overcame the first restorer of the Masora But whether he wasted his Patrimony in maintaining those Centuries that Bombergh hir'd as Vossius eagerly contends I shall neither sollicitously inquire neither is it to the purpose Much more might be added to what I have already produc'd and perhaps proper enough to the business but I am afraid least the learned Gentleman should bring me to the Bar for a Semi Rabby and a Favourer of the Jews Therefore let us come to the Examination of his little Treatise concerning the Oracles of the Sybills where he disputes more learnedly of the Jews and their Books At the beginning of his discourse this Person of an unexhausted Erudition produces some things in reference to the Oracles of the Sybills which the Jews more especially in Spain made use of against the Christians And as for those things which seem to be more remote from Truth then Fiction he refers them to p. 19 or 26. where he handles that Argument but seeing that it has already been demonstrared that the Chronology fetch'd from the Books of the Jews less favours the Jews than that which is taken out from the Greek Translators there is no reason we should spend any more time in rifling the Inventions of the most learned Vossius The quâ—cksighted Gentleman had already observ'd that the Jews in the time of Aquila had for the nonce corrupted the Hebrew Manuscripts and had expung'd above 2000 Years that they might make it out that the Messiah's time was not yet come But in this place more perspicatious then before he believes that the space of that Depravation may be Comprehended within the limits of two and twenty Years at most and this he gathers from the words of Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philadelphians That most Holy Martyr according to the report of Vossius relates that he heard some say that if those things which are contained in the Gospels were not to be found in the Ancient Monuments he would not believe them Now saith Vossius since he answered and they denied it is manifest that the Jews had deprav'd the Exemplars or swerved from the Sense of the 70 Interpreters But how this Learned Gentleman can wrest the answer of Ignatius who afferts that Christ shall be to him instead of the Ancient Monuments to his opinion of the Jewish Manuscripts being corrupted about that time I confess I do not understand Neither also are those words to be found in the Genuine Exemplars of Ignatius which Vossius himself set forth Christo velut summo sacerdoti credendum potius quam aliis sacerdotibus Which however the learned Person produces as if they belong'd to the answer of Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have heard some say that unless I find the Gospel in the Ancient Monuments I will not believe To these I answer that Jesus Christ is to me instead of the Ancient Monuments But there the discourse is not of the Old Testament compared with the New as Vossius believ'd but of the Hereticks which springing up in the Infancy of the Church denied the Faith which the Exemplar of the Gospel set forth Whence it came to pass that the Ancient Fathers of the Church Tertullian Ireneus and others of the same rank did not undertake to refute the Hereticks out of the sacred Scripture but from certain Tradition or from the Doctrine of Christ propagated by the Apostles and their Successors Apostolick Persons in the Churches of several Nations In which sense Ignatius asserts that Christ or his Doctrine was to him in the place of the Ancient Monuments This unless I am very much deceived is the meaning of Ignatius's words who commends Unity of Doctrine in Christ whose Spirit ought to be preferred before any Ancient Monuments whatever Many other things also Vossius produces in this place concerning the Etymology of the word Aera and concurs with them who believe Era and the Heriga of the Arabians to be the same word nor is it improbable but that which he presently adds of the Arabick word Hegyra as if it were to be deduc'd from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hagger a Proselyte or Stranger seems not so very likely The Learned Gentleman believes that several Jews of the Sect of the Herodians forsaking Herod their Messiah who was also by them stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stranger revolted to Mahomet by them also call'd Haggar When the Jews saith Vossius believed that their Messiah should be a Stranger But these things are little remote from the Fictions of the Rabbies In the next place I would fain know from what Oracle of the Sybills the Learned Gentleman gather'd that the Messiah of the Jews should be a Proselyte and a Stranger according to the true opinion of the Jews for that this Assertion is contrary to the Prophesies of the Prophets and all Evangelical History as all Men well know Certainly the Jews expect one Messiah above all the rest of whom Vossius discourses at present but he according to the common consent of all the Jews is expected to be of the Nation and one of the Tribes of the Jews But they expect other Messias's