A Discourse Concerning The Antiquity And Origin Of The Points, Vowels And Accents That Are Placed To The Hebrew Bible (Part 5)

Chapter 10

The improbability of the Masoretes pointing the text, further discovered,
from the nature of their notes on the keri u ketib,
and the seven kinds of them.

As the Masoretes consider the text, as to the verses of it; so they consider it with respect to the words of it likewise. And their observations herein also are only about what they found the text de facto to be, with design to preserve it from any alteration in time to come; which appears by a view of the several sorts or kinds of observations about the words of the text of the old testament.

The first sort of observations about the words of the text, is concerning their genuine and true writing and reading, called keri and ketib: these Elias reckons in all to be 848; namely: 65 in the law, 454 in the prophets, and 229 in the hagiography. But Buxtorf and others reckon more of them.

The antiquity of these keri and ketib are not only expressly owned to be as ancient as Ezra’s time, by Rabbi David Kimchi in his preface on Joshua, Abarbanel on Jeremiah, and the rest of the Jews, but also by Elias Levita himself, and therefore needs not be here proved.

We shall therefore, for our present purpose, only consider the several sorts of the keri and ketib, as the Masoretes have sorted them, and summed them up under each sort severally by themselves.

Now these keri and ketib, Elias Levita has divided into seven sorts or kinds, as the Masoretes have summed them up, and noted how they found them, that they might not be altered hereafter (see Elias in Maamar א, or his first section).

The first kind is of letters that are read in words, and not written; and written in words, and not read: and these are mostly the letters jehu, a, h, u, j, which are so found at the beginning, middle and end of words: only it is to be observed, says Elias, that vav and yud are not to be found so when they are quiescent in the midst of a word; that is to say, vau after holem, and shurek, and yud, after chirek and tsere; for these are in the order of chesarim and melaim, namely: words defective and full. But vav is often written, and not read after kamets or kateph kamets, as    וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶכְרָות (Joshua 9:6-7) and אֶשְׁקֳוטָה (Isaiah 18:4), and many the like. And Elias says, that the letter that is written but not read, there that letter is not pointed in the word wherein it is written, as Jeremiah 50:8: “From the land of the Chaldeans יצֵאוּ: they came forth.” And also Ezekiel 46:9, there yud is written, but not read: as the keri says, yud is not read: and so baal הכְּנָפַיִם, heh is not read, says the keri, therefore it is not pointed in the ketib (Ecclesiastes 10:20).

And as to the keri u lo ketib, Elias observes that all the words in which a letter is read, but not written, that letter is pointed in the line without writing the letter at all; and the same letter is written in the keri, or margin, without any point at all; as Lamentations 5:7: “Our fathers sinned, are not, we,” אֵינָם אֲנַחְנוּ; in the keri: וְאֵינָם וַאֲנַחְנוּ: “And they are not, and we,” etc. And of such as these there are twelve in number.

Now these unpointed letters they either made so, or found them so. If they themselves made them so, their notes thereon were very silly, and would not have been valued by any without reasons alleged for the same, having pointed all the rest: and if they found them so written, as no doubt but they did, then the points were in being before their time.

Moreover, had they ventured to point all the Bible, they would never have scrupled either to have pointed these individual letters, or have left them out of the text. But the truth is, by the not pointing these letters, the keri and ketib of them is preserved, which has been kept since Ezra’s time; and therefore the means whereby they are preserved (and that is, the pointing the one, and not the other, has been as ancient likewise, as Rabbi David Kimchi in his preface on Joshua observes).

Secondly, the second kind of keri u ketib, is of letters that are changed one into another; and these are mostly the vowel letters, jehu, a, h, u, j: as for instance, there are fifty two words that are written with yud at the beginning of the word, and read as if with vav, as in Job 10.20: iachedal and iashit in the ketib; and the keri, it is vachedal, and vashit. And there are fifty six words contrary; that is, with vav in the line, and yud in the keri; as in Psalm 10:10, it is written: videke and vashuak, and read iidekeh and iashuak. And there are seventy words written with yud in the midst of words, and read vau; and all these yuds are pointed with holem, or shurek; when it is written with holem, then the holem is pointed upon the letter which goes before yud; as in Psalm 77:11, azeir is read ezcor; and in Genesis 25:23. But shurek is pointed in the midst of yud, in Genesis 24:33. And in Numbers 1:16. And so in the end of words, as in Jeremiah 6:25. But words that are written with heh in the end, and read with vav, they are pointed with kibbuz in the letter before heh, as in Leviticus 21.:5: “They shall not make baldness,” etc, and Deuteronomy 21:7. And there are fourteen such. And says Elias, there are many letters ehevi, iehu, a, h, u, i, that change the one into the other.

