66 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



writing in the sacred volume, and were introduced into it by the Jews after the 

 Septuagint version had made them but very slightly acquainted with the value 

 of such signs. Had they previously become more familiar with the subject, they 

 would of course have adopted at least five vowel-letters instead of tliree, and they 

 would have vocalized the whole of the text instead of only about one-fifth part of 

 it. But however imperfectly and irregularly this vocalization was made, — and 

 the very imperfection and irregularity which are observable in it, now contribute 

 to the proof of its human origin ; — still at the time of its insertion it was a most 

 providential addition to the sacred text, to preserve the true meaning of the 

 word of God; an object which in most, though by no means in all instances, it 

 has certainly effected. 



For the view of which an outline has now been laid before the Royal Irish 

 Academy, I am indebted to a strong conviction long impressed upon my mind, 

 that by that Providence which has so constantly and visibly protected the Bible, 

 means must ever have been placed within human reach of reconciling the 

 original text with its earliest and most important version ; in consequence of 

 which I was led into the frequent practice of selecting passages where they now 

 disagree in sense, and trying how, with least alteration, the Hebrew might be 

 written in such a manner as that the Greek should become its accurate transla- 

 tion.* Upon comparing what T had thus written out with the original, I found 

 that, in a very great number of instances forming a large proportion of my trials, 

 the difference produced in the Hebrew words was only in the letters Waw and 

 Yod, when used as vowel signs ; — a fact in itself sufficiently striking, but which 

 could not be accounted for, in the way that first occurred to me, by the suppo- 

 sion of an exchange of those letters having taken place in the course of successive 

 transcriptions ; because, although they are at present very like, they were quite 

 different from each other in point of shape in the more ancient Hebrew writing. 

 What, then ! suppose the letters in question, — where they now appear in the 

 unpointed text as vowel-signs ; or in the pointed text, as quiescents ; — were not 



* This mode of reconciling the Greek version with the original was first suggested to me by a 

 few attempts so made, which I found in Bythner's Li/ra Prophetica ; and I was convinced of its 

 being the right way of proceeding, by the consideration that the same groups of Hebrew letters, in 

 the unpointed text, admit of different readings, and, consequently, of different senses. Bythner was 

 prevented from making any effectual progress in this operation, by the circumstance of his taking 

 the vowel points into account, as if they formed a constituent part of the original Hebrew writing. 



