[7] 



made the question as to the antiquity of the points of so much im- 

 portance, and has, consequently, had such elaborate treatment. Some 

 have pretended that these points are as ancient as the Hebrew tongue, 

 and that Abraham made use of them. Others make Moses the author 

 of them. But the most common opinion among the Jews is that, Moses 

 having learnt of God the true pronunciation of Hebrew words, this 

 science was preserved in the synagogue by oral tradition till the time of 

 Ezra, who invented the points and accents to fix the meaning. Elias 

 Levita, a German Jew of the last generation, and deeply learned in 

 Hebrew grammar, has rejected this opinion, and contended that the 

 invention of points took place in much more recent times. He ascribes 

 the invention to the Jews of Tiberias and to the year 500 A.D., and 

 alleges that the invention was not perfected till about the year 1040 A.D., 

 by two famous Maserites, Ben-Ascher and Ben-Naphtali." 



Hear, also, what the learned and pious Dr. Prideaux says : " The 

 sacred books made use of among the Jews in their synagogues have 

 ever been, and still are, without the vowel-points, which could not have 

 happened had they been placed there by Ezra, and had, consequently, 

 been of the same authority with the letters ; for, had they been so, they 

 would certainly have been preserved in the synagogues with the same 

 care as the rest of the text." He then goes on to say that no mention 

 is made of the points in either the Mishna or Gemara, and continues : 

 " Neither do we find the least hint of them in Philo-Judseus or Josephus, 

 who are the oldest writers of the Jews, or in any of the ancient Chris- 

 tian writers for several hundred years after Christ. And, although 

 among them Origen and Jerome were well skilled in the Hebrew 

 language, yet in none of their writings do they speak the least of them. 

 Origen flourished in the third, and Jerome in the fifth, century ; and 

 the latter, having lived a long while in Judaea, and there more especially 

 applied himself to the study of the Hebrew learning, and much con- 

 versed with the Jewish rabbis for his improvement herein, it is not 

 likely that he could have missed making some mention of them through 

 all his voluminous works, if they had been either in being among the 

 Jews in his time, or in any credit or authority with them, and that 

 especially since, in his commentaries, there were so many necessary 

 occasions for taking notice of them." The Doctor then declares that 

 after the Babylonish Captivity " the Hebrew language ceased to be the 

 mother tongue of the Jews," Aramsen, as we know, being the dialect of 

 Judaea at the time of Herod. 



We may, then, safely fix the date of our earliest Hebrew MS. at a 

 later period than 1000 A.D., for there does not exist one single ante- 

 Masoretic or unpointed Hebrew MS. of the Bible. The Greek Septua 