And there are other letters that change one into another; but they are only of letters that are either, first, of like shape; as ב into כ, also ד into ר, and ה into ח, and ח into ת, and ד into ך final, and ש into ט. Or else, secondly, of like sound; as ב into מ, and מ into פ, and א into ע, and ע into ח, and ד into ח. As for example of all these, first, there are eleven words written ב and read כ, as in Esther 3:4. And three, on the contrary, are written כ and read ב, as in Proverbs 21:29, Ezra 8:14 where also ד is read ר, as also in Jeremiah 2.20. And there are four words written with ר and read with ד, as in Jeremiah 31:40. And of words that change ד into ך final; as iak nashagnar read iad, and ח into ה (Song of Solomon 1:17; ult). Of these are four. And so ש into ט in 1 Samuel 14:32, ח into ת in Ecclesiastes 12:6, ב into מ in Joshua 3:16. And of these are six: פ into מ: Isaiah 65:4: ח into ע in 1 Samuel 17:7. ע into א are two. ה into   עin 2 Samuel 21:18. ד into ת in Isaiah 66:17. And are three and two contrarily (2 Samuel 17:12; 1 Kings 19:4). ה into א are two, as Jeremiah 49:30. ה into כ, and ר into ב: Ezekiel 3:15. ג into ו: Ezekiel 25:7 and 47:13. לא: not is put for לו: to him in fifteen places, say the lesser masora on 1 Samuel 2.2. That א is fifteen times written for ו, namely: (1) Exodus 21:8, (2) Leviticus 11.21; here the greater masora reckons them up, (3) Leviticus 25:30, (4) 1 Samuel 2:3, (6) 2 Kings 8:10, (7) Ezra 4:2, (8) Job 13:15, (9) Job 41:12, (10) Proverbs 19:7, (11) Proverbs 26:2, (12) Psalm 100:3, (13) Psalm 139:16, (14) Isaiah 9:3, (15) Isaiah 63:9.

Now certainly, had these men ventured to place all the punctuation, they would have made bold to take the letter that best agreed with the sense of the place; and left the other, as most translations do, who dare not point the Bible, this were to strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel: not to alter one vowel letter, and yet place all the punctuation. And the same may be said of all the other sorts of keri u ketib.

Thirdly, the third kind of keru u ketib is of letters transposed.

There are words wherein one letter is written beyond its place out of rule, and read in its due place by rule; and these are sixty two, but not one of them in the law.

51 of them are of the letters Jehu, a, h, u, i, as Judges 16:26 וַהֲימִישֵׁנִי read וַהֲמִישֵׁנִי with the first yud transposed; so Joshua 6:13. And in 2 Kings 25:16 (but I find it not so) and there are eleven words wherein other letters are transposed, besides a, h, u, i, as (1) Ecclesiastes 9:4, (2) 1 Samuel 27:8, (3) 2 Samuel 15:28, (4) 2 Samuel 20:14, (5) 1 Kings 7:45, (6) Ezekiel 42:16. (7) Proverbs 23.26. (8) Ezra 2:46, (9) Ezra 4:4, (10) Ezra 8:14, 17, (11) 1 Chronicles 27:29.

Of these sixty two, the final masora directs to the place where they are reckoned up under caph [at] ketib.

What was said under the former kinds of the keri and ketib, may be said under this and every other of the seven kinds that follow; namely: that the Masoretes would never have observed and kept these little niceties as a law upon their posterity, not to add, alter, or rectify so much as a letter, where our printers, and all translators, make no scruple to do as the sense directs, if they had added all the punctuation.

