o81 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
Rubba, R. Chaija Bar Ba, R Jochanan, and tlie rest of the great doctors among the Tiberians, do behave themselves ; how seriously they do nothing; how childish they are in serious things; how much deceitfulness, froth, venom, smoke, nothing, in their disputations: and if you can believe the points of the Bible to proceed from such a school, believe also their Talmud s. The pointing of the Bible savours of the work of the Holy Spirit, not of wicked, blind, and mad men."
The Jews generally believe these points to have been from mount Sinai, and so downward by Moses and the prophets, at least from Ezra and his companions, the men of the great synagogue; not de- nying that the knowledge and use of them received a great reviving by the Gemarists and Masoretes, when they had been much disused. So R. Azarias at large, Imre Binah. cap. lix.
Had it been otherwise, surely men stupendously superstitious in inquiring after the traditions of their fathers would have found some footsteps of their rise and progress. It is true, there is not only the opinion, but there are the arguments, of one of them to the contrary, — namely, Elias Levita. This Elias lived in Germany about the beginning of the Reformation, and was the most learned grammarian of the Jews in that age. Sundry of the first reformers had acquaint- andfe with him. The task not only of refoi^ming religion, but also of restoring good literatm^e, being incumbent on them, they made use of such assistances as were to be obtained then to that purpose. This man (whom Thuanus takes notice of ^) lived with Paul us Fagius, and assisted him in his noble promotion of the Hebrew tongue. Hence haply it is that some of those worthies unwarily embraced his novel opinion, being either overborne with his authority, or not having leisure to search further after the truth. That the testimony of this one Elias should be able to outweigh the constant attestation of all other learned Jews to the contrary, as Capj)ellus affirms and pleads, and as is insinuated in our Prolegomena,^ is fond to imagine ; and the premises of that learned man fight against his own conclu- sion. " It is known," saith he, " that the Jews are prone to insist on every thing that makes for the honour of their people and lan- guage; and therefore their testimony to the divine original of the present punctuation, being in their own case, is not to be admitted.
I " Eodem fere tempore Palatinus abolita pontificia authoritate doctrinam Lutheri recepit, eaque de causa Paulum Fagium tabernis Rhenanis in Palatinatu natum Hie- delbcrgam evocavit. Is sub Volfgango Capitone jjerfectissimam lingua sanctre cogni- tionem adeptus, cum egestate premeretur, Petri Bustori veri locupletis Isnce in qua illo docebat senatoris liberalitate sublevatus Heliam ilium Judajorum doctissimum accer- sendum curavit, et instituta typograpliica officina maximum ad solidam rerum Hebrai- carum cognitiouem momentum attulit." — Thuanus Hist. lib. ii. ad an. 1504, p. 546.
s Proleg. 3, sect. 42.
ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW POINTS. 385
Only Ellas, who in this speaks against the common interest of his people, is presumed to speak upon conviction of truth." But the Avbole evidence in this cause is on the other side. Let us grant that all the Jews are zealous of the honour and reputation of their nation and language, as they are ; let us grant that they greedily close with evei-y thing that may seem to have a tendency thereunto: what will be the issue or natural inference from these premises? Why, as nothing could be spoken more honourably of the Jews whilst they were the church and people of God than that of Paul, that " to them were committed the oracles of God/' so nothing can be imagined or fixed on more to their honour since their divorce from God than that their doctors and masters should make such an addi- tion to the Scripture, so generally acknowledged to be unspeakably useful. And to this purpose Elias, who was the father of this opi- nion, was far from making such deductions thence as some do now- a-days,. namely, that it is lawful for us to change the vowels and accents at our pleasure, but ties all men as strictly to them as if they had been the work of Ezra. It is Elias, then, that speaks in his own case; whose testimony is, therefore, not to be admitted. What was done of old and in the days of Ezra is ours, who succeed unto the privileges of that church; what hath been done since the destruction of the temple is properly and peculiarly theirs.
It may, perhaps, be thought that by the account given of the Rabbins, their state and condition of old and of late, I might have weakened one great argument which learned men make use of to confirm the sacred antiquity of the present Hebrew punctuation, taken from the universal consent and testimony of the Jewish doc- tors, ancient and modern, this one Elias excepted. Who can think such persons are in any thing to be believed? But, indeed, the case is quite otherwise. Though we account them wholly unmeet for the work that is ascribed unto them, and, on supposition that it is theirs, affirm that it had need undergo another manner of trial than as yet, out of reverence to its generally received antiquity, it hath met withal ; yet they were mew still who were full well able to de- clare what de facto they found to be so, and what they found other- wise. It cannot, I think, be reasonably supposed that so many men, living in so many several ages, at such vast distances from one another, who, some of them, it may be, never heard of the names of other some of them, should conspire to cozen themselves and all the world besides in a matter of fact not at all to their advantage. However, for my part, whatever can be proved against them I shall willingly admit. But to be driven out of such a rich possession as is the present Hebrew punctuation, upon mere surmises and con- jectures, I cannot willingly give way or consent.