M A S O R A. 
100 
The work regards merely the letter of the Hebrew text; 
in which they have, firlt, fixed the true reading, as well as 
the right method of writing and pronouncing, by vowels, 
paufes, and accents: they have, fecondly, numbered not 
only the chapters and feftions, but thfe verfes, words, and 
letters, of the text: and they find in the Pentateuch 524.5 
verfes, and in the whole Bible 13,206. The Mafora is 
called, by the Jews, the hedge or fence of the law, becaufe 
this enumeration of the verfes, &c. is a means of prelerving 
it from being corrupted and altered. They have, thirdly, 
mariced whatever irregularities occur in any of the letters 
of the Hebrew text; fuch as the different fize of the let¬ 
ters, their various pofitions and inverfions, &c. and they 
have been fruitful in finding out rsafons for thefe irregu¬ 
larities and myfteries in them. (See Cabbalists, vol. iii ) 
They are, fourthly, fuppofed to be the authors of the Keii 
and Chetibh, or the marginal corrections of the text in 
out Hebrew bibles. See Keri-chetib, vol. xi. 
The text of the facred books, it is to be obferved, was 
originally written without any breaks, or divifions into 
chapters or verfes, or even into words; fo that a whole 
book, in the ancient manner, was but one continued word ; 
of this kind we have (till feveral ancient manufcripts, both 
Greek and Latin. In regard, therefore, the facred writings 
had undergone an infinite number of alterations, whence 
various readings had arifen, and the original was become 
much mangled and difguifed, the jews bad recourfe to a 
canon, which they judged infallible, to fix and afcertain 
the reading of the Hebrew text ; and this rule they call 
mafora , tradition, from ")DD> tradidit, as if this critique 
were nothing but a tradition which they had received from 
their forefathers. Accordingly they fay, that, when God 
gave the law to Mofes on Mount Sinai, he taught him, 
firlf, the true reading of it, and, fecondly, its true inter¬ 
pretation ; and that both thefe were handed down by oral 
tradition, from generation to generation, till at length 
they were committed to writing. The former of thefe, 
viz. the true reading, is the fubjedt of the Mafora; the 
latter, or true interpretation, that of the Mifna aqd Ge- 
mara. See the article Jew, vol. x. p. 320. 
According to Elias Levita, they were the Jew's of a fa¬ 
mous fchool of Tiberias, about 500 years after Chriff, 
who compofed, or at lead: began, the Mafora; whence 
they are called maforites, and maforetic doctors. Aben 
Ezra makes them the authors of the points and accents 
in the Hebrew text, as we now find it; and which ferve 
for vowels. 
It is pretended by thofe who lay a great ftrefs on the 
points, that the fame word, being written with confonants 
only, as moft of the Hebre-w words are, has various figqi- 
fications, according to the vowels with which you read or 
pronounce it: e.g. the three letters “Q*T, dbr, have at 
lead five different fignifkations, viz. he fpake, fpeaking, a 
word, a peftilence, and a fold for fheep or cattle. Whilff 
the Hebrew was a living language, there is no doubt that 
the word compofed of thefe three letters was underffood 
in its different fignifications by the different vowels that 
were ufed in it when they uttered it. Such vowel-points 
the maforifes have now affixed to it, by which we may know 
when and where thefe three letters fignify one thing and 
when another. When it fignifies “he fpake,” they affix the 
points which denote a fhort and e long, and fay “TUT 
T 
daber. When it is a participle, and fignifies “ fpeaking,” 
they read by their points 1AT dobtr ; when it is a noun, 
ar.d fignifies a “ word,” they put under it two o' s fhort, 
and read m dabar ; when it fignifies a peftilence, they 
T T 
put two e’s fhort, and read *JTT debcr ; and fo they have 
done with other words. 