besides and for that reason they give that Title to some Kings who were well affected towards them And therefore Cyrus is call'd the Messia of the Jews so also Herod and Mahomet might have the Title of Messiah from the Jews And in our age they are ready to salute that Prince or King whoever he be with the Title of Messiah that will but take into his protection their Affairs and the Ceremonies of their Country But these things belong nothing at all to the word Heriga which most certainly is an Arabic and not an Hebrew word Much nearer does that come to the Truth which after some things thrown between the Learned Gentleman adds concerning the Genuine signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the Apocryphal Books signifie the same with Mysterious Books and inaccessible to the understanding But who can then gather with Vossius that the Books of the Apocrypha that according to his Sentiments were formerly added by the Ancient Jews to the Books of the Old Testament were worthy to be reckon'd as Canonical with the rest of the Prophetick Books that the Modern Canonical Scripture both of the Synagogue and Church is maim'd and lame while the Books of Enoch Elias and some others are left out Prophets are become very Cheap with Vossius who not only numbers the 70 Interpreters among the Prophets but also the most famous Impostors who taking upon them the names of the Patriarchs and Prophets and other Persons of high same and repute among the Gentiles have Printed the Books of Adam Enoch Abraham Moses Esaiah Jeremiah Hystaspes Mercurius Trimegistus Zoroaster the Sybils Orpheus Phocilldes and several others In a short time if it so please the Heavens we shall have
seems to make it a point of Conscience to deviate from the Context the Translation agrees so exactly word for word with the Hebrew Text the literal Translation and the obsolete words used no where but in the Synagogues render it very obscure if we may give any Credit to the Preface of this Translation the greatest part of the Translation is Pagninus's but I think the Jews therein had a better opinion of Kimchii Aben Esra and other Rabbins whom Pagninus consulted than of Pagninus when they openly profess they allowed that they thereby might not incur the danger of the Inquisition It is very likely that Abraham Vsque a Portugal Jew did make use for the perfecting this Translation of some old Spanish Rabbins who had long before his time read the Hebrew and Spanish Bible in their Synagogues There is this in that Edition of Ferrara worth observing that the Interpreter was so well convinced of the difficulty of Translating the Bible that he has put Asteries where he finds the sence dubious and could not be definitive in a thing of so great difficulty these words are to be found in the Preface And it is to be noted that in the place marked with an Asterism thus * it is a mark to assist ye in the Exposition of the word and somtimes of various Opinions But the Jews who Printed the Second Edition with Amendment in the Year 1630. have left out most of the Asteries whereas there was more need to augment than diminish that Number but what profit the Christians can reap from a Translation which the Jews scarce understand is not manifest if the ridiculous affectation of Aquila a contentious Translator was reprehended by the Fathers sure none will approve of this affected Translation which has more regard to Grammar than to the sence of the Context Cassiod de Rena Isaiah 9.6 Cassiodore de Regna blames his Exposition of these words of the 9. of Esaiah Vocabitur nomen ejus admirabilis consiliarius Deus fortis pater futuri seculi princeps pacis as they are in the Vulgar Edition in that he forcing the words contrary to the genuin sence attributes these words princeps pacis to the Messia and all the others to God But the Translator here and in other places is byassed by his Countrymen yet in this he is inexcusable in that he hath not kept so close to the Rules of Grammar which he hath profest for he hath prefixt the Article el marravilloso consejero and elsewhere whereas the Hebrew prefix ha the same with the Spanish Article el is not prefixt in like manner he errs in other places whereas he hath Translated the first Verse of the Psalms Psalm 1. v. 1. bien avanturado el varon when according to the Rules of Grammar it should have been Translated bien avanturancas de el varon as it is in the Hebrew but we will pass over these Subtilties CHAP. XV. Of the Translations of the Bible of greatest Authority with the Christians and first of the Septuagint ALtho the Greek Translation of the 70 Elders is publickly read by the Jews in their Synagogues and Schools Various Opinions of the Greek translation of the Bible yet I think it not amiss to rank it among the Translations used by the Christians for the Christians have long since received it from the Jews and to this our time is retained by most Churches But the Disputes about its Authority and Translators not yet decided may be a wonder for there be some who deny its Authority therefore others who