Fourthly, the fourth kind of keri and ketib is about placing the letter heh ה: that is to say, where there are two words so joined that the first word takes for its last letter the first letter of the second word, being ה heh; or on the contrary, the second word taking to it self for its first letter the last letter of the foregoing word. And, first, where the first word takes to it self the first letter of the following word, being ה pointed in the line with pathak; and in the keri is ה emphatic, or ה Hajadajah at the beginning of the word: and of these there are three in all, thus written; namely: 2 Samuel 5:2, Job 38:12, Ezekiel 42:9. And in two places it is contrarily used; that is, the second word taking for its first letter the last letter of the word before it; as 2 Samuel 21:9, 12, Ezra 4:12. Of this fourth kind, the final masora directs to the sum under caph on ketib. And of this fourth kind, the same may be said as was observed on the third kind before it.

Fifthly, the fifth kind of keri u ketib, is of perfect words which are written and not read, and read and not written.

First, the words which are read and not written, Elias counts eight: but the masora round the first word of deuteronomy reckon ten; namely: (1) Judges 20:13, (2) 2 Samuel 8:3, (3) 2 Samuel 16:23, (4) 2 Samuel 18:20, (5) 2 Kings 19:37, (6) 2 Kings 19:31, (7) Jeremiah 31:38, (8) Jeremiah 50:29, (9) Ruth 3:5, and (10) Ruth 3:17.

Secondly, eight words are written, but not read, as the greater masora on Ruth 3:13 have collected them, namely: (1) 2 Kings 5:18, (2) Jeremiah 38:16, (3) Jeremiah 51:3, (4) Ezekiel 48:16. (5, 6, 7, 8) im four times written and not read: [1] Ruth 3:13, [2] 2 Samuel 15:21, [3] 2 Samuel 13:33, [4] Jeremiah 39:12. The final masora under caph on ketib directs to the places where the keri u lo ketib, and the ketib u lo keri are reckoned up. The words written, but not read, have no point at all; and the words read, but not written, have no letters, but points only in the line. So that this sort of keri and ketib, as indeed all the rest, are preserved by the help of the points, and not without them.

And this keri u lo ketib, and ketib u lo keri, is not only owned by Elias himself to be as ancient as Ezra; but the Talmud it self says of it, that it was of Moses from sinai: that is, of divine original, and thereby as ancient as Ezra; and therefore the points whereby alone it is preserved, must be as ancient likewise.

Sixthly, the sixth kind of keri u ketib, is of words that are written one word, and read two; or written two words, and read one.

First, of the words written one word, and read two, are fifteen, as Elias and the lesser masora on Genesis 30:11 reckon them up: (1) Genesis 30:11, (2) Exodus 4:2, (3) Isaiah 3:15, (4) Ezekiel 8:6, (5) Jeremiah 6:29, (6) Jeremiah 18:3, (7) Psalm 10:10, (8) Psalm 55:15, (9) 1 Chronicles 9:4, (10) Psalm 123.4. (11) 1 Chronicles 27:12. On this 1 Chronicles 27:12, the greater masora reckon up the words foregoing, and the four following: (12) Deuteronomy 33:2, (13) Job 38:1, (14) Job 40:6, (15) Nehemiah 2:13.

Secondly, the words that are written two words, and read but one, are eight, says Elias, and the final masora under caph in ketib; and says that they are reckoned up in the greater masora on 2 Chronicles 34:6 as they are, namely: (1) 2 Chronicles 34:6, (2) 1 Samuel 9:1, (3) 1 Samuel 24:8, (4) 1 Kings 18:5, (5) Lamentations 1:6, (6) Lamentations 4:3, (7) Isaiah 9:7, (8) Isaiah 44:24, (9) Judges 16:25. Of this kind, the same may be said as was before spoken on the former.

Seventhly, the seventh kind of keri u ketib, is of words that are used for modesty sake: as, first, shegel is four times to be read as shacab, says the final masora, under shegel in shin; and reckons them up in the greater masora on Isaiah 13:16, namely: (1) Deuteronomy 28:30, (2) Isaiah 13:16, (3) Jeremiah 3:2, (4) Zechariah 14:2.

Secondly, the word ophelim is read techorim five times; as the final masora mentions on techorim in teth, and directs to 1 Samuel 5:12. Where they are found: (1) 1 Samuel 5:12, (2) 1 Samuel 5:6, (3) 1 Samuel 5:9, (4) 1 Samuel 6:9, (5) 1 Samuel 6:5. (6) Deuteronomy 28:27. And 1 Samuel 5:11, 17, it is written as it is read, as the Masoretes observe.

