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The Masoretic Punctuation, also, may be considered as a part of the traditionary interpretation; and, as it "has been added to the text," as the learned Prideaux remarks, "by the best care of those who best understood the language," it is not to be deserted hastily, or upon light grounds.*

A knowledge of the Hebrew tongue has always been continued among the Jews, handed down by regular tradition. In some instances, undoubtedly, their authority is very suspicious, in consequence of their hostile feeling towards Christianity; but these instances are rare, and, notwithstanding the accusations of the ancient Fathers, and some moderns, it has never been proved, that they have adulterated a single passage. Their profound reverence for the sacred Books and the sacred language would certainly guard them against wilful perversion of either, when their invincible prejudices did not interfere: why, then, should we hesitate to believe that their knowledge of Hebrew has, in general, been faithfully preserved? Their attention must have been directed to its cultivation, in every period of their history, from the time it ceased

Connexions, par. 1, lib. v. See Lowth's Prel. Diss. to Isaiah, p. 71, ed. 8vo.

to be a living language. At their return from the Babylonish captivity, and reestablishment in the Holy Land, necessity even would impel them to consult the divine Oracles, the only authentic records both of their religion and civil polity. The natural consequence must have been the cultivation of the language in which they are written; and they had abundant facilities in the study of it, since many survived with whom it was the vernacular language; and the inspired teachers, whom God raised up among them, would, without doubt, promote the knowledge of it, and provide the means of transmitting it to posterity. A deep-rooted attachment to the institutions of their fathers, the rise of contending sects, and the still increasing expectation of the promised Messiah, would be instrumental, by exciting inquiry, to the continuance of it unimpaired to the birth of Christ. After that event, the constant disputes of the Jews with the primitive Christians must have led to an accurate examination of their sacred Books, and the great care they subsequently took to preserve the genuine text and true interpretation of the Scriptures is sufficiently attested by the Masora.

It is clear, then, that the Rabbins, in every age from the Babylonish captivity, have used their best

endeavours to preserve the knowledge of the Hebrew language; yet it is impossible, in the nature of things, that it should have descended perfectly pure and untainted for so long a period; especially considering the situation of the Jews, broken with the bitterest persecutions that bigotry and despotism could exercise; exiled from Palestine, to which every Jew still fondly turns his hopes, and dispersed over the face of the globe, and every where treated as the outcasts of society, with contempt, and ignominy, and unrelenting severity. Errors and mistakes were the unavoidable consequence of such a wretched and persecuted state; the attention must often have been diverted from the cultivation of their language to the contemplation of their sufferings; the meaning of some words of less frequent use must gradually have been forgotten; new and foreign ideas must, by their dispersion in foreign lands, have been ingrafted upon others; and such as had a particular reference to the soil and climate, the animal and vegetable productions of Judæa, would become obscure, and, at length, in many cases, unknown, by long absence from their native country. The truth of these observations is confirmed by the discordance among the Rabbins, by reason of which it is sometimes no easy task to discover what the traditionary interpretation really is.

It may, perhaps, be alleged against the authority of the Jews, that the Rabbins learned both their grammar and the explication of a great many words from the Arabians; and thus their interpretation is not to be considered as wholly traditionary, but as taken, in some measure, from the Arabic language. Some assistance, it is readily granted, the Rabbins derived from the Arabic as well as from the Aramæan tongues; a circumstance so far from disparaging, rather favours their authority, as it shows their assiduous attention to cultivate and improve a language which they revered as the sacred vehicle of their Laws and Religion. But that they did not make great use of Arabic, is evident from a comparison of their explication of Hebrew words with that deduced from the language of the Koran by

* Schultens says, (Origines Heb. par. 2, c. 6, § 25, p. 285,) "Sexcenta indicare possem Themata Hebraica, quæ Rabbinis non aliunde innotuerint, quam usu Arabum, inter quos in Babylonia, Ægypto, Africa, et Hispania versabantur." This assertion cannot be true in its literal extent; for Hebrew, according to Bythner, (Lyra Prophetica, Præf. ad Lect.) contains only 1867 roots; and it cannot for a moment be believed, that the signification of one-third of them could ever have been unknown to the Jews, among whom a knowledge of that language has always been preserved. The Rabbins, however, did occasionally borrow from the Arabic, as those best acquainted with their writings have observed.-Pococke, Orat. ad Carmen Tograi, sub. fin. Bochart, Phaleg. 1. i. c. 15. Kromayer, de Usu Ling. Arab. 1. i. prælim. § 2. Hunt, de Antiq. Ling. Arab. p. 54.

modern Arabizing lexicographers. The dissonance is too great to allow the supposition of both having drawn from the same sources. That they made so little use of Arabic could not be owing to their ignorance of it, as many of them had daily intercourse with those who spoke that dialect; it must, therefore, have arisen from the circumstance of their not often wanting its assistance.

The assertion, that the Rabbins learned the Hebrew grammar from the Arabians, must likewise be understood with very considerable abatements:* for, if a knowledge of the sacred language has always existed among them, a knowledge of its grammar must also have been preserved. If Buxtorf's Thesaurus Grammaticus, which is chiefly taken from Rabbi David Kimchi, be compared with the Arabic grammars of Erpenius or Richardson, it will easily be seen, that the one cannot have been much auxiliary to the other. Their difference is too striking to admit of such a supposition. The Jews, in fact, have ever had too exalted an opinion of themselves, and have always viewed other nations

* Simon, Hist. Crit. du V. T. lib. i. cap. 30 and 31. Bauer, Hermeneut. Sac. § 35, p. 181.

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