highly maintain its Authority in all esteeming the Translators as Prophets inspired by the Holy Spirit Others again of a middle rank between these two extreams do highly value this Antient and to be honoured Translation of Holy Writ yet in some places they think it not Authentick I willingly pass by the History of the Translators as it is in Philo Josephus and in several Greek and Latin Fathers because known to most The Fathers borrowed the greatest part of this History from Aristaeus in his Book The judgment of Aristaeus of the Translation of the Divine Law out of the Hebrew into the Greek by the 70 Interpreters and a part since invented by the Jews The learned Critics have thought Aristaeus's Book in part suppositious suppose the Book that goes under Aristaeus's name were not suppositious I should think them no wiser that quote him for the Truth of this History then he that thinks Xenophons Cyropaedia to be a true History of Cyrus for as Tully upon the first sight perceived that Xenophon did not act the Historian but that in Cyrus he gave a Model or Pattern of a just Emperor so it may easiy be seen in the Reading Aristaeus that he is more Romantick than a true Historian We may easily guess from the Context that some Hellenist Jew writ this Book in favourof his Nation The Writer of this History according to the Genius of his Nation speaks great things and Miracles For he relates when King Ptolomy wondring that the Writers of other Countries made no mention of that Excellent works he bring in Demetâ—ius answering him thus Because says he it is a Holy Law given by God and because that some going about the Translation have been diverted by being punished by God and that Theopompus when he would have inserted some thing out of that Law not so well translated was Distracted for above thirty days and that during some little intermission of his Distraction having prayed to God to let him know the reason of his Distemper God revealed to him in a Dream that what had hapned was because he went about to publish to the World Sacred things and that at length when he had desisted from his Enterprise he was freed from his Disease And he farther tells us of one Theodectes a Tragical Poet who when he had inserted into his Play something of the Laws of Moses was struck blind till he had reflected upon what he had done and had intreated God by his Vows These truly are more a Romance than a History and sufficiently shew the Genius of the Jews which always delighted to invent Miracles there is such another Story of a Voice from Heaven which did frighten the Writer of the Chaldaean Paraphrase from the Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures moreover the Supposititious Aristaeus seems to contradict here for where he speaks of Theopompus he tells us That the Law of Moses was before this translated into the Greek Tongue but if it were so why did they so earnestly desire another Translation wherefore Baronius and other learned Men with good reason rejecting Clemens Alexandrinus's Authority chiefly induced by this reason say that the Scriptures were not translated before into Greek and that there was no Translation whatsoever before that of the Seventy Elders Neither can you say Joseph Sealig inaâ—imady Chron. Eâ—seb Ger. Voss lib. 1. The Greek History this first Translation to
forth thy Prisoners and the Pronouns Thou thy thine are in the Feminine Gender and so make the Sence far different from that of St. Jerom which agrees with that of the Seventy Interpreters Many to defend the vulgar Edition in this place reject the J wish Exemplars as corrupted by them on set purpose But it is much more proper to say that the same Pronoun in the Feminine Gender is taken sometimes for the same in the Masculine which the Masorites of Tyberias allow who added the pointed Vowels to the modern Context And thus they demonstrate the same thing to have happened in three places of Scripture which they cite Wherefore if the same occur in any other places which the Masorites have omitted the antient Translators are not therefore presently to be accus'd because they do not agree with the later In the same manner St. Jerom may be vindicated for translating the word Thou hast sent when according to the Hebrew he ought to have translated it I have sent For this difference of Translation arose from the Letter Jod which is noted by the Mazorites to be often superfluous The Mazorites themselves reckon up 43 Places mark'd jather jod that is throw away Jod as redundant Thus Jer. 32 v. 33. where we read Thou hast taught in the second Person The Hebrew word is written with Jod at the end as if it should have been rendred in the first Person And indeed in the lesser Mazorah it is marked to be read without a Jod and in the second Person as Jerom renders it But I pass by these things and many others by which it might be made out that the Latin Interpreter is often undeservedly reprehended by those that do not understand him and measure all things by the Rules of their own Skill CHAP. XX. Concerning the Authority of the