as we have observed on the number of the verses, to observe what they sound the text de facto to be; and to preserve it from alteration, the verses themselves being distinguished before their time; for it would be absurd to make such notes on verses of their own making.
