As to Jews, besides the mad and senseless clamour in general for
S60 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.,
corrupting the Scriptures, three things are with most pretence of reason objected against them: — The D''"iS1D ppn, tikkun sopherim, or " correctio scribarum," by which means it is confessed by EHas that eighteen places are corrected. But all things are here uncer- tain: uncertain that ever any such things were done; uncertain who are intended by their sopherim, — Ezra and his companions most probably; nor do the particular places enumerated discover any such correction. They are all in particular considered by Glassius, lib. i. tract. 1 ; but the whole matter is satisfactorily determined by Buxtorfius in his letters to Glassius, printed by him, and repeated again by Amama, Anti. Barb. Bib. lib. i. p. 30, 31. Because this thing is much insisted on by Galatinus to prove the Jews' corrupting of the text, it may not be amiss to set down the words of that great master of all Jewish learning : —
"Ad tertium qusesitum tuum, de tikkun sopherim, 18 voces hanc censuram subiisse Massora passim notat. Recensio locorum in ves- tibule libri Numerorum, et Ps. cvi. Utrobique non nisi 16 recen- sentur, sed in Num. xii. 12 duo exempla occurrunt, ut notat R. Solomon. Deest ergo unus locus milii, quem ex nullo Jud^eo hac- tenus, expiscari potui, nee magnus ille Mercerus eum invenit. Ga- latinus hoc thema non intellexit, et aliena exempla admiscet. Sic et alii qui corruptiones ista esse putant. Nee ullum hactenus ex nostris sive evangelicis sive catholicis vidi, qui explicarit, quse fuerint scribae isti, et quales D'^JIpTl ipsorum. Quam antiques hse notse de tikkun sint, liquido mihi nondum constat. Antiquior ipsarum memoria est in libro iiSD, qui ante Talmud Babylonicum fertur conscriptus. Dis- sentiunt tamen HebrsBi de ejus autore et tempore. In Talmud neutro ulla plane istius tikkun mentio fit, cum alias DnsiD "i'it3"'i; longe minoris negotii in Talmud commemoretur. Si aliter ista loca fuis- sent aliquando scripta, Onkelos et Jonathan id vel semel expressis- sent. Nee Josephus reticuisset, qui contrarium Hebrseis adscribit, nullam scilicet unquani literam mutatam fuisse in lege ab Hebrceis popularibus suis, lib. i. contra Apionem. Talmudistoe in Lev. xxvii, vers. ult. diversis locis notant, nee prophetse ulli licitum fuisse vel minimum in lege mutare vel innovare. Quomodo ergo scribge qui- dam vulgares hanc audaciam sibi arrogassent, textum sacrum in Uteris et sensu corrigere? In silentio itaque omnium, in aurem tibi dico, Sopherim hosce fuisse ipsos autores sacros, Mosen et Pro})hetas, qui nunquam aliter scripserunt quam hodie scriptum legitur. At sapientes HebroBorum nasutiores, animadvertentes inconvenientiam quandam in istis locis, scripserunt, aliter istos autores loqui debuisse, et secundum cohserentiam propositi textus, sic vel sic scribere, sed pro eo maluisse sic scribere, et id sic efferre, ut illud hodie in textu est. Veluti Gem xviii. 22, lectum scriptum, ' Et Abraham adhuc sta-
OF THE PURITY OF THE ORIGINALS. 361
bat coram Domino.' Itane? ubi legitur, inquiunt sapientes, quod Abraham venerit ad Dominum, et steterit coram eo; contrarium di- citur in prsecedentibus, Deus scilicet veuit ad Abraham, et dixit ad eum, ' Num ego celo ab Abrahamo/ etc. ' Clamor Sodomse et Go- morrhse magnus est/ etc. Ideoqne Moses scribere debuit, ' Et Dominus ad hue stabat coram Abrahamo/ At ita serviliter de Deo loqui non decuit Mosen, unde ppTi correxit et mutavit stylum ser- monis, honoris majoris causa, et dixit, 'Et Abraham adhuc stabat,' etc. Hinc R. Salamo adjicit 3in3p 17 riM scribendum ipsi (Mosi) erat, (Seu) scribere debebat, 'Et Dominus stabat/ non quod alitersic scrip- serit antea, et postea id ab aliis scribis correctum sit, aut corruptum. Hinc R. Aben Ezra, ad aliquot loca irridet nasutos, inquiens, nullo tikkun opus fuisse, id est, nihil esse, quod nasuti isti sapientes puta- rint, autorem debuisse aliter ibi loqui vel scribere. Vide et eum Job. xxxii. 3. Habes mysterium prolixe explicatum, in quo et multi Hebrseorum impegerunt." Thus far Buxtorfius.
The D"'"iD1D "ilD'^y are insisted on by the same Galatiuus; but these are only about the use of the letter ) four or five times, which seem to be of the same rise with them foregoing.
But that which makes the greatest cry at present is the corrup- tion of Ps. xxii, 17, where, instead of '''^^t', which the LXX. trans- lated "n/^ugai/, " They digged" or "pierced," — that is, "my hands and feet," — the present Judaical copies, as the Antwerp Bibles also, read "■"l^l, "as a lion," so depraving the prophecy of our Saviour's suf- fering, " They digged (or pierced) my hands and my feet," leaving it no sense at all ; " As a lion my hands and my feet." Simeon de Muis upon the place pleads the substitution of "• for 1 to be a late corruption of the Jews; at least, 'l'^^'? was the Keri, and was left out by them. Johannes Isaac, lib. ii. ad Lindan., professes that when he was a Jew, he saw ^l?:^? in a book of his grandfather's. Buxtorf affirms one to have been the Ketib, the other the Keri, and proves it from the Masora; and blames the Antwerp Bibles for printing "■"l^.? in the line. With him agree Genebrard, Pagninus, Vatablus, Mercer, Rivet, etc. Others contend that Ca-ari, " as a lion," ought to be retained, repeating v'irh xonoU, the verb "'^i^''!?'?, "They compassed me about," affirming also that word to signify, " to tear, rend, and strike;" so that the sense should be, " They tear my hands and feet as a lion." So Voetius, De Insolubil. Scriptures. But that """J^l can- not be here rendered " sicut leo" most evince, partly from the ano- malous position of the prefix 3 with Kamets, but chiefly from the Masora, affirming that that word is taken in another sense than it is used Isa. xxxviii. 13, where it expressly signifies, " as a lion." The shorter determination is, that from the radix >^1^ by the epen- thesis rou a, and the change which is used often of 1 into "• (as in the