Rabbi did not deem himself so religiously bound to follow the Decrees of the Masorites and their Exemplars that he thought it a crime to depart from them Therefore at the end of his Book Jesed Mora he thus writes Id. in lib. Jesed Mora. There is no necessity at all to observe that those Letters Jod He Vau Aleph being chang'd one into another are sometimes added sometimes left out c. Wherefore in his Writings he does not so much regard the manner as the reason of the Transcription Thus in his Commentary upon Psal 5. he believes the word Nasah written with a Samech and He Id. in Psa 5. to be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nasa written with a Sin and an Aleph It was not from the purpose saith he that He should be the same with Aleph and Samech the same with Sin In like manner expounding the 2d Chapter of Joel after he has observ'd that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proceeds from the Root Peer he presently tells ye that R. Japhet deriv'd the same word from another Root As if the Letter Aleph were in the number of those Letters that are superfluous as the Masorites term them and unprofitable as if the word were to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without an Aleph and were Lashon Shachoth or the signification of shining Blackness In which sense this word is taken by most of the Interpreters and this Reading is confirm'd by Judaeus who compil'd the Masoreth with this Marginal Note added to the Hebrew Text This word is of the number of those which are written with an Aleph in the middle that is never express'd Lastly There seem not to have been wanting among the Jews certain Criticks who have employ'd all their time in noting the Readings of the various Copies Of whom the principal are Rabbi Menahem de Lonzano in a Treatise entitled Schethe Jadoth and the Author of a certain other Treatise entitled Minchath Cohen He divides his whole work into two parts and every part or hand contains five fingers of which the first illustrates all the various Lections which he could find in the several Manuscripts of the Mosaical Law by the help of ten written Copies which he thinks to have been written within this five or six hundred years and he compares them with the second Edition of Bomberg in Folio which is the most accurate of all he also strictly examines the Words the Letters Points and Accents of this Edition But all this indefatigable labour and diligence of R. Menahem tends no farther than to demonstrate that the various Readings of Scripture which are found in the several Copies of the Bibles ought to be tryed by the Masora as the most certain Rule of Reason and Writing Of the same Opinion is the Author of the Little Treatise called Minchath Cohen who there most acutely discourses of what words are to be written fully and which defectively And studies to reduce several Lections to their natural exactness by the help of the Masora and the corrected Books Of necessity therefore those Masoretick Copies are to be examined whose sincerity is so highly applauded by the Jews whether they are so pure and correct that it may be thought a point of Faith to swerve from them CHAP. IV. Of the Publish'd Exemplars of the Hebrew Context which are Masoretick Of the Art of the Masorites Of its Original and what Opinion we are to have of it Of the Modern Copies of the Bible IN the latter times the Exemplars of the Biblick Contest are no other than what are vulgarly call'd Masoretick For the Jews for many Ages together have acknowledged no other and from them they came into the hands of the Christians Whence arose that general Agreement between so many Copies of several Places and Times excepting those few and trivial Niceties which are rather the slips of negligent Transcribers than various Lections For how could it otherwise be whenas the Jews who look upon the Masora to be as it were descended from Heaven scruple not to make that their Rule for the Reformation of all Bibles rasing out of all other Manuscript Copies Letters Words and whole Sentences to make them conformable to the Masora And this is easie to be observ'd by those that run over all the Manuscript Copies that have been written for these four or five hundred years last past and hence it is that there is such a wonderful concurrence among the Printed Bibles To which while not only the Jews but also the most Learned among the Jews do not give a sufficient respect admiring overmuch the Exactness of the Hebrew Copy they shew themselves the Promoters of the latter with a more than needful Zeal Therefore Arias Montanus boldly affirms that the Hebrew Context has been preserv'd with so much care by the help of the Masora that it never could be discern'd by the most diligent and piercing Wit or Judgment to have admitted the least variance in several Exemplars In like manner Buxtorf a person that had very much and long turmoil'd in these studies extols the Masora even to excess in these words as if it had been sent from Heaven Herein as far as the East and West extend the Word of God is to be read in one Language and after one manner Here is to be seen a general Consent of all the Books that are in Asia Africa or Europe without any variance 〈◊〉 never happened that we find such a felicity has befallen any Books either of the Chaldeans Greeks Romans or any other People However this egregious Applauder of the Masorites