Letters

LETTERS. The Hebrews have two and twenty Letters, the Names, Figure, Pronunciation and numerical Valuation whereof are here set down.

1.אAleph. A. 1. 2.בBeth. B. 2. 3.גGimel. Gh. 3. 4.דDaleth. Dh. 4. 5.הHe. H. 5. 6.וVau. V. 6. 7.זSain. S. 7. 8.חCheth. Ch. 8. 9.טTeth. T. 9. 10.יJod. I. 10. 11.כCaph. C. 20. 12.לLamed. L. 30. 13.מMem. M. 40. 14.נNun. N. 50. 15.סSamech. S. 60. 16.עHain. Ha. gn. or ng. 70. 17.פPe. Ph. or P. 80. 18.צTzade. Tz. 90. 19.קKoph. K. 100. 20.רResch. Rh. 200. 21.שSchin, or Sin; Sch, or Sc. 300. 22.תThaugh. T. 400. We do not know who was the first Inventor of Letters and Writing. All agree that it is an admirable and divine Art¹. To paint Speech, and speak to the Eyes, and by tracing out Characters in different Forms to give Colour and Body to Thoughts.

Some have been of Opinion, that they always were in Use, and that God when he inspired Man with Reason and the Use of Speech, communicated to him likewise the Secret of expressing his Thoughts in Writing. Joseph. Antiq.We know what Josephus says of certain Columns erected before the Deluge by the Sons of Seth, upon which they had written their astronomical Observations and Inventions. Adam and Enoch by some have been reputed Authors of certain Books, they supposed consequently that they had the Use of Writing. The Work attributed by the Sabians to Adam is still in Being at this Day: The Character of it is said to be very extraordinary. As to that of Enoch, we have only some Fragments of it, which are of a Greek Translation, or rather taken from the Original itself: For no one believes that it was ever written in any other Language, or that it is any other than the Work of some Impostor.

Others maintain, that the Use of Letters is much more modern: Some give the Honour of them to Abraham; others to Moses, others to the Phœnicians, others to Saturn, and others again to the Egyptians. Others argue more rationally, and divide the Honour of this Invention among several Persons, and acknowledge that it began among the Eastern People, and much later among those in the West; that some invented, and others only perfected this Invention: That the Use of Letters in the Beginning was uncommon and imperfect, that the Figure of them was irregular and long a forming, that afterwards they were perfected, and the Use of them rendered more easy and common.

Crinitus says, that Moses invented the Hebrew Letters; Abraham the Syriac and Chaldee; the Phœnicians theirs, which they communicated to the Greeks, who carried them into Italy; Nicostratus those of the Latins, Isis the Egyptian, Ulphila those of the Goths.

But all this is probably affirmed at Random by this Author; for it is certain beyond Question, that the Hebrew and Phœnician Letters were anciently the same, or differed very little from one another. The Greek and Latin Letters are no new Invention; the Greek are taken from the Phœnician, and the Latin from the Greek. The Writing made Use of by Ulphila is taken from the Greek or Latin.

As to the Egyptian Writing, we are assured that in the Beginning it was nothing but Hieroglyphicks, or Figures of Animals, and other Things engraven upon Stone, or painted upon Wood, by the Help whereof the Egyptians preserved the Memory of great Events. This Way of Writing is perhaps the most ancient in the World. We still see many Monuments of it upon the Obelisks and Marbles which come from Egypt. Marsham² is of Opinion, that this Way of Writing was invented by the second King of Memphis, who is no other than Thautk, whom the Greeks call the first Mercury; another Thauth, or second Mercury, put what the first had written in Hieroglyphick Letters into common Characters. All which was performed in Times of the most remote Antiquity, if it be true that Menes the first King of Memphis, was no other than Ham the Son of Noah.

Lucan affirms, that the Phœnicians invented the common Letters at a Time when the Egyptians were not as yet acquainted with the Use of Paper, and knew nothing of the Art of Writing in Hieroglyphical Characters.

Phœnices primi, famæ si creditur, ausi Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris. Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere biblos Noverat, & laxis tantum volucresque feræque Sculptaque servabant magicas animalia linguas.