Antient Versions of the Latin Church and first of the Vulgar In what Sence it may be said to be Authentic The authority of the Ancient Version of the Church AS it is a thing that seems to be rooted in men by nature to be opiniated in their own Disputations and to be so presumptuous as to take sometimes those things which are false and unjust for Truths so it chiefly happens in this present Argument where the Writers seem to fight for their Lives and Liberties Thus the Jewish Rabbys seem to be incited by no other reason to avouch their Manuscripts to be free even from the slightest Faults and Errors but only as they are Jews and read no other Scripture in their Synagogues than the Hebrew Text. In like manner the Greek and Latin Fathers in the primitive Times of the Church embracing the Greek Version of the 70. Interpreters as Divine preferr'd it before the Hebrew Copies for that the one were skilled in the Greek Learning others preferr'd the Latin or Vulgar Edition of the Bible altogether used by the Latin Church and Translated from the Septuagint not understanding the Greek Therefore is the wisdom of the Fathers of the Council of Trent highly to be applauded for this that they by their Suffrages declared Authentick that Version which being publickly received and made use of in the Church was in every bodyes hands that is which was solely esteemed Authentick among the Latins Nor does that antient Lati Edition which was read for many Ages in the Eastern Church before Jerom's Translation less deserve the Name of Authentic than the modern Vulgar only there is this difference between the one and the other that the other was not declared Authentic by the publick Decree of the General Council Prologue 10 de vulg There Walton is in an Error who denyes this antient Vulgar Edition to have been Authentick as well saith he for that it was translated from the Greek which we have demonstrated not to have been Authentick nor can the Rivulet have more Authority than was in the Fountain nor can any Version be said to be Authentick unless the Interpreter wrote it with the same Spirit as the first Author which never any man affirmed as to this Version nor had the Church of Rome rejected it and entertain'd a new one had she judged it to have been Authentick But Walton understood not what was meant in the Decree of the Council of Trent by the word Authentick while he confounds Authentick with Divine and Prophetical all the while he treats upon the Argument now in hand Therefore it is necessary to consider what the Fathers of the Council of Trent intended should be understood by the word in Controversie Vulgarly among the Lawyers the word Authentick signifies the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the French interpret Originale or Original And in this Sence the Exemplification of a Will is distinguished from the Authentick or Original and Authentick Tables are said to be those which are first drawn from whence as from the Original Copies are made In this Sence the Hebrew Context cannot be said to be Authentick because the Originals of the Hebrew Codex are lost and there remain no other than Copies Therefore the word Authentick is taken by the same Lawyers in another Sense and so Version in their Books carrys the Name of Authentick Thus the Latin Translation of Justins Novels is call'd Authentick because it was rendered out of the Greek verbatim and so it is distinguished from another Version the Author of which is said to be Julian Patricius which is only a Latin Epitome of those Constitutions The first Exemplar was called Authentick as much as to say True and no way maim'd as Antonius Contius has observed Now in this Acceptation of the word Authentick there is nothing which can offend the Protestants But if we must not derive the signification of this word from the Lawyers where it had its rise the same word is several times repeated in the Acts of the Fifth General Synod Where when the Exemplars which Macarius the Patriarch of Antiochia and other Monothelite Bishops offered to the Fathers of the Council were read over again presently the Legates of the Apostolick See replyed That the Testimonies of the Fathers were maimed by Macarius and his Companions Thereupon they require the Authentic Copies to be sent for from the venerable Patriarchal Treasury of the Royal City of Constantinople and to be compared with the Exemplars produced by Macarius and the other Monothelite Bishops There Authentic is no more than that which is not adulterated or of suspected Credit Nor did the Tridentine Bishops pronounce the Latin Version which was only read in all the Eastern Churches Authentic in any other Sense Nor can the Words of their Constitution be wrested to any other Exposition if they be but a little more attentively considered For they were in Consultation about selecting one out of many Versions of the Scripture which were then publick in the world and because the Authors of most were Persons of suspected credit it was in prudence thought fit by those Bishops that