speaks rather out of a preconceiv'd Opinion of the Jews than according to the verity of the Thing He has seem'd to translate into his Commentary upon the Masoreth all the Fables of those his Masters to whom he wholly dedicated himself And by that means he has drawn in most of the Protestant Divines especially the Northern to his own or rather the Jews Opinion of the Exactness of the Hebrew Context being as it were overwhelmed under the Testimonies of the Rabbins They who have been conversant among the Monuments of the Antients especially in the Commentaries of St. Jerom and are therefore better experienc'd in Critick Learning think far otherwise of that Work Nor do they presently swallow those things for Truth with which the Jews half asleep are illiterately contented Rather Elias the Levite is to be listened to in this particular who alone among the Jews apply'd himself to the study of the Masora then to the Rout of the Jews who were altogether ignorant of it That most Learned Rabbi being requested in a Letter by Munster Elias Levit. in Epist ad Sebast Munster to tell him what sort of persons the Masorites were especially those of Tyberias thus answered in the Jewish Language R. Jonas writes that the Jews of Tyberias were well vers'd in the holy Language R. Aben Ezra also writes that from them the
one serves for the publick use of the Synagogues the other for the particular use of private persons Neither do they read in their Synagogues every particular Book of Holy Writ but only such and such selected Books The Books of Scripture read in the Synagogues which are adapted and accommodated to the Mysteries of their Religion such as are the Books of Moses from whence they derive the Precepts of their Law and those which they comprehend under the name of the five Megilloth or Volumes That is to say the Canticles Ruth the Lamentations Ecclesiastes and Esther For these are the Volumes that are read in their Synagogues upon certain prefix'd days the Canticles upon Easter day Ruth upon the Feast of Seven days the Lamentations upon the ninth of the Month Ab. Ecclesiastes upon the Feast of the Tabernacles and Esther upon the 14th and 15th of the Month Adar And as for the Law it is divided into so many Sections as there are Sabbaths in the year so that they read a Section every year with an addition of something taken out of the Prophets The Superstition of the Jews in writing their Service-Books 'T is a wonderful thing to see how ridiculously devout and idly superstitious the Jews are in writing out the Copies which are for the use of the Synagogue For in the first place not content with the bare and naked Letter according as is to be seen in other Printed and Written Copies they adorn the several Letters with little Coronets which they call Tagin Neither are they asham'd to make God the Author of those flourishes which they say Moses learnt of God in Mount Sinai R. Moses Scem Tob in his Book where after the manner of the Cabbalists he seeks for the Reason of the Letters of the Alphabet tells ye many stories concerning those Coronets complaining that they were known to few of the Jews Thou shalt understand and hear saith he the Discourse which was drawn by our Ancestors of blessed memory in the Treatise Hagiga and shalt make Aleph wherein are seven Coronets There are seven also of the same nature in the Law Beth wherein are three Coronets they are four in the Law Gimel which has four flourishes three in the Law Daleth which has four flourishes six in the Law After the same manner does the same Rabby run over all the rest of the Letters he also has been so punctual to give us a Copy of the following Flourishes with Instruction how to make them and how often they are to be met with in the Books of Moses He also observ'd their differences some of these Flourishes being fix'd close to the Letter others set a small distance from the Letter either over the Letter or underneath it But these were only the Dreams Fancies of Jewish Brains about which nevertheless those Rabbies trifle away their time very seriously Thus Bal Masius makes Coronets for the Letters Zain and Heth quite different from those which R. Scem Tob delineates from the Tradition of his Fathers Farther these Jewish Rabbies shew an extream Superstition and Diligence in the choice of their Parchment for Paper they utterly reject as a new Invention This Parchment must be very clean nor can it be prepar'd by an Infidel or Ethnick but by a Jew and he neither an Apostate or a Heretick Therefore the Samaritan Copies are altogether renounc'd by the Jews as vile and impure Moreover they do not write as we do in folded Sheets but in large Volumes after the Custom of the Antients which they divide into Columes or Pages observing as it were a Geometrical Proportion and making use of a Ruler to draw the Lines streight for they have the vanity to affirm that Moses order'd that no Copy of the Law should be written without a Ruler and they also pretend that Moses taught them what sort of Ink they should use In writing careful in the first place not to joyn their Letters close together observing this proportion between the Letters and the Words to leave the space of a Silk Thred between every Letter and of a small Letter between every Word that the Lines be distant one from another the measure of one Line and every Line to hold thirty Letters To these may be added the