56 Oriental Literature. 



studied through the learned world in general, dur- 

 ing the last age, than in some preceding periods; 

 yet several events took place, and a number of im- 

 portant publications were made respecting it, 

 which it would be improper to omit in the most 

 rapid survey of oriental learning.™ 



The controversy respecting the Vowel- Points* 

 which was begun in the sixteenth century, by 

 Elias Levita, a learned Jew, and which was 

 pursued with so much zeal and learning, in the 

 seventeenth, by the Buxtorfs, Capellus, "Wal- 

 ton, and others, was continued in the eighteenth, 

 and gave rise to much interesting discussion. Early 

 in the century M. Masclef, a Canon of Amiens, 

 published his grammar, in which he undertook to 

 teach the Hebrew language without points/ He 

 Vvas opposed by Guarinus, a Benedictine of 

 France, with great learning and warmth; but de- 

 fended by his countrymen, the famous Father 

 Charles Francis Houbigant, M. De la Blet- 

 terie, and others. The system of Masclef ob- 



tu For a number of the facts and names mentioned in these paragraphs 

 on Hebrew literature, the author is indebted to his venerable friend, the 

 Rev. Dr. Kunze, senior of the Lutheran Clergy in the State of New-York, 

 and late professor of Oriental Languages in Columbia College. The va- 

 rious acquirements of this gentleman, and particularly his oriental learning, 

 have long rendered him an ornament of the American republic of letters. 

 He has probably done more than any individual now living to promote a 

 taste for Hebrew literature among those intended for the clerical profession 

 in the United States. And though his exertions have not been attended 

 with all the success that could have been wished, owing to the want of 

 that countenance from the public and from individuals which is necessary; 

 yet he is doubtless entitled to the character of a benefactor of the American 

 churches. 



x The great questions concerning the Hebrew Points respect their anti- 

 quity and importance. The first question is, whether they were invented by 

 the Masorites, a set of learned Jews, who are supposed to have lived about 

 the fifth century after Christ, and who are said, by the addition of votvels 

 and accents to have fixed the true reading of the sacred text; or whether 

 these vowels were employed by those who first wrote the Hebrew lan- 

 guage, and of course made a part of the original writing of the scriptures? 

 The second question has a respect to the utility and importance of the points ; 

 cr how far they are necessary and useful? 



y Grammatisa Hsbraa, a punciis aliisque Masorethicis invent is libera, 1716. 



