Points

POINTS, or Vowels. Though the Hebrews in their Alphabet have both Vowels¹ and Consonants, like other Nations, yet it is true, however, that in writing they do not always place their Vowels with the Consonants. Sometimes the Vowels that are inserted are not pronounced; or lastly, these Vowels having sometimes one Sound and sometimes another, being sometimes long and sometimes short; it is very difficult to those that have not been long acquainted with the Hebrew Tongue, to read rightly the Books written in Hebrew. ‘Twas Five long.

If we have Recourse to the Rabbins, and to some Hebrew Grammarians among the Christians, concerning the Antiquity of these Points, we must believe them as antient as the Hebrew Scriptures themselves, and must derive their Original from Moses, or from Esdras, or from the Antients of the great Synagogue, who lived in the Time of Esdras and of Nehemiah. a But the most Judicious believe this Invention to be much more modern. Some² refer their Original to the Massorites, or to the Doctors of the School of Tiberias, who lived about the 500th Year of Jesus Christ. F. Morinus thinks, that it was from the Arabians that the Hebrews received both the Art of Grammar, and also the Use of these Points. But the Arabians themselves did not begin to write but very late; for when the Empire of the Mahometans was settled, about the Year 622, they had not had the Use of Letters very long. The Names of these pointed Vowels, which are entirely Arabick, are a Proof that they were originally dirived from these People. Besides, the first Grammarians that the Jews had, being Arabians, and having writ in their own Language, it is very probable, that the pointed Vowels are of their Invention, and proceed from the same Source from whence their Art of Grammar is derived.

F. Morin, who has examin’d this whole Matter to the Bottom, as to what concerns the Antiquity of the pointed Vowels, shews that they were not yet invented in the Time of Origen, nor in the Time of St. Jerome, nor even in the Time of the Doctors that composed the Talmud, which was not finish’d but in the Seventh Century. this Difficulty that gave Occasion to the Invention and Use of the pointed Vowels, which are certain Points placed below or above the Consonants, which supply the Place of Vowels, when they are wanting, or which determine their Sound, Quantity, and Value, when they are present.

The Grammarians reckon fourteen pointed Vowels, viz.

Five short.

Four very short.

The same Author running over the several Works that were composed by the Jews in the eighth and ninth Ages; the first Footsteps that he meets with of the pointed Vowels are in the Writings of the Rabbins Ben-aser, Head of the School of the Western Jews, and in those of Ben-nephtali, Head of the School of the Eastern Jews, who lived about the Year 940, or about the Middle of the tenth Century. It follows then, that we cannot well place the Introduction of the Points before the Middle of the tenth Century. See Morin. Exercit. Biblic. l. 2. Exer. 28. c. 1, 2, 3, &c. Walton’s Proleg. 3. n. 38, &c. and the other Writers who have composed Prolegomena to the Scriptures; as M. Du Pin, F. Frassen, and F. Thomassin, in his Method of studying the Scripture.

The modern Jews admit indeed of the pointed Vowels, and of Bibles printed with these Points, for ordinary Use; but the Books they publickly make use of in their Synagogues, the authentick Rolls from which they solemnly read the sacred Text, are still without Points. As at the Beginning the Samaritans also did not put any Points in their Pentateuch, which was written in the antient Hebrew Characters. The Scrupulosity of each of these in this respect, is a Proof of the Novelty of the pointed Vowels.

It had been thought, that Esdras had inserted the pointed Vowels in the Hebrew, ‘till the Time of Elias Levita, a German Jew, who about the Middle of the sixteenth Century wrote against this Opinion, and maintain’d, that the pointed Vowels were not receiv’d ‘till after the Compleating of the Thalmud, about the Year of³ Christ 500; that ‘till that Time the Manner of reading the sacred Text, and of supplying the Vowels therein, was only preserved by Tradition. All the Jews in general, as well those who referr’d the Points to Esdras, as those who ascrib’d them to the Massorites, maintain, that the manner of reading, according to this Punctuation, is of divine Authority, and that it may not be allow’d to make the least Alteration therein. But the greatest part of our Criticks, even of those that hold Esdras for the first Author of the Points, maintain it to be a mere human Invention, and that no Scruple should be made of mending it, when the Tenour of the Discourse, the Analogy of Things, or the Rules of good Criticism can offer a better Sense.