Distinctions of the Sections of which some are larger and some lesser And then again some of these Sections are said to be close others open Those are call'd close which are so enclos'd on both sides with Letters that the space of four Letters be only left in open Sections the space of nine Letters Besides these there are also other larger Sections which are also to be seen in the publick Exemplars of their Bibles But those Jewish Rabbies are mainly deceiv'd who believe that Moses was the Inventer of those Divisions or Sections which are made in the Modern Copies For those Distinctions were found out by the late sort of Criticks The Antient Form of the Bibles especially those who call themselves Mosorethae for that in the Antient times there were no mark of Distinctions to be found either in the Hebrew Greek or Latine Copies For that was the business of the Grammarians and as Elias the Levite rightly observes the whole Law was antiently Pasuck Echad without any distinction of Letters or Words which as the Learned know was also observ'd by the Grecian Criticks in reference to Homers works Neither do the words of Nehemiah contradict what is here said Neh. 8.8 And they read in the Book in the Law of God distinctly as if the distinction of Verses had been brought into the Context of the Law ever since the times of Esdras Which Opinion the Talmudick Doctors seem to favour very much Tâ—l Tract Nedarim At least it could not be later than the Talmud when the Talmudick Writers make mention of it Baal Hatturim in compend Talm. de lect lib. legis and as R. Jacob Ben Ascer Baal Hatturim testifies It was the Custom of the Antient-Talmudick-Doctors to interpret the Law in another Language to the end the people might understand it because the Language of the Law was Aramean Now the Reader could not read above one Verse to the Interpreter for he first read one Verse then followed the Interpretation Then he read another Verse nor could the Interpreter proceed till the Reader was got to the end of a Verse nor could the Reader read another Verse till the Interpreter had made an end of his Interpretation Whence it may be collected that the Exemplars of the Mosaick Law were distinguished into Verses before the Talmudists were in Being But all these things might well enough be observ'd as well by the Reader as by the Expositor from the times of Esdras without any note of Distinction between the Context of the Verses which the Antient Translations of the Bibles which were publish'd in Greek before St. Jerom liv'd apparently demonstrate and St. Jerom himself who frequently distinguishes those
Masoretick Labour to the Toil of Lucas Brugensis about the Latine Interpreter For he so soon as the Latine Edition by the command of Sixtus Quintus and Clement the VIII was compar'd with the most Antient best Esteem'd Translations and thereby refin'd from its Errours Bibles should be afterwards Printed with their Errours Nevertheless no man of Judgment will say that that same Latine Version is free from all mistake when Baronius Bellarmin Lucas Brugensis and others some of whom assisted at this Correction make no dispute that many Errours remain very necessary to be amended Some of the Jewish Rabbies indeed there are who highly commend the Diligence and Industry of the Masorites for that with so much Labour and Industry they took an account of the Letters Words and Verses of the Hebrew Context to prevent the future depravation of Holy Writ But who can thence think it possible to be prov'd that the Sacred Books were thereby restor'd to to their Antient Form True it is that the Doctors of Tyberias might number the Letters Words and Verses of the Books extant in their Time However those Books were only Copies and not Originals I will also grant that they were most perfect in the Hebrew Language and that they made use of the most corrected Exemplars of the Bible which by diligent search they could find out for the carrying on their Critical Design But yet their Materials were still deficient when they could have no recourse either to the Greek Interpreters nor to the Latine Version who in their Translations made use of Copies differing from the Masoretick Then again Tradition combates for the friends of the Masorites which the signification of the word insinuates as if by the assistance of Points and other Characters they had render'd the Reading and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Context receiv'd into use for many Ages certain and indubitable The Sect of the Carraeans also became strenuous Champions for the Masora of the Jews and the Exemplars set forth who though they reject the most of the Jewish Traditions as old Womens Fables yet admit of the Biblick Context in the same manner as it was reform'd by the Masorites of Tyberias together with the Titles Vowels Accents and other marks of the Masorites But though these and many other Arguments of the same nature may be brought in defence of the Masora and the Modern Context of the Bible and to prove that the Copies reform'd by the Doctors of Tyberias are no way to be despised because the correction was perform'd by persons well skill'd in the Language who determin'd the manner of reading the Hebr. Context not according to their own pleasures but the receiv'd Tradition nevertheless no man ought thence to collect that all other Exemplars of the Bible are to be reform'd and