their leave I dare boldly say that Geneva never bred a man more profoundly skilled in Hebrew Greek and Latin than he I no not deny but that sometimes he did not accurately express the full import of the Hebrew words because he affected a smooth and delicate stile but he did not this through ignorance but through a desire of imitating Cicero and Catellus Is Levit. medit in Lib. Ruâ—â— Likewise Isaac Levita a man well versed in Hebrew who finds fault with Castalio for not following exactly the Literal and Grammatical meaning of the Text takes notice of some other things of small moment and importance But 't is certain that Castalio proposed to himself this way of translating that he might give his Translation the advantage of perspicuity and elegancy Genebrard objects that Castalio as though he favoured the Heresie of the Servetans render'd the Hebrew word Amar in the beginning of Genesis by Jussit for which in the vulgar Translations we have dixit But 't is no hard matter to beleive that he never thought of this and moreover the word Amar as well in Hebrew as Arabick may very well be construed by jussit which acception of the word seems not to be altogether improper in this place Now it only remains that we make some short reflections upon Junius and Tremellius Junii Trem. versio who were the undoubted Authors of that Translation which is so highly valued by the Protestants especially in England and Geneva where 't is altogether used in their disputations About the time when it was published Drusius a man of the Protestant perswasion and Professor of the Hebrew Tongue in an University in West Friezeland spared no sharpness and severity in his animad versions upon it but made it appear that they had grosly erred in some things and a long time after Constantine L'Emperew Professor of the Hebrew Tongue which he was a great master of in the University of Leyden passed the like censure upon Junius and Tremellius's Translation in these words In vertendis Hâ—braicis a Junio Tremellio non raro abire debui Hoc enim inâ—sta Bibliorum versione saepe observavi conceptam Analysin veluti norman statui ad quam in vertendo respicerctur cum hoc modo saepe a vero sensu recedatur Yet Buxtorf the greatest modern Hebrician had these Interpreters in so great esteem that he usually gave them the Title of incomparable men Buxt praef Lex Hebr. and in composing his Hebrew Lexicon strictly followed their Translations and all the Learning our Criticks pretend to who slight and undervalue all the old Translators is glean'd out of this Lexicon Tremellius who was a Jew before he professed Calvinism seems to have taken abundance of things from the Modern Jews and besides his Latin stile is unnatural and affected which without doubt he learn'd at Geneva for 't is very usual with the Geneva Doctors to interland their Sentences with pronoun Relatives when there does not appear the least shadow of a Relation as we read in the Tremellian Version of the first Chapter of Genesis Gen. 1.4 viditque Deus lucem hanc esse bonam distinctionem fecit Deus inter Lucem hanc c. again a little after v. 7. Fecit ergo Deus hoc expansum quod distinguit inter has aquas quae sunt ab inferiori istius expansi aquas illas Theodore Beza has some things not much unlike these in his Translation of the New Testament neither did Tremellius scruple to insert several words to Illustrate the fence which quite alter it as in the 2d Chapter of Genesis where in the vulgar Translation we read sed Fons ascendebat è terra and in some other Translations vapor c. He Translates it aut Vapor non ascendebat following the Arabick Paraphrase of Rabbi Saadias Sirnamed Gaon or the excellent Moreover in the 8th Chapter of Nehemiah besides these words which are turned verbatim out of Hebrew viz. Legerunt in Libro Dei Legis distincte aperte ad intelligendum intellexcrunt cum legeretur he adds these of his own per scripturam ipsam which are not in the Hebrew Text and renders them thus exponendo sensum dabant Intelligentiam per Scripturam ipsam in which thing he did not so much regard the words of the Hebrew Context as the Principles of the Calvinistical Divinity and he differs very much from Sebastian Munster Leo Jude Castalio and all other Protestant Interpreters except those of Geneva who were wonderfully taken with Tremellius's Translation We can likewise allow Luc. Osiander a place among the Protestant Interpreters of the Bible Bib. Luc. Osi for tho he did not design to give us an entire Translation of it lest he should in any wise seem to depart from the Ancient received Latin Translators yet those places which he thought were not well rendred he Translated out of the Hebrew retaining nevertheless the old Translation in those very places that so by comparing them men might better judge of his and the Ancient Translation as for instance in the first Chapter of Genesis where we read in the vulgar ferebatur he puts down in another Character incubabat as if the Hebrew word was more fully expressed by the Latin word incubabat than ferebatur Indeed Osiander mistakes in a great many