Chap. VII Of Their Writing, Masorites, and Their Work
Writing in no Nation came to its perfection on a sudden, but by degrees: The Opinions of the Ancients concerning the Authors and Inventers of letters are different. Some say727 Cadmus brought the use of letters into Greece: others say,728 Palamedes: some say,729 Radamanthus brought them into Assyria: Memnon into Egypt: Hercules into Phrygia: and Carmenta into Latium. Likewise some say the Phœnicians had first the knowledge and use of letters.
Phœnices primi (famæ si credimus) ausi
Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris.
Lucan.
Others say the Ethiopians:730 others the Assyrians.731 But upon better grounds it is thought,732 that Moses first taught the use of letters to the Jews, and that the Phœnicians learned them from the Jews, and the Grecians from the Phœnicians.
In like manner, the matter upon which men wrote, in ruder times was different. Some wrote on rinds of trees, whence Liber, signifying originally a rinde of a tree, is now used for a book:733 some wrote on tile-stone with a bone instead of a pen; some on Tables; this last was chiefly in use among the Jews, the Decalogue was was written in two tables. Again, write these things upon a table, Esay. 30. 8. ἐπὶ πυξίου, saith the Septuagint, as if the writing-tables at that time were made of Box-trees. They used not then pens or quills, but a certain instrument or punch, made of Iron or Steel, called Stylus, it was sharp at one end, for the more convenient indenting or carving of the characters, and broad at the other, for the scraping or blotting out what had been written: whence sprang that Proverbial speech:734 Invertere stylum, to unsay what he had said, or to blot out what he hath written: Scribe stilo hominis: write with the pen of man, Esay. 8. 1. Afterward before they came to bind up books in manner as now we have them, they wrote in a roll of Paper or Parchment, which sometimes was ten cubits broad, and twenty long, Zac. 5. 2. This they called מגלה Megilla, in Hebrew, from Galal, to roll, Volumen in Latine, in English a volumn, from volvo, to roll. In the volumn of the book it is written, Psal. 40. 7. And Christ closing the Book, gave it to the Minister, Luk. 4. 20. the word is πτύξας, complicans folding, or rolling it up: and vers. 17. ἀναπτύξας, explicans, unfolding, or opening it.735 These volumns were written not with one entire continued writing, but the writing was distinguished into many spaces, columns or platforms, like unto so many Areæ: these platforms, filled with writing, were instead of so many pages in a book: and thus we are to understand that Jer. 36. 23. When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a pen-knife, &c. These leaves were nothing else but such spaces, and platforms in the roll. After this manner the Jews reserve the Law written in such rolls, and with such spaces, in their Synagogues at this day.
It is much controversed, whether the Jews did from the beginning write with vowels and accents, or whether they were added by the Masorites; for the understanding of which, it will be needful, First, to enquire who the Masorites were: Secondly, what their work was; and then to deliver in a proposition what may be probably thought in this point.
First, concerning the Masorites, we are to know that מסר Masar signifieth tradere, to deliver, and Masor a tradition, delivered from hand to hand to posterity without writing, as the Pythagoreans and Druides were wont to do; but by the figure Synecdoche, it signifieth those critical notes or Scholion, written in the margine of the Bible, and those that were the Authors of those critical observations were termed Masoritæ, Masorites. Concerning these Authors, who they were there are two opinions. Some736 think that they were certain learned Jews living in the City Tiberias, they termed them Sapientes Tiberiadis, the wise men of Tiberias. These wise men are thought to have added these marginal notes unto the Hebrew Bibles737 some time after the finishing of the Babylon Talmud, which was about the year of our Lord, 506. This opinion is unlikely for these two reasons. 1.738 Because we cannot find in Histories, the continuance of any Colledg or School in Tiberias so long, but rather that degrees in learning ceased there within four hundred years after our Saviour his birth. 2.739 In both Talmuds mention is made of the Masora, and the things contained therein. Others therefore more probably say,740 that the Masorites were that Ecclesiastical Senate or Council held by Esra, Haggai, Zachary, Malachi, and divers others assembled for the reformation of the Church after their return from Babylon; they are called Viri Synagogæ magnæ. This Council continued at least forty years: for Simeon the just, who went out in his Priestly robes, to meet and pacifie Alexander the Great, coming in hostile manner against Jerusalem,741 was the last of that Council, and that was above three hundred years before the birth of our Saviour. Esra was the President or Chief of this Council; he was of such repute among the Jews, that they parallel’d him with Moses, saying,742 Dignus erat Esra, quod data fuisset lex per manus ejus Israeli, si non præcessisset eum Moses.
