380 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
Nahardea, Sora, and Pumbeditlia, whfere the Jews bad their syna- gogues and schools, was finished about the year 506 or 510. In this greater work was the mystery of their iniquity finished, and the en- gine of their own invention for their further obduration perfectly completed. These are now the rule of their faith, the measure of their exposition of Scripture, the directory of their worship, — the ground of their hope and expectation.
All this while the Jews enjoyed the letter of the Scriptures, as they do to this day ; yea, they receive it sometimes with the honour and veneration due to God alone. God preserved it amongst them for our present use, their further condemnation, and means of tbeir fu- ture conversion. But after the destruction of the temple, and rejec- tion of tbeir whole church-state, the word was no longer committed to them of God, nor were they intrusted with it, nor are to this day. They have it not by promise or covenant, as tbey had of old, Isa. lix. 21. Their possession of it is not accompanied with the adminis- tration of the Spirit; without which, as we see in the instance of themselves, the word is a dead letter, of no efficacy for the good of souls. They have the letter amongst them, as at one time they had the ark in the battle against the Philistines, for their greater ruin.
In this state and condition they everywhere discover their ran- cour and malice against Christ, calling him, in contempt and reproach, ''^^^, who is nisny r\)p\^ tyinp^ j^'ini^ ^'n\l^ relating monstrous figments concerning him and their dealiug with him, under the name of " Jesus the son of Pandira." Some deny that by Jesus, the son of Pandira and Stada, in the Talmud, the blessed Messiah is intended. So did Galatinus, Arcan. Relig. Cathol. lib. i. cap. vii. ; and Reuch- linnus Cabal, lib. i. p. 636 ; Guliel. Schickard., in Procem. Tarich. p. 83. The contrary is asserted by Keynoldus, PraBlec. in lib. Apoc, prselec. 103, p. 405, 406; Buxtorfius Lexic. Rab. voce ntOD, and also in X'T'njD; Vorstius Not. ad Tzem. Dav. p. 264. And, in truth, the reason pleaded by Galatinus and others to prove that they did not intend our Saviour doth, upon due consideration, evince the con- trary. The Jesus, say they, who is mentioned in the Talmud, lived in the days of the Maccabees, being slain in the time of Hyrcanus, or of Aristobulus, one hundred years before the death of the true Messiah ; so that it cannot be he who is by them intended. But this is invented by the cursed wretches, that it should not appear that their temple was so soon destroyed after their wicked defection from God in killing of his Son. This is most manifest from what is cited by Genebrard from Abraham Levita, in his " Cabala Historioe," where he says that Christians invented this story, that Jesus was crucified in the life of Herod (that is, the tetrarch), that it might appear that their temple was destroyed immediately thereupon;
ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW POINTS. 881
" when/' saith lie, " it is evident from the Mishna and Tahnud that he Hved in the time of Alexander, and was crucified in the days of Aristobulus :" so discovering the true ground why they perverted the whole story of his time, — namely, lest all the world should see their sin and punishment standhig so near together. But it is well that the time of our Saviour's suffering and death was affirmed even by the heathens, before either their Mishna or Talmud were born or thought of: " Abolendo rumori" (he speaks of Nero, and of his firing Rome) " subdidit reos, et qusesitissimis poenis affecit, quos, per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos appellabat. Auctor nominis ejus Christus, Tiberio imperitante, per Procuratorem Pentium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat,'' Tacit. Annal. lib. xv. cap. xliv. To return to our Jews : universally in all their old writings they have carried on a design of impugning him in his Gospel ; for as we need not their testimony, nor any thing but the Scripture, for their conviction and auToxocraxpisla, so, to acknowledge the truth, the places cited out of their Talmuds and Gemara, from the Cabalists and other Rabbins, by Martinus Raymundus, Porchetus, Galatinus, Reuchlinus, and others (setting aside Galatinus his Gale Rezeia, which must be set aside), seem[ing] to be wrested the most of them beside their intentions, as things obscurely, metaphorically, and mystically written, are easily dealt withal. Their disputes about the Messiah, when they speak of him of set purpose, as in Lib. Sanhedrim, are foolish, contradictious triflings, wherein they leave all things as uncertain as if they were wrangling in their wonted manner, " de lana caprina." So that, for my part, I am not much removed from the opinion of Hulsius (lib. i. p. 2, die. sup. de Temp. Messise), that .^sop's Fables are of as much use in Christian religion as the Judaical Talmud. Whilst they keep the Scripture, we shall never want weapons out of their own armory for their destruction. Like the Philistine, they carry the weapon that will serve to cut off their own heads. Now, the Tiberian Maso- retes, the supposed inventors of the points or vowels, and accents, which we now use, were men living after the finishing of the last Talmud, whose whole religion was built thereon.