things when upon any Trivial account he leaves the Latin Translator whom he did not follow as close as he should have done yet he is deservedly commended by the Divines of Tubinge for this piece of prudence that in his Edition of the Bible he gives us likewise that which was ancient and received for a great many years by all the Western Churches Nor will it be unseasonable here to mention the Judgment of the Divines of the University of Tubinge concerning the modern Interpreters which we have in these words Dum illi novas versiones afferunt videntur studiosis Theologiae veteram illam usitatam velle manibus excutere Nonnulli in vertendo obscuram diligentiam Hebrâ—orum sordidam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam illorum Grammatici habent sequentes non modo gratiam sed fructum studuii sui propemodum amettunt Sunt etiam non pauci qui destituti solidiore cognitione Haebrâ—ae linguae ignari proprietatis elegantiae interpretationes in modium afferunt aut prodigâ—osas aut certenon satis instituto convenientes In like manner Andrew Osiander the Son of Luke following the same way of Translating that his Father did published the ancient Latin Translation together with the corrections of it retaining still the old Edition And no man of sense will ever question but that this is the best method of Translating provided the emendations be not inserted into the Text of the Latin Translation but only put down in the Margin as probable conjectures Not many years since Cocceius receded from this way of Translating who was a man that had great skill in the
much more happily then the Seventy Interpreters as being assisted by their Labours and Translation as also with the Versions of others as Aquila Symmachus Theodotian by which means he was able to discern the failings and Errors of those men Nor indeed do any who have any thing of Greek and Hebrew Learning think otherwise of Jerom unless it be single Dr. Vossius who in imitation of Ruffinus believes that St. Jerom undertook a new Version of the Hebrew Text with a resolution altogether Jewish and pre-engag'd by the Rabbies For that same Prophetick Spirit attributed to the Greek Interpreters which our Ancestors so much ador'd is long since vanish'd by the Authority of St. Jerow himself But let us return to the business in hand Vossius furiously maintains that there is nothing of solidity in the Expositions of the late Rabbys and their Traditions propagated only by the Ear chiefly induc'd by this Argument for that Traditions which are propagated by the Ear rarely last above two or three Ages If it be so how came it to pass that the Seventy Interpreters after the Hebrew Language being lost for two Ages could make such a Version of the Hebrew Codex in all things so absolute as Vossius feigns it Questionless some will say he avers nothing wonderful as to this particular while he believes them to be Prophets But whom shall we believe Vossius affirming the Greek Interpreters to have been Prophets or Jerome denying it But you will object that St. Jerome was half a Rabby who durst presume to make a new Translation contrary to the general consent of the Church and that Vossius is a Sybillist who has rais'd up new Prophets and Sooth-sayers till now unknown nor ever heard of That same Jewish and Rabbinical Version of Jerome has had many Applauders Conspicuous for their Piety and Learning But there is not one in our Age who embraces Vossius's Judgment for receiving the only Version of the Seventy excepting some Disciples of Socinus who greedily swallowed his Opinion It will not be amiss to inspect the Matter a little more narrowly and to manifest the Nature of Tradition upon which the reading of the Hebrew Context depends I grant that matters of Religion chiefly which belong to Doctrine more remote from the Sences cannot be preserved for many Ages by the help of Tradition without the assistance of writing But as to matter of Discipline and Ceremonies there is a quite contrary Judgment to be made for that those things happen to be in use every day And for this sort of Tradition and Ancient Fathers of the Church give their suffrages Now I say there is the same Qualification of Languages which though they become obsolete and cease to be Natural yet among the Doctors in the School preserve their ancient Vigour and Efficacy and to this sort of Tradition we refer the Tradition of the Hebrew Language among the Jews Hence without doubt it came to pass that in these modern times the Samaritans have the same Books of the Law of Moses which the Jews have some small matter excepted And from that Tradition it comes to pass that not only the Eastern and Western Jews consent among themselves about the reading of the Hebrew Context but also they who bear the Name of Carraim among them because that rejecting the Talmud and other uncertain Traditions they adhere to the Scripture and agree with the Jews in all things as to the Truth of reading the Sacred Context And therefore that Tradition is not rashly to be exploded with the Carraeans who reject most of the