It was probably therefore in Imitation of the Phœnicians, that the Egyptians began to use Letters in their Writing. We cannot be certain that the Egyptians borrowed them from the Phœnicians or Canaanites their Neighbours; but two Things we know certainly, first that there was a great Resemblance in the ancient Characters of these two People ¹; and secondly, that Moses, who was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians, and brought up from his Youth in their Countrey, wrote his Books and Laws in Phœnician Characters. The old Egyptian Letters are at present entirely unknown to us, though there are many Monuments of them remaining. These People lost the Use of their Writing under the Dominion of the Greeks, and the Coptic or modern Egyptian Character is formed from the Greek.

As to the Phœnicians, they spread the Use of their Letters throughout all their Colonies. Cadmus carried them into Greece, and the Greeks perfected them, and added some to them. They communicated them to the Latins, and after the Conquests of Alexander procured them to be received even in Egypt, and over all Syria: So that the Phœnician Writing, which is so ancient, and the Parent of so many others, would at this Day be entirely forgotten, was it not for the Samaritans, who have preserved the Pentateuch of Moses, written in the old Canaanite or Hebrew Character, by the Help whereof Medals, and the small Remains of Phœnician Monuments, have been deciphered.

What I have said of the old Characters of the Samaritan Pentateuch, is not assented to by all the World. Some learned Men, such as Postellus, Buxtorf the Son, and certain Talmudist Doctors maintain, that the square Hebrew Character, which the Jews use at this Day, is the very same with that made Use of by Moses. Others in greater Number, such as Origen, Eusebius of Cesaræa, Saint Jerom, Bede, Genebrard, Bellarmin, many of the Rabbins, and the most learned of the Criticks pretend, that the Jews laid aside their old Characters at their Return from the Captivity of Babylon, and substituted the Chaldee Letters in their Room, which are those used at this Day by them; while the Samaritans preserved their Pentateuch written in old Hebrew, or Phœnician Characters. Lastly, some other Men of Learning, such as Rabbi Azarias, Abdias de Bartenora, Postellus, Buxtorf, Conringhius, and Father Sghambati, distinguished two Sorts of Characters among the old Hebrews, civil and sacred. The civil is that of the Samaritans, the sacred that of the Jews; but this Distinction of two Sorts of Letters is chimerical, and there can be no Proof produced for it.

It is generally said, that the Hebrews have no Vowels, and that to supply the Want of them, they invented the Vowel Points, sometimes made Use of by them in their Books. But it is certain that they have Vowels as well as other People, tho’ they do not always express them in their Writing; and that the Sound, Powers, and Quantity of these Vowels are not always the same, as it happens likewise in other Languages. Aleph, Vau, Jod and Hain are Vowels; He is nothing but an Aspiration. The Vowel Points are modern, and the Invention of the Masorets. They were not invented till the Middle of the ninth Age, or about the Beginning of the tenth. The Honour of them is ascribed principally to the Rabbins Asher and Nephtali, who lived at that Time³. The Vowel Points are ten in Number, and express the five Vowels according to all their different Changes and Pronunciations. The Reader may see F. Morinus’s Exercitations, Walton’s Prolegomena, and many other Works which have been written on this Matter.

The Hebrews have certain Acrostick Verses, which begin with Letters ranged in alphabetical Order: They may be called likewise alphabetical, as if they had been composed with a Design of teaching Children their Alphabet, and the Order of their Letters with Respect to one another. The most considerable Work of this Kind is the cxix Psalm, which contains two and twenty Stanzas of eight Verses, all Acrosticks; so that the eight first begin with Aleph, the next eight with Beth, and so on. Other Psalms, as the twenty fifth and thirty third, have but two and twenty Verses, beginning with the two and twenty Letters of the Alphabet. Others, as the Hundred and eleventh, and the Hundred and twelfth, have one half of the Verse only beginning with one Letter, and the other half with another. Thus in Blessed is the Man who feareth the Lord, who delighteth greatly in his Commandments. The first half of the Verse begins with Aleph, and the second with Beth. The Lamentations of Jeremiah are likewise in Acrostick Verse, as well as the xxxi Ch. of Proverbs⁴, beginning at the eighth Verse, and so on to the End.

The Jews make Use of their Characters not only for Writing, but likewise for numbring in like Manner as the Greeks, who in their arithmetical Supputations fix a numerical Value on the Letters of their Alphabet. But I do not believe the ancient Hebrews did so, nor that the Letters were among them Numerical. I see no Evidence for this in Scripture. The sacred Authors always write the Numbers intire and without Abbreviation. I know some learned Men have attempted to rectify Dates, or supply Years, upon a Supposition that the Letters served for Cyphers in the Text of Scripture; but it was incumbent on them first, to prove that the ancient Hebrews, as the present Jews now do, observed the same Custom.