These are the chief Reasons urged by the two Buxtorfs, Father and Son,⁴ to prove the Antiquity of the pointed Vowels. First, two antient Books call’d Bahir and Zohar, the first of which was written a little before the Birth of Jesus Christ, and the second a little after, which expressly mention the pointed Vowels in more Places than one. Secondly, the Massorites of Tiberias, to whom the Invention of the Points is ascribed, do not appear to have had sufficient Capacity for this Work, nor does any antient Author impute it to them. Abenezra, a Rabbin of the twelfth Age, is the first who does them this Honour. Thirdly, that since the Hebrew has ceas’d to be the vulgar Tongue of the Jews, that is, since the Captivity of Babylon, it was not possible to teach this Language without the Assistance of the pointed Vowels; therefore at least they must have been in being since Esdras, and have always been in use from that Time. Fourthly, by subverting the Authority of the pointed Vowels, and putting them upon the Footing of an Invention merely human, the Text will be given up to uncertain Reading and arbitrary Explications, which will overturn the Certainty and Authority of the Holy Scriptures.

But to these Reasons we may thus reply: First, that the Books Bahir and Zohar have nothing near that Antiquity that has been imputed to them. There are even found Things in these Books, that must have been written above a thousand Years since that Time, at which they are pretended to be written. No antient Author has either own’d them or quoted them. Secondly, the Massorites of Tiberias were certainly in being a long Time in Judea; and abstracting from the Notion that has been received of their Capacity, and from the Testimony of Aben-ezra and of Elias Levita, it is known with great Certainty, that the pointed Vowels were not found out before their Time.

Thirdly, that since the Hebrew Tongue has ceas’d to be a living Language, and spoke by the Jews, the Necessity of the pointed Vowels is not so great as is pretended. The Samaritans, who understand Hebrew no better than the Jews, have no Points to this Day; yet they read the Hebrew Text in Samaritan Characters. The Arabians had Points but late. One might very well be without them in their Language, as also in the Hebrew, the Syriack, and the Chaldee, even on Supposition that these were not living Languages, provided we preserve the antient Character, provided we speak a Language that has some Affinity to those whose Character we preserve, and lastly, that this Language, dead as it is, may however subsist in the Ecclesiastical Offices, in the Prayers, and even in an infinite Number of Terms written in the Language of Commerce and Conversation. Upon this Supposition, which is really the Case in which the Jews are at present, in respect of the Hebrew, the Difficulty of reading the Hebrew without Points is vastly less than one would imagine. We certainly know that many Jews, who are far from knowing this Language to Perfection, yet, however, can read Hebrew without Points, and even write it too. This is enough to prove, whatever may be said to the contrary, that they might have done well enough without Points, for several Ages, and that we might still do well enough without them. Add to this, that the Hebrew Tongue is not absolutely destitute of Vowels; it has three or four, viz. Aleph, Jod, Vau, and Hain; He and Cheth are Aspirations. These Letters and these Aspirations are every where to be found in the Text. One Vowel alone is sufficient for the reading a whole Word. To judge of the Force of these Reasons, it is necessary to understand the Language.

The fourth Proof relating to the Authority of these pointed Vowels has but an indirect Glance to their Antiquity; and it is easy to retort the Argument against those that use it, by applying it to the Greek and Latin Tongues, which have always had Vowels. Without meddling with the Vowels, cannot one often take the same Passage in ten different Senses, and that without changing any thing in the Words, or Accents, or Punctuation, only by altering the Order and Structure of the Words? Can this be said to give up the sacred Text to an uncertain Reading, and to arbitrary Explications? Is there any Language in the World, in which one does not often happen upon equivocal Expressions, Am Gen. iv. 19.phibologies, and Uncertainties, and that notwithstanding Points, Accents, and Vowels? I own that the Hebrew without Points is more subject to this than any other Language; but Tradition, good Sense, the Coherence of the Discourse, Custom, supply Rules to correct these pretended Inconveniencies. And what would be the Event, if we were always obliged servilely to follow the Punctuation of the Massorites? How many Passages have been happily restored, or explain’d, by having Recourse to antient Versions, and by quitting the Manner of Reading assign’d by the Massorites?

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