What lias been done, in this cafe, by the maforites, 
would certainly be of gieat ufe for underftanding the He¬ 
brew text, if they had lived while the Hebrew was a living 
language, and thefe points had been then ufcd, and we 
could have been affin ed of their knowledge of the true 
pronunciation of all words, according to their different 
fignifications; but, as the Hebrew was a dead language 
many hundred years before this time, the true ancient 
pronunciation was as much unknown then as now. We 
have St. Jerome’s tc-ltimony, that different vowels were 
ufed in the pronunciation of the fame word in different 
countries; and this was atleaft one hundred years before' 
the maforites began the invention of their points, either 
for vowel, paufe, or accent; and they were improving for 
fome centuries. It is alfo manifeft, from the LXX, that 
the ancient Jews read with different vowels from thofe 
which the maforites have affixed. This is amply evinced 
by Mafclef, in his Grammar. But, if nothing more than 
the bare pronunciation of Hebrew words was concerned 
in the cafe, the matter would not be worth the lead dif- 
pute. We know not how the ancient Greeks and Romans 
pronounced the Latin and Greek tongues. Every nation 
now gives the fame found to the Latin and Greek letters 
which they give to thofe of their own language, which 
occafions thofe languages to be differently pronounced by 
different people. However, all write and interpret them ~ 
in the fame manner ; and the difference in pronouncing or 
fpeaking is of little confequence: but the cafe is different 
with regard to the Hebrew ; moft of the words in that 
language are written without vowels ; and the queftion is, 
what vowels the words require to make the fenfe under¬ 
ffood ; not how the words are to be pronounced in fpeak¬ 
ing, when vowels are affixed to them. Therefore we fay, 
that as it appears from the LXX, that the Jews, before 
our Saviour’s time, ufed other vowels, by which they 
fpake their words, than thofe which the maforites have 
ufed ; the confequence is, that the points which the ma¬ 
forites have now affixed to every Hebrew letter, whether 
for vowel, paufe, or accent, are of little or no authority, 
and deferve not to be regarded by us; and that the true 
fenfe of an Hebrew word, written only with confonants, 
is not to be gained from the points of the Mafora, and 
the rules given concerning them, but from the context and 
conltruCtion, and the affiftan.ce of the LXX, and other - 
ancient translations. Although we cannot charge the Jews 
with wilful falfification of the Hebrew text, that is, the 
letters of their bibles, yet we cannot fay that they have 
not in lome places wilfully falfified the fenfe by their 
points, of which Mafclef gives us an inftance in his argu¬ 
ments for his New Grammar, with regard to the famous 
prophecy in Gen. xlix. The learned Mr. Johnfon of Cran- 
brook, in a pofthumous difcourfe on Daniel’s 70 weeks 
has alfo obferved how the maforites have endeavoured to 
marr that prophecy alfo, by their points; putting a flop, 
which they call an athnacn, which anfwers to our femi- 
colon, in the place where there ought to have been only 
a comma. And, as Mr. Johnfon obferves, our Englifh 
tranflators took the prefent Hebrew text as it is printed 
by the maforites, to be the only fenfe and meaning of the 
Old Teffament. In Dan.ix. 25. they put their athnach, or 
femicolon, after the feven weeks; and thus, cutting off the 
feven weeks from the threefcore and two weeks, make the 
prophecy wholly unferviceable to Chriftians; but, if they 
had placed a comma after feven weeks, and a femicolon 
after threefcore and two weeks, the number of years, viz. 
483 (69 weeks) would exattly point out the time when, 
the Chriftian Meffiah came. See Points, under which 
article this fubjett is farther difcuffed. 
The age of the maforites has been much difputed. 
Archbifhop Ulher places them before Jerome; Capel, at 
the end of the fifth century ; father Morin in the tenth 
century ; Dr. Kennicott about the year 800 ; Bafnage fays, 
that they were not a fociety, but a fucceffion of men ; and 
that the Mafora is the work of many grammarians, who, 
•without affociating and communicating their notions, 
compofed this collection of criticifms on the Hebrew 
text. It is urged, that there were maforites from the 
time of Ezra and the men of the great fyifagogue, to 
about the year of Chriff 1030; and that Ben Afcber of 
Tiberias,, 
