Miscellanies Christian and Judaical, Chapter 30 – Chapter 31
CAP. XXX. Of the Hebrew tongue.
WHo so will goe about to commend the Hebrew tongue, may iustly receiue the censure, that he of Rome did, who had made a long booke in the praise of Hercules: This labour is in vaine, for neuer any one dispraised Hercules. Other commendations this tongue needeth none, then what it hath of its selfe, namely, for Sanctitie it was the tongue of God, and for Antiquitie it was the tongue of Adam: God the first founder, and Adam the first speaker of it. In this tong were laid vp the mysteries of the old Testament. It begun with the world and the Church, and continued & increased in glory, till ye captiuitie in Babel, which was a Babel to this tongue, and brought to confusion this language, which at ye first confusion, had escaped without ruine. At their returne, it was in some kinde repaired, but farre from former perfection. The holy Scriptures veiwed by Ezra, a scribe fit for the kingdome of heauen, in whose treasure were things new and old. In the Maccabean times all went to ruine, language and lawes and all lost: and since that time to this day, the pure Hebrew hath lost her familiaritie, being onelyonly knowne by schollers or at least not without teaching. Our Sauiours times spake the Syrian, Kepha, Golgotha, Talitha, and other words do witnesse; In aftertimes the vnwearied Masorites arose, helpers to preserue the Bible Hebrew intire, and Grammarians helpers to preserue the Idiome aliue; but for restoring it to the old familiaritie, neither of them could preuaile. For, the Iewes hauehave at this day no abiding citie, no Common wealth, no proper tongue, but speake as the countries wherein they liue. This whereof they were once most nice is gone, and this groat they hauehave lost. As the man in Seneca that through sicknes lost his memorie, and forgot his own name; so they for their sin hauehave lost their language, and forgot their own tongue. Their Cain-like wandring, after the murther of their brother, according to the flesh, Christ Iesus, hath lost them this precious marke of Gods fauour, and branded them with a worse marke: Cauterio conspirationis antiquae, as saith Saint Bernard in another case. Before the confusion of tongues all the world spake their tongue and no other, but since the confusion of the Iewes, they speake the language of all the world, and not their owne. And that it is not with them so, onelyonly of late, but hath been long; Theodoret beareth witnesse in these words▪ Other nations (saith he) hauehave their children speaking quickly in their owne mother tongue. Howbeit, there are no children of the Hebrewes who naturally spake the Hebrew tongue, but the language of the countrie where they are borne. Afterward when they grow vp they are taught the letters, and learne to read the holy Scripture in the Hebrew tongue. Thus Theod. in quaest. on Gen ▪ 59.60.
About this their training vp of their children, and growth of men, in their owne tongue and learning: a Rabbin hath this saying in Pirke Auoth. Perek. 1. Ben He He saith. At fiue yeares old for the Scripture, at ten for Mishneh, at thirteene *Or Philacteries. &c.for the Commandements, at fifteene for the Talmud. At eighteene for Mariage, at twentie for Seruice, at thirtie for Strength, at fortie for Vnderstanding, at fiftie for Counsell, at sixtie for Old age, at seuentie for Gray haires, at eightie *Or fortitude (of mind) or God.for Profoundnesse, at nintie for Meditation, at one hundred he is as dead and past and gone out of the world. The Iewes looke for a pompous kingdome, when Messias the Sonne of Dauid shall come, whom they watch for euerie moment till he come, as it is in the 12. Article of their Creed, in their common prayer booke. Hee shall restore them (as they hope) a temporall kingdome (and of that minde, till they were better taught, were the Apostles, Acts 1.6.) and then their tongue shall reuiue againe, as they surmise. But the diuine Apocaliptick writing after Ierusalem was ruined, might teach them what the second Ierusalem must be, not on earth but from heauen, Apoc. 21, 2. But to returne to their tongue.
The characters, we now hauehave the Hebrew tongue in, Scaliger thinkes are but of a latter hatch, and not the same that the Iewes vsed from Moses, till the destruction of the temple. For, that they vsed the Phaenician or Cananaean character, which now is called the Samaritan. How truely I referre to the Readers iudgement.
The character wee now hauehave is either a set or a running letter: the first, the Bible is ordinarily Printed in, in the latter the most of the Rabbins.