corrected after the Emendations of the Masorites as most of the Jews would obstinately maintain For the Greek Interpreters and St. Jerom had also their Masora or Tradition for the Reading and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Context who nevertheless very frequently vary from the Reading of the Masorites And which is worthy observation the most Learned Rabbies of the Jews R. Juda Jona Aben Esra Kimchi and others not a few while they illustrate the Scripture with their Commentaries are not so devoted to the Masoretick Lection but that sometimes they correct it and commend other Manuscripts which they call corrected though they differ from the Masoreticks Therefore as I do not think they are altogether to be favour'd who being offended with the Jews detract from their Copies so neither are they to be imitated who dote upon the Masoretick Structure and look upon it as a piece of Divinity For those upholders of Jewish Superstition shew themselves unskilful in Criticism Therefore the Modern Masoretick Lection of the Context of the Bible is not altogether to be contemned because it was not done by the Authority of men that were Prophets and inspired with the Holy Ghost for by that reason the Bibles of most of the Eastern Nations would be rejected there being as much to be said against the Chaldee Syriack and Arabick Exemplars as against the Hebrew There is none of them that make use of Tittl'd Vowels which confine the Pronunciation and Reading within certain bounds which were all invented by the Criticks for that without their help the Reading not being ascertained was subject to a humour fancy By this means the followers of that famous Impostor rendred the Reading of their Alcoran certain which before was dubious and uncertain And from these 't is very probable that the Jewish Rabbies had their Points and some other things which they introduc'd into the Hebrew Manuscripts to the end they might be read with more ease and readiness CHAP. V. The Parts of the Masora in relation to the Manuscript Copies are weighed and illustrated The True Original of the Masora THE great pains and labour of the Masoreticks consists in numbring up the Verses Words and Letters of the Hebrew Context for that by this means the former Variances being observ'd the Reading might be preserv'd more certain and constant for the future and the Holy Writings be free for the future from all alteration Of the Masoretick Art That the Words and Verses were numbred by the Masorites there is no question to be made The greatest Dispute arises about the Letters in regard that R. Jacob Ben Hajim Elias the Levite and Buxtorf who have with all imaginable diligence perus'd the several parts of the Masora deny that this part of it was ever made publick By whose Authority Morinus being sway'd affirms that that work was never undertaken by the Masorites which seems the more probable in regard the Enumeration of the Letters of the Hebrew Text which is already publish'd is very far from the Truth But that there was an account taken of them by the Jews before the Talmud was publish'd may be prov'd by those Arguments which are usually drawn from the Tractates Kidduschin and the Scribes where the letter Vau in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gachon the belly Levit. 11.43 is said to be the middlemost letter of the Law Nor do I believe that part of the Masoreth to have been neglected by the Masorites For I observ'd it in turning over several Manuscript Bibles at the end of an Exemplar written about some four hundred years ago where among many other things collected out of the Masora there is the same account of the Letters which I shall set down in the same manner and words as it is there deliver'd that the Criticks may judge whether it be exact or no. The Sections of the Book of Genesis call'd Parshoth are reckon'd to be twelve the other Sections call'd Sedarim 43. Verses 75 34. Vords 20713. Letters 78100. and these words are in the middle of the Book Gnal Charbekah Tihijeh By thy Sword thou shalt live Gen. 27.40 The Parshoth of Exodus are numbred to be 11. the
a Prophet But the learned person never understood the reason why or in what sence the Jews did separate him from the rest of the Prophets However concerning this matter the Christians in vain dispute with the Jews For both willingly acknowledge that in the Book of Daniel there are many Prophesies of the Messiah to come and that that Book was written by divine inspiration as the other Books of Scripture were The Jews also feign the same things of David as of Daniel however they do not deprive him of holy inspiration Quite the contrary they publickly assert that there are many things in the Psalms which foretel the coming of the Messiah so that if there be any difference in this particular between them and the Christians the controversie is meerly about the name as has been already prov'd in regard they otherwise methodize the Books of Scripture than the Christians But Vossius stabs himself with his own Sword while he goes about to prove the Jews guilty of falsifying their Chronologie in regard the modern Chronologie of the Hebrew Text presses harder upon the Jews then that which is drawn out of the version of the LXX Interpreters nor do the Jews deny in their Talmudick Books but that the time is fulfilled and past within which the Messias was expected but they add that