Jewish Traditions entirely embrac'd Here I could heap together many other things taken out of the Jewish Books by which they prove that their Ancestors ever since the times of Esdras and Zorobabel had Schools as well among the Babylonians as among the Hierosolymitans But I forbear to insist upon these things and many other of the same Nature because they do not please the Palate of the most learned Vossius who does not by any means relish Rabbinism I am not ignorant that many Jews especially they who are of the Grammarians Form who believe that not only the Sacred Books were variously dispersed and miserably mutilated as Kimchi and Effodaeus were of Opinion but that the Language was almost lost and with these those Jews who are of the Sect of the Carraeans agree Aaron Ben Joseph praef com in pent For thus writes Aaron Ben Joseph upon this Argument The Israelites were exiles out of their own in a forreign Land and Vision and Prophesie were sealed up and there wanted but little but that the Hebrew Language had been quite lost Then certain wise Israclites rose up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom God gave his Spirit and they handed this Scripture to Vs which contains twenty four Books From whence it is manifest that the Hebrew Tongue was not anciently utterly lost though after the return of the Jews from Babylon it was no longer Natural at Jerusâ—lem but only preserved by the Doctors of the Law Thus Esdras performing the Office of a most skilful Scribe is said to have read the Law from a Pulpit before a multitude of Men and Women And châ—â—stâ— from that time the Jews deduce their Paraphrasers Nehem. c. 8. who were to explain the words of the Law in the Language familiarly spoken that they might be understood by all the Auditory Nor do I believe that the Greek Version of the Seventy of which afterwards the Jews feign'd such miraculous Stories had any other Original whose Idle Dreams Vossius so greedily followed as if those Jews were only to be believ'd by the Christians Then again in the Synagogue and Schools belonging to such places where the Greek Tongue was natural there the Greek Translation of the Alexandrinian Jews was read which whithin a short space of time reach'd the rest of the Jews who spake the Greek Language as being the Language of those that were in power However the reading of the Hebrew Text was not left off in whose assistance the Greek Translation was only made use of Neither will Vossius deny that who asserts that both Josephus and Philo who was an Alexandrinian were learned in the Hebrew When then was the Hebrew Language lost was it in the time of Aquila whom Vossius calls a most impertinent Interpreter Hâ—wever he acknowledges that in the time of Origen there were famous Hebrew Schools at Alexandria and in the time of St. Jerom at Tyberias Now that the Schools of Tyberias were kept up after St. Jeroms Death there 's no Man but well knâ—ws to which at length the Family of the Criticks call'd Mazeries was well known And they were call'd Mazorites because they bounded and regulated the Mazora or Tradition of reading the Hebrew Context then receiv'd by all the Jews by the help of certain Marks or Tittles which serv'd instead of Vowels This is the Jewish Tradition to which Simon attributes most credit but
upon which he does not wholly depend while he does not put a small value upon the Tradition or reading of the Hebrew Context which the Greek Interpreters follow'd Nay sometimes he does not scruple to prefer it before the Masoretic because he did not set himself to write with a mind pre-engag'd by the Greek Interpreters as Vossius nor by the Latin as most of the Divines of the Romish Church nor by the Jews as the Croud of Protestants But says the most learned Vossius the Jews are Enemies to the Christians and therefore the reading of the Sacred Scripture ought not to be fetch'd from them as if any Art could be better learnt from any other then they who profess it But then Vossius urges again and Confesses that the reading of the Scripture ought to be fetch'd from the Jews indeed but from those ancient Jews who preceded the time of Christ not from the latter Rabbins who understood it not at all And in this also Simon agrees with Vossius that the Tradition of the Hebrew reading is to be taken from those ancient Jews only in this he differs from him in saving not only from those but from Aquila Symmachus Theodotion Jerome and all other Interpreters of the Sacred Scripture for that no Art can be brought to perfection by one or another but by many together Simon professes himself under the Laws of no Master he denyes that a perfect knowledg of the Hebrew Tongue can be attain'd by the vulgar Rules of the Grammarians as being confin'd within too narrow limits Furthermore he believes it necessary to have recourse to the ancient Interpreters in imitation of St. Jerome who not only Consulted the Rabbys of his own Age but sometimes the Seventy Interpreters sometimes Aquila sometimes Theodotion or any other whose Interpretation seem'd most to the