The whole tongue is contained in the Bible, and no one booke else in the world, containes in it a whole language. And this shewes that the Scripture speakes to all sorts of people, since it speakes of all sorts of things. This language is (as God said the Iewes should bee, if they would keepe his Law.) A lender to all, and a borrower of none. All tongues are in debt to this, and this to none. The Easterne most especially must acknowledge this. Some men in the East (saith Origen) reserue their old speech, (meaning by likelihood the Hebrew) and hauehave not altered it, but hauehave continued in the Easterne tongue, because they hauehave continued in the Easterne countries. No Easterne tongue that I hauehave heard of, is Hebrew now, so that what to say to Origen I cannot tell, vnlesse he meane that those that hauehave continued in the East, hauehave kept neerest this holy tongue, because neerest the holy land: this to be true is knowne to the meanest learned. In their speech it is apparent, and by their writing confirmed. All of them hauehave learned from the Hebrew, to write from the right hand to the left (or as we vsuall call it in England, to write, and reade backward:) The China and Iapan writing excepted, which is indeed from the right hand to the left, but not with the lines crossing the leafe as other tongues doe, but the lines downe the leafe. A strange way by it selfe.
Againe, most of the Easterne tongues do vse the Hebrew character for quicke writing, or some other end. The Chaldee letter is the verie fame. The Syrian though it hauehave two or three kinds of its owne, yet is content sometime to take vponupon it the Hebrew character. The Arabian doth the like, especially the Iewes in Turkie vse in hatred of Mahumetans, to write downe their matters of Religion; in the Hebrew character, though in the Arabian tongue. So do the Christian Arabians for the same cause in their holy things, vse the Arabian tongue, but Syrian letter. And I take a place in Epiphanius to be meant to this purpose, also about the Persian tongue. His words out of another are these. The Persians besides their owne letters do also vse the letters of the Syrians: as in our times many nations vse the Greeke, though almost eueryevery nation hath a proper character. I referre to the Reader to iudge whether hee meane not that the Persians (as other countries about them did,) did vse the Hebrew character for their quicke writing: which is called Syrian by Theodoret.
To speake of the grace, and sweetnesse, and fulnesse of the Hebrew tongue, is to no purpose to relate, for euen those that cannot reade this tongue hauehave reade thus much of it.
CAP. XXXI. Of Vowels.
EAsterne tongues, especially the Hebrew and her three Dialects, Chaldee, Syrian, and Arabian, are written sometimes with vowells, somtimes without: with, for certainty, without, for the speedier writing: we hauehave Hebrew Bibles of both kinds. The Septuagint it seemes translated by the vnpricked Bible, as S, Hierome in his commentary vponupon the Prophets seemeth to import, & as to any one that examineth it is easie to find. Instead of all other places in Gen. 4.7. it is apparant: where the seuenty Translators reseruing the letters hauehave strangely altered the vowels.
The Hebrew hath it thus. foreign Halo in tetibh Seeth, weim lo tetibh, lappethahh robhets, which is is in English thus: If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou do not well, sinne lieth at the doore: they translate it as pointed thus: foreign Halo im tetibh seeth, weim lo tetibh lephatteahh hhatatha rebhats. Which is: If thou do well in offering and do not well in diuiding thou hast sinned, be quiet. This, follow with one consent, the Greeke and many of the Latine Fathers: They could not thus translate, because they knew not the text, or because they wanted pointed Bibles, but on set purpose to hide pearles from swine (as the best learned think.) But that they did alwayes misse on set purpose (where they missed) their many lapses seeme to deny: but somtime they mistooke the vnpricked text, and so misconstrued. A vowelled Bible they might hauehave had but would not.
Some there bee that thinke the vowels of the Hebrew, were not inuented for many yeares After Christ. Which to mee seemeth to be all one, as to deny sinewes to a body: or to keepe an infant vnswadled, and to suffer him to turne and bend any way till hee grow out of fashion. For mine owne satisfaction I am fully resolued, that the letters and vowels of the Hebrew were as the soule and body in a child, knit together at their conception and beginning: and that they had both one Author.
1. For, first a tongue cannot bee learned without vowells, though at last, skill and practice may make it to be read without. Grammar and not nature makes men to do this, and this also helped out with the sence of the place we read.
2. That Masorites should amend that which the Septuagint could not see, and that they should read righter, then the other (who were of farre greater Authority) I cannot beleeue.
3. Our Sauiour in his words of one Iota and one small kerai not perishing from the law, seemes to allude to the least of the letters, Iod, and the least vowell and accent.
4. Lastly, it is aboue the skill of a meere man to point the Bible; nay, scarsely a verse as it is. The ten Commandements may puzzle all the world for that skill.