their own sins retard his coming These are the words of the Talmudists Talm. in Tract Sanhed in Avoda Zara This is the Tradition of the House of Elia The World shall consist of six thousand years Two thousand shall be of emptiness that is before the Law Two thousand shall be spent under the Law And two thousand years the Messiah shall reign But by reason of our iniquities those years are already elaps'd Vossius endeavouring to draw this Tradition of Elias to his purpose has err'd in many places For first he seems to applaud it as being delivered by Elia the Prophet or taken out of his Book which formerly as he says was numbered among the Books of the New Testament But this Elias was a Talmudick Doctor like Rabbi Hillell R. Schammai R. Johanan and several others whose names are set down in the Talmud Then it is a fiction to say that the 2000 years that preceded the Law of Moses ought not to be numbered from the beginning of the Creation but from the Flood or from that time that God told Noah that he would destroy the World For the Opinion of the Jews concerning the six thousand years Duration of the World according to the Tradition of R. Elias is in this place far different For the Foundation of that Prophesie is deriv'd from the six days of the Creation for that as God created the World in six days so the same World should endure six thousand years So that the computation of the years of the World must be taken from the first Creation of all things The Commentators upon the Talmud reckon two thousand years from the first man created to the time that Abraham abandoning the worship of Idols embrac'd the true Religion of one God Dissertat de Sept. Praefat At what time according to their computation he was two and Fifty years of Age. But those are frigid Arguments which Vossius produces to prove out of the Epistle of St. Peter that the beginning of the World is to be reckon'd from the Flood because the Apostle call'd that the Old World which preceded and the Earth which we now inhabit the other World I say these are very sorry Arguments and quite from the purpose But enough of Elia's Prophecy concerning the duration of the World Nor is there any heed to be given to that Book of the Prophecies of Elias which Isaac Vossius cajoll'd by the name of Elias the Talmudist believes to have been receiv'd into the number of Canonical Books Now let us examine his other proofs brought against the Jews whether they be of any more moment In the next place Vossius brings a load of Arguments to prove that the Jews have mutilated not a few Texts of Scripture and first he calls Justin Martyr for a Witness who writes that several Exemplars were corrupted by the Jews But as to what may be borrowed from Justin we have already made a plenary answer Justin never consulted the Hebrew Text neither could he as being one that understood not the Language as is manifest out of his own Writings But saith Vossius how bravely had the holy Martyr foil'd Trypho and the rest of the Jews with whom he liv'd had not those Crimes been true that were laid to their charge Vossius reproved But this way of arguing does not become a Learned man who in perusing Justin's Books might easily have perceiv'd that he had mistaken in many things But Vossius goes on The Prophecy of Christ which occurs Psal 22.16 where instead of they digg'd as a Lion is put in the room most of the Christians except Phanaticks and Semi-Jews acknowledge to have been deprav'd by the Rabbies True it is indeed that the Jews are call'd in question by most Divines for having purposely corrupted this place But far be it from me to pronounce those people Phanaticks or Semi-Jews who clear the Jews of this offence when Rabbi Jacob Ben Hajim Restorer of the Masora publickly testifies that in some Manuscripts of the Hebrews he has met with Caru they digg'd or pierc'd which is in favour of the Christians Nor is it a wonder that the Masorites chose that reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Lion which was most for their purpose I acknowledge the Translation of the Greeks and St. Jerom to be the truer yet the Jews are not to be accus'd of falsification for having made choice out of two Readings of that which was most for their turn In the words Cari and Carou all understanding Criticks know there is but little difference and how easily and frequently the change of Jod for Vau and Vau for Jod happens Besides that there are several other Examples of the redundancy of the Letter Aleph which were not unknown to the Mazoreths so that the Letter Aleph may as well fall out to be superfluous in Carou as necessary in Cari. Wherefore the Greek Interpreters and St. Jerom past it by as ridiculous or else perhaps it might not be in their Copies but the Masorites who acknowledge it made use of it Vain are also those things which Vossius alledges out of Zachary c. 12. v. 10. as if the Jews had purposely chang'd the Antient Reading which the Old Interpreters found in their Copies But there is no skilful Critick but will discern that this diversity happen'd from the varaince in several Copies while in some it is read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have pierced in other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have danced by reason of the easie transmutation of Resch into Daleth and Daleth into Resch Nor do I see any reason why for that or five hundred more of