Purpose And we have no reason in our Age of making another Translation of the Bible which may excel all the rest For it is not true as Vossius often inculcates that only one St. Jerome durst presume to vary from the Septuagint For you shall find the rest of the Fathers have frequent recourse to the Versions of Aquila Symmachus or Theodotion because their sense sometimes appears to be better To say Truth they differ more from Vossius who believes that the Seventy Interpreters being taken away all the remaining knowledge of the Hebrew Language is utterly lost and that without them no one word can rightly be expounded That Aquila and other Interpreters fail'd wherever they departed from the Ancient Version that he was an Idle Interpreter who being learned in the Hebrew did not give the Hebrew words new significations from the Greek Translation of the Septuagint but only retain'd those significations us'd by the Greek Interpreters though in a different Order and accommodating other Notions to other places And yet Origen frequently commends that same Aquila whose Version Vossius affirms to be so full of trivial words speaking of Aquila as of a person who searching out the Proprieties of words and dilligently adhering to their significations studyed to give them the most proper Interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila labouring to Interpret by words that carryed most Authority But if Aquila apply'd the same Notions of the Hebrew Language variously in several and different places those places are to be weigh'd and Judgment is to be given whether he have swery'd truly or falsly from the Interpreters Certain it is that St. Jerome sometimes preferr'd Aquila before the Seventy Interpreters because they seem'd to favour the Jews In like manner Origen thought that Aquila had in several places more properly express'd the words of the Hebrew Context then the 70. There it is a fiction of Vossius's that there was no man among all the ancient Christians upon whom a clearer light of Hebrew truth shone then upon all the Christian Rabbies and Semi-Rabbies of our Age. For as it was most excellently observ'd by Ludovicus Capellus there is nothing that was ever begun and perfected both at one time The Translation of the 70 Interpreters was corrected by Aquila Symmachus Theodotion and Jerom and as St. Jerow's so is that mended every day by persons learned in the Greek and Hebrew Languages In this alone the Septuagint excells all the other Versions of Sacred Scripture for that it was the first of all the Translations from which all the succeeding Interpreters drew many things proper for their purpose Nor do I question but that in the time of Philo there were extant Lexicons of Hebrew words taken out of the Version of the 70 both at Alexandria and other places Nor will I deny but that Aquila might make use of them as great helps in compiling his Translation But for me to believe that he who in the Opinions of Origen Jerom and other Fathers did not consult the Jews of his time is a thing almost impossible and why Vossius should think so there seems to be no other inducement then a pre-engag'd Opinion that the 70 Interpreters are the only persons with whom the knowledge of the Hebrew Language was buried And indeed whatever Vossius throws upon Aquila may be said of St. Jerom though it be most certain that he consulted the Jewish Doctors of his time when he was compiling his Translation and very often rather chose to depend upon them then upon the Greek Interpretation For he often declares in his works that he was instructed by the most learned Doctors of his Age. The same is Aquila's case whom he calls sometimes contentious Interpreter because he sticks sometimes too close to the signification of the words more eager upon the force of the word then the Sence of the Sentence For which reason Jerom accuses him of deprav'd affectation but never of Ignorance which affectation Origen ascribes to his too much dilligence Now Vossius passes to other matters He denies that the Sence of Scripture can be plough'd forth of a Mute Codex which heither any man knows how to read or understand as being half maim'd and furnish'd with no other Vowels then what the Enemies of the Christian Faith have fix'd to it And thus he thought it not enough to traduce the Interpreters of Holy Writ unless he accuse the Books themselves Every Foot and even to loathing he objects in his little Treatise that the Hebrew Codex is mute as if it had been less mute in the Age of the 70 Interpreters then in our time This is the manner of Writing among the Orientals to follow Compendium's Nor is the Hebrew Language more subject to this vice than the Arabic Chaldee and Syriac whose manner of writing is Compendious likewise The Condition of the Exemplars which the 70 Interpreters made use of was no better But there was a certain manner of writing confirm'd by Use and Custom amongst the Hebrews and the rest of the Orientals especially the Rabbies as now it appears For after the Invention of points most of the Oriental Bocks were set