Thirdly, the word chrihem: their dung, is read toihem: their excrement; and seenihem: their piss, is read mee regleehem, the waters of their feet. As, (1) 2 Kings 18:27, (2) Isaiah 36:12, (3) 2 Kings 10:27, and (4) 2 Kings 6:25.

Now it is very improbable that these men, who dare not leave out an immodest word, when there is one modest in the place of it of the same antiquity; nor make the least omission of any one useless letter that they found in a former copy, and yet cannot tell what it signifies to retain it: it is, I say, very improbable, that these very men should dare to invent and intrude all the shapes of the points, vowels and accents, upon the text of Scripture, whose business is to observe every little difference of a letter or word; and to preserve the same, that no alteration might be made in time to come.

Again, Elias himself (Masoret Hammasoret Preface 3) owns the keri u ketib to be as ancient as Ezra. So does Kimchi (Preface on Joshua) and Abarbanel on Jeremiah, and the 848 words are preserved by the help of the points, as Kimchi (Preface on Joshua) observes; for the points under the word in the line, are not its own, but do belong to the word in the margin; so that without the points the keri and ketib could not be preserved, but it is preserved as we see: therefore the points were as ancient as the time of Ezra, seeing the keri and ketib which they preserve, is so ancient. And so Kimchi on Joshua says that Ezra, and the men of the Great Synagogue, put the keri in the margin and did not point it to distinguish it thereby from the word in the line: and as Rabbi Samuel Arcuvolti says (chapter 26): “The keri lies hid in the points of the ketib.”

And so much for the original, nature and kinds of the keri u ketib, and the Masoretic notes thereon.

Chapter 11

The improbability of the Masoretes pointing the text, further discovered from the nature of their observations on the words written full or defective, called meleim and chaserim: and also from their notes on the ittur sopherim seu ablatio scribarum; that is, what the scribes have taken away: and from the tikkun sopherim seu correctio scribarum, or the eighteen places amended by the scribes: and from other Masoretic notes on the words of the Bible; and their sibbirin, or conjectures.

The second sort of masoretic observations upon the words of the text, is about the words that are written full or defective; the origin whereof, Elias himself (Preface 3) with the rest of the Jews, owns to the divine, and thereby as ancient as Ezra.

The nature of these words Elias describes (Masoret Hammasoret dibbur haroshon 1), as also does Buxtorf, in his Tiberias from him, which is this: “Know (says Elias, that the chief and most of those words which the Masoretes observe concerning them, that they are defective or full, they are most commonly such words that have vav or yud quiescent in the middle of a word; that is, vav after holem or shurek, and yud after chirek or tsere; and it is but a few that they observe defective with aleph or heh: and (says Elias) I will begin with those that are defective, or wanting vav with holem, which are many: now know (says he) that most of the holems in Scripture want vav; but yet they do not observe of every holem in Scripture that is without vav, that it is defective; nor yet of every holem that is with vav, do they say it is full: only those words whose manner is to have holem with vav most commonly, when they come at any time without vav, then they observe concerning them, that such a word is defective: and so likewise those words whose manner is to have holem come most commonly without vav, then whenever such a word comes with vav, they observe concerning such a word, that it is written full: so that (says Elias) this is a rule, that only those words which are for the most part written full, they only are said by them to be defective, when they are written defective: and on the other hand, only those words that for the most part are written defective, when they are written full, concerning them, only it is, that the Masoretes observe that such a word is written full.”

Now of these meleim ve chaserim, or words written full or defective, the Masoretes make innumerable observations; for they note them wherever they meet them, which is almost everywhere. Now what had it been for them to have made them all full or defective, had they pointed the text? But they religiously note every place where a word that is usually written full, that is, where the vowel letter is added to the point most commonly, if that word be ever written without the vowel letter, they observe concerning it, that it is defective; but dare not make it full, by adding to it the vowel letter, though they know it is so written most commonly. Now can any one imagine that these men did venture to place the whole punctuation, who durst neither add nor yet omit one single vowel letter, where the use of the word shews it should be added or omitted?

Thirdly, the third sort of masoretic observations upon the words of the text, is about the words that are called ittur sopherim seu ablatio scribarum, or, what the scribes have taken away, the antiquity whereof the Talmud it self owns to be of divine original, and Elias does not deny it so to be. Now these ittur sopherim are five words that might seem as to the sense to have required the letter vav to signify and at the beginning of them; but being written without them, are to be read without them. Of these the final masora on ittur under ain mention four, and direct to Psalm 36:6, where they are reckoned up; namely: (1) Genesis 18:5, (2) Genesis 24:55, (3) Numbers 12:14, (4) Psalm 36:6, (5) Psalm 68:26. See Rabbi Chaim in his preface on the Bible.