Saint John in the Revelations speaks of Rev. xiii. 17, 18, &c.the Mark of the Beast, and the Cypher of his Name, which makes the Sum of six hundred sixty six. Many have thought, that the Cypher was to be sought for in the Hebrew Language, and upon this Supposition some have attempted to explain it. But it is much more credible, that as Saint John wrote in Greek, he would have set down the Numerical Value of the Greek Letters, comprizing his Name whom he points out by that of Beast; or that intending to describe some Roman Emperor, who was to be a Persecutor of the Church, he designed that we should look for the Number 666, in the Numerical Letters which compose his Name and Qualities.

The cabalistical Doctors have refined much upon the Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. Other Rabbins, though more serious than the Cabalists, have likewise found some Mystery in certain Letters of the Hebrew Text, some whereof are turned topsy turvy, others suspended, others closed; all which according to these Doctors is mysterious, and deserves particular Consideration; but whether this is done designedly or by Chance, we may affirm, that the Letters in themselves, taken separately from the Word which they compose, have no Sense, and include no Mystery; and if any have a Mind to refine upon the Order and Form of them, and discover some edifying Morality in them, or, if they please, Mystery, let them, provided they don’t pretend to make Use of these Ideas or Reflexions as Proofs of any Thing. At most they can but serve for the Edification of simple People, or to confirm the Minds of those who are convinced already of the Truths which they shall find in these Combinations of Letters. Our Saviour in the Gospel says, That not one Jot or one Tittle of the Matth. v.

18. Law shall pass away till all be fulfilled:

Hieronym. But this is a proverbial Way of Speaking, that all whatsoever is written shall, without Exception, be accomplished. The same Thing may be said of these Words of Saint Jerom. Quæ minima putantur in lege Domini, plena sunt Sacramentis As to the Extravagancies of the Cabalists, I shall not amuse my self either with reporting them here, or refuting them; they are not worth the Trouble. See M. Basnage Hist. des Juifs. Tom. vi. l. ix. c. 8. and ch. 20, 21, and 23.

Testam. xii. Patriarch.Some of the Ancients have spoken of the Book of Heaven, legi in tabulis cæli, and the Letters which were there as it were ingraved, by the Help whereof they who understood it, discovered what was to come, and saw into Mysteries that were ineffable. Picus of Mirandula⁵, who had studied the Cabalists very much, said, that as the Astrologers saw certain Images in Heaven, from whence they drew their Consequences, so the Jewish Masters have their Alphabet in Heaven, and maintain, that they find there the Elements and Characters of their Language. Agrippa⁶ affirms the same Thing, and Gaffarel⁷ adds the Authority of many celebrated Rabbins to their Testimony, such as Maimonides, Nachman, Aben -ezra, Kimchi, Abravanel.

Postellus is more positive, for he says he has made the Experiment. Perhaps, says he, I may pass for an Impostor, if I affirm, that I have read in the Heavens in Hebrew Characters, whereof Ezra left the Key, whatsoever there is in Nature; nevertheless God and his Son are my Witnesses that I do not lye; I will only add that I so read it implicitely only. Now I do not at all question but a prejudiced Person, whose Imagination is struck powerfully, may read what he pleases, and in what Characters he pleases in the Heavens and in the Stars. To support such a whimsical Opinion, these Doctors misapply the following Words of Scripture, Psalm xix. 1, 5. The Heavens declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work: Their Sound is gone out into all Lands, &c. But it is to no Purpose to insist longer on this Matter. See Basnage Hist. des Juifs. T. vi. l. ix. c. 22. The Letter contrary to the Spirit. A Way of Speaking which is to be met with in Saint Rom. ii. 27, 29. vii. 6. 2. Cor. iii. 6, 7.Paul’s Epistles, and very common in the Ecclesiastical Style. God hath made us Ministers of the new Testament, not by the Letter, but by the Spirit: For the Letter killeth, but the Spirit quickeneth. That is to say, the Law of Moses literally observed, is not capable of giving Life to the Soul, and justifying those before God who continue servilely addicted to the literal Observances of it. To obtain Righteousness we must join the Spirit with it, and Faith, Hope and Charity; or supply what is deficient in these literal Observances, with spiritual Actions of a more sublime, perfect and excellent Nature; for Example, bloody Sacrifices, with the Sacrifice of an humble and contrite Heart, with the Mortification of our Passions, with Death unto Sin and Vice, &c.

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