Tlie origin of the vowel-points is to be ascribed to the effort which the Jewish learned men made to pre- serve the pronunciation of their sacred language at a time when its extinction as a living tongue endangered the loss of the traditional memory of its sound. Every kind of evidence renders it probable that these signs for the pronunciation were first introduced about the 7th century of the Christian ara, that is, after the comple- tion of the Talmud, and that the minute and complex system which we possess was gradually develop?d from a few indispensable signs to its present elaborateness. The existence of the present complete system can, how- ever, be traced back to the 11th century. The skilful investigation of Hupfeld (in the Studien und Kritiken for 1830, p. 549 sq.) has proved that the vowel-points were unknown to Jerome and the Talmud; but, as far as regards the former, we are able to make a high esti- mate of the degree to which the traditionary pronunci- ation, prior to the use of the points, accorded with our Masoretic signs; for Jerome describes a pronunciation which agrees wonderfully weU with our own vocaliza- tion. We are thus called on to avail ourselves thank- fully of the JIasoretic punctuation, on the double ground that it represents the Jewish traditional pronunciation, and that the Hebrew language, luiless when read accord- ing to its laws, does not enter into its full dialectual har- mony with its SjTO-Arabian sisters. See jMassorah.
Although it may be superfluous to enforce the gener- al advantages, not to say indispensable necessity, of a sound scholarlike study of the Hebrew language to the theological student, yet it may be allo\v-able to enumer- ate some of those particular reasons, incident to the present time, which urgently demand an increased at- tention to this study. First, the English-speaking race have an ancient honorable name to retain. Selden, Castell, Lightfoot, Pocock, Walton, Spencer, and Hyde,
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HEBKEW LANGUAGE
n-ere once contemporarj- ornaments of its literature. We dailv see their names mentioned Avitli ilet'erence in the •\vritin{,'S of tierman scholars; but we are forcibly struck ■with the fact that, since that period, Great Britain has hardlv, with the exception of Lowth and Kennicott, pro- (luceii a sinijle Syro- Arabian scholar whose labors have sif,'nally advanced Biblical philology ; while America, al- tlii^miili jKisscssiiii;- some Avell-qualilied teachers, has pro- duitd but little that is original in this direction. Sec- ondly, the bold inquiries of the German theologians will force themselves on oiu: notice. It is impossible for us to ignore their existence, for the works containing them are'no^v s]icedily circidatcd among us in an English dress. These investigations are conducted in a spirit of philo- logical and historical criticism which has never yet been broiiglit to bear, with such force, on the most important l!il)li(al (incstions. The wounds which they deal to the ancient traditions cannot be healed by reference to com- mentators whose generation knew nothing of our doubts and difficulties. The cure must be sympathetic; it must be effected by the same weapon that caused the woinid. If the monstrous disproportion which books relating to ecclesiastical antiquity bear, in almost every theological bookseller's catalogue, over those relating to liililical philology, be an evidence of the degree to which these studies have fallen into neglect, and if the few books in which an acquaintance with Hebrew is neces- sary, which do appear, are a fair proof of oiu: present ability to meet the Germans with their own weapons, then there is indeed an lu-gent necessity that theological students should prepare for the increased demands of the future.
III. History of Hebrew Leai-ning.—lt is not till the closing part of the 9th century that we find, even among the .IcAvs themselves, any attempts at the fonnal study of their ancient tongue. In the Talmudic writings, in- deed, grammatical remarks frequently occur, and of these some indicate an acute and acciirate perception of the usages of the language ; but they are introduced inci- dentally, and are to be traced ratiicr to a sort of living sense of the language than to any scienlitic study of its structure or laws. What the Jews of the Talmudic pe- riod knew themselves of the Hebrew they communicated to Origen and Jerome, both of whom dcN'oted themselves with much zeal to the study of that language, and the latter of whom especially became jiroiicient in all that Ills masters could teach him concerning both its vocab- ulary and its grammar (Eusebius, llift. Kecks. ,• Jerome, A (h: Itvfiiu i, SCiS ; Kjiki. ad Damas. ; I'nff. ml Johiim, ad Piiralipom. etc. ; Carpzov, Crit. Sac. vi, § 2). As rep- resented bj' Jerome, the Church was quite on a par with the s}-nagogue in acquaintance with the language of the ancient ScrijUurcs ; but how imperfect that was in many respects may be seen from the strange etymologies, which even Jerome adduces as explanatory of words, and from his statement that from the want of vowels in llelirew " the Jews pronounce the same words with dif- ferciu. sounds and accents, ;)ro voluntale kctonim uc vu- riilalt' rcffioi/itm'" {Kp. ad Kvanf/cliim).
Stimulated by the example of the Arabians, the Jews began, towards the end of the 0th century, to bestow careful study on the grammar of their ancient tongue; and Willi Ibis advantage over the Arabian grannnariaus, that they did not, like them, contine their attention to one language, but took into account the whole of the Sheinitie tongues. An African Jew, Jidiuda ben-Karish, who lived about .\.l).HHO,led the way in tliis direction; but it was reserved for Saadia ben-Joseph of Fayuin, gaon (or spiritual head) of the Jews at Sora in Hal)y- ionia, and who died A.D. 042. to compose the lirst for- mal treatise on points of Helirew grannnar and jihilolo- gy. To him we are indebted for the Arabic version of the O. T., of which ixirtions arc still extant | see AitAuic Vi:i;sioNs] ; and thougli his other works, his commen- taries on the (). T., and his grannnatical works, have not come down to us, we know of their existence from, and have still some of their contents in, the citations of