Now can any think that these are the men who made so bold with the text, as to point all the Scripture of the old testament, and yet did not venture to put a vav, one vowel letter, where the sense seemed to require it; and observed these places, that none might presume to add or alter a vowel letter upon their own judgment, even there where they thought the sense did require it so to be.

Fourthly, the fourth sort of Masoretic observations upon the words of the text, is about the eighteen places transposed, called tikkun sopherim seu correctio scribarum; or, the amendments of the scribes; otherwise called by Ibn Ezra, tikkun Ezra, the amendments made by Ezra: for Elias, the Talmud, and the Jews, generally own their divine original; only Ibn Ezra, Jarchi, etc. Sometimes say there was no tikkun; but the text always was as now it is, and the Masoretes curse any that dare alter these places, which they reckon up round the beginning of Numbers. (1) Genesis 18:22, (2) Numbers 11:15, (3) Numbers 12:12, (4) Jeremiah 2:11. (5) 1 Samuel 3:13, (6) 2 Samuel 16:12, (7) Hosea 4:7, (8) 2 Chronicles 10:16, 1 Kings 12:16. 2 Samuel 20:1, (9) Ezekiel 8:17, (10) Habakkuk 1:12, (11) Malachi 1:13, (12) Zechariah 2:8, (13) Job 7:20. (14) Job 32.3. (15) Lamentations 3:20, (16) Psalm 106:20. Of these the Masoretes say on Numbers 1, a curse shall come upon every one that writes an accusation against these tikkum sopherim. And if so, what must they have expected would have befallen themselves, had they intruded the whole punctuation, who esteemed the least part of Scripture to be so complete and sacred.

Fifthly, there are other sorts of Masoretic observations upon the words of the text; which manifest likewise that the authors of such notes were very unlikely to be the inventors of the points and verses: such as these:

(1) They note the place or position of words, as they are found in the beginning or end of a verse, as in Genesis 1:2. They say vehaarets: and the earth, is eight times at the beginning of a verse, and the eight places are there collected: but if they had made the verses, they would never have made such notes on their own invention; for they had other work to do, and it was their own fancy to have them eight times at the beginning, if they made the verses.

(2) They observe also when a verb is used with one certain noun, or preposition, and how often; as how often amar: said, is joined with the words el elohim, unto God, which they found to be nine times; so the verb iareh, to fear, is seven times joined with eth elohim, the Lord, as they observe on Genesis 42:18. Certainly the authors of the punctuation had somewhat else to do, than make such notes.

(3) They observe the signification of the ambiguity of a word, as to its various senses on Genesis 6:11, gnaleh: a leaf; the masora there says it is six times used to signify a leaf. And why might it not have been six score times in that sense, had they so pointed it? For it is fixed by the points to the several senses wherein it is used; for gnaleh in other places so pointed, signifies to ascend; and if in six places they found it so pointed, and yet signified a leaf, certainly the text must be pointed before such notes could be made; or they would have made some difference in the points of gnaleh: to ascend, and gnaleh: a leaf, had they pointed the text. So in Genesis 19:8. הָאֵל: hael, in eight places signifies these, and not the name of God; which in all other places it signifies as it is so pointed: this they could not observe before the word was pointed.

Sixthly, the Masoretes make many conjectures about the truest forms of words that seem to be irregular; which they call sibbirim, or conjectures; that is, about words that do seem at first view, that they might more conveniently be written otherwise than they are, as to the sense of the place, or usual form of the words; as on Genesis 19:23. The Masoretes say there are three places where they think iatsa is used in the masculine gender, when by grammar-rule it should have been used in the feminine, being joined with a word feminine; and of this kind are many such, to restrain persons from altering the least letter of the text, upon never so great appearance of its being more agreeing to the nature or manner of the language so to be, or use of the words in construction with it. Now if notwithstanding their admirable skill in the nature and use of the language, they did not dare to alter one letter or point, where they thought the nature and use of the language required they should; who can imagine they would venture to place all the punctuation? And so much for the Masoretic notes on the words of the text.