In the second place we are to consider the work, what the men of this great Synagogue, being the true Masorites, did: their work may be reduced to these particulars. 1. When this great Council was assembled, they, among whom Ezra was chief (who was assisted with the inspiration of Gods Spirit)743 determined what Books were Canonical, what spurious and Apocryphal. Secondly,744 the authentick and Canonical Books, were purged by them, of all errors crept into the Text in time of their captivity. Thirdly,745 they digested the Old Testament into twenty two books, according to the number of the Hebrew letters. Fourthly, they distinguisht it into great Sections and Verses; for though the Law was not so confusedly written, without any space or note of distinction between word and word that it seemed all one continued verse, or as the Kabbalists speak, תיבה אחת Theba achath, one word, until the time of the Masorites; yet it was not so distinguisht into Sections and Verses, as now we have it. Fifthly, they added their censures and critical observations, concerning the irregularity of many words, in respect of the vowels and accents. Sixthly, they numbered the verses, words, and letters of every Book, to prevent all possibility of corrupting the Text in future times; for now they say, the gift of Prophesie should cease. Lastly, they noted the different writing, and different reading, for the understanding of which we must know, that in the Hebrew Text many words are written with more, many with fewer letters, than they are pronounced; many words written in the Text which are not pronounced, &c.746 In the margin the difference is expressed: whence the difference in the Text they term כתב Cethib, Scriptionem, the writing; the difference in the margin they term קרי Keri, Lectionem, the Reading: because they do read according to that in the margin. This difference is thought by some747 to be a correction of the Bible, according to several copies after their return from Babylon: but, that it is of Divine Authority, containing many mysteries known to Moses, and the Prophets successively (though many of them unknown to our Age) and that it was not any correction, but the difference it self primarily and purposely was intended by the Prophets, and holy Penmen of the Scripture, evidently appeareth by the diversity of readings in those books which were written by Haggai, Zachary, Malachi, Daniel, and Esra: They being the Authors of their own books, needed no correction at that time, themselves being present, yet in them this different reading is used.
In the third place, the Proposition followeth; namely, Seeing that the Masorites passed their censure on many words for their irregularity in their vowels and accents; therefore, the vowels originally were not from the Masorites, but of the same antiquity with their words; and in truth, otherwise they had been a body or carkass without a soul.
Notes
727 Plin. l. 7. c. 56. Diodor. Sicul. l. 6. c. 5.
728 Servius. lib. 2. Æneid.
729 Alex. Genial. l. 1. c. 30.
730 Diodor. Sicul. l. 4.
731 Plin. l. 7. c. 56.
732 Euseb. præpar. Evang. lib. 18.
733 Diogen. Laert. in vitæ Cleanthis.
734 Erasm. in Adag.
735 Buxtorf. institut. epist. p. 4.
736 Aben Esra vid. Buxt. commen. Masor. c. 3.
737 Elias Levita in præfat. tertia l. Masoreth hammasoreth.
738 Buxtorf. in comment. Masor. c. 7.
739 Buxtorf. in comment. Masor. c. 8.
740 R. Asarias. R. Gedalia. Buxtor. in comment. Masor. c. 11.
741 Pirke Aboth. c. 1.
742 Talmud. Sanhedrim. c. 2. fol. 21.
743 Buxtorf. in comment. Masor. c. 11.
744 Tertull. l. de habit. muliebr. Chrysost. hom. 8. ad Hebræos. Irenæus adver. hæres. lib. 3. c. 25. August. de mirab. sacræ, script. l. 2. circa finem.
745 Genebrard. l. 2. Chronolog.
746 Sunt octo voces quæ scriptæ sunt in textu, sed non leguntur quas adducit. Masora, Ruth. 3. 12.
747 Contra hos disputat Elias Levita in præfat. 3. l. masoreth hammasoreth.