The Grammar School, Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI.
How to get most speedily the knowledge and vnderstanding of the Hebrew.
Spoud.
BVt what say you, for that most sacred tongue, the Hebrew? How, I pray you, do you think, that that may bee attained, which you mentioned, that students may come so soon to the vnderstanding of it?
Phil.
This may be obtained the sooner,The knowledge of the Hebrew may be the soonest gotten and why because we hauehave it all comprised, so far as is necessary for vsus to know, in that one sacred volume of the old Testament. Also because the principall rootes of it are so few, the matter so familiar, as which eueryevery one of vsus ought to bee acquainted with. The Nowns hauehave so little varying or turning in them.
And finally, for that wee hauehave such singular helpes for the vnderstanding of it (as the Interlineall verball translation, and the translations and labours of others which beat out the propriety, force and sense of eueryevery word & phrase) like as in the Greeke Testament, that nothing can be difficult in it to the good heart, who will vse the means which the Lord hath vouchsafed, and will seek this blessing, from his Maiesty.
Spoud.
Surely, hee is vtterly vnworthy of this heauenlie treasure, who will not seek & beg it from the Lord, and dig deep for it: I meane, who wil not vse any holy meanes, for the obtaining of it; and much more the course being so short, plaine & direct, as you say. But I intreat you to trace me out the shortest way.
Phil.
The way, so far as yet I hauehave been able to learne, is wholly set downe already in the manner of getting the Latine and the Greek. But to make a brie…e rehearsall▪
1 For them who would bee more accurate Hebricians for the beating out of eueryevery tittle,1 The Grammar to be gotten most exquisitely of them who desire to come to perfection in the Hebrew. they are to hauehave the Grammar very accurately; and that by the like means euen as the Greeke and the Latine.
But for those who onelyonly desire the vnderstanding of it, and to be skilfull in the text, the chiefe care must be, that they be made perfect in some few principall rules of Grammar of most vse.Some chiefe parts for others who onelyonly desire the vnderstanding. Also in declining and coniugating the examples set down in the book, & in the seuerall terminations of declensions, numbers, moodes, tenses, persons, to be able in them in some good manner to giuegive Hebrew to Latine, and Latine to Hebrew, and to run the terminations in each; at least to giuegive the Latine to the Hebrew perfectly. And so in the seuerall Pronounes, Aduerbes, Coniunctions to do the like; I meane, to giuegive Latine to the Hebrew, to hauehave them very readily, seeing they are but few, and sundry of them of continuall vse.
Spoud.
But what Grammar would you vse?
Phil.
Martinius of the last Edition,Grammars to be vsed. with the Technologia adioyned to it,Martinius with his Technologia. I take to be most vsed of all the learned, as most methodicall and perfect; although Blebelius is farre more easie to the young beginner,Blebelius accounted most plaine and easie as much more answering to our Latine Grammar; and made so plaine of purpose by questions and answeres, that any one of iudgement may better vnderstand it, and goe forward with delight: so as it may be a notable introduction or Commentary to Martinius, who had neede of a good Reader, to learne to vnderstand him perfectly.
Both read together,The seuerall points in Martinius you may finde in Blebelius by the table in the end of Blebelius. must needs be most profitable; Martinius for method and shortnes, Blebelius for resoluing and expounding eueryevery obscurity: yet eueryevery one who hath learned a Grammar, may best vse the same, because that is most familiar to him.
But for them who are to begin, or to teach others, they may take the easiest first, that the learner may no way bee discouraged; and after others as as they shall thinke meete, or which shall be found most profitable, by the iudgement of the greatest Hebricians. This I thinke to be the surest aduice; and by comparing of Grammars together, euer to beate out the sense and meaning.
Spoud.
What is your next meanes?
Phil.
The getting of the Hebrew rootes,The second principall meanes, the perfect getting of the Radices. together with the Grammar, eueryevery day a certaine number. Hereunto the Nomenclator Anglolatmus-Graecus-Haebraicus, mentioned before, if it were so finished, might be a notable introductiō.
For the maner of committing the Radices to memory,Manner of committing the Radices to memorie. I shewed it before: yet hereto speake of it a little more fully, first to helpe our remembrance by som of the chiefe helps of memory; as by comparing in our meditation the seueral words in the Hebrew, with what words they are like vntounto, eyther in the English, Latin, or Greek, which words eyther do come of them, or sound like vntounto them, or with some other roote in the Hebr…w, wherwith they hauehave affinity. That so soone as we see the Hebrew roote, the other word which we would remember it by, comming to our minde; the vnderstanding or meaning of the Hebrew roote may also come to minde with it.
As for example,Examples of helping memorie in the Hebrew. to begin in the first Radices, & to giuegive som light in 2. or 3; foreign & foreign …uber or pubert as, may be remembred by foreign, pubertas; and by ephebe or ephebus, in Latine comming of it, signifying the same: as Postquam excessit ex ephebis. Terent. Also foreign may be remēbred by the month Abib in the Scriptures, which was amongst the Iewes mensis pubertatis, in quo seges terrae Canaan protrudebat spicas. foreign Perijt, may be remembred by Abaddon in the Apocalips, called in Greek Apollion, the destroyer, or destruction; the Angel of the bottomlesse pit. foreign voluit, acquieuit, or bene affectus est in aliquid, vt pater in filios: It may fully be remembred by Abba, father, comming of foreign pater: and so the word foreign in Greeke, or Abbas an Abbot, quia Abbas erat pater totius societatis. And Auus seemes to come of the same By any of these we may remember the roote.
Thus we may remember very many of them by the help of Auenars Dictionary (as I shewed) or by our own meditation, euen from the wordes comming of them indeede, or in shew, obserued according to certaine rules which Auenarius giueth in the beginning of his Lexicon.
The reason hereof also is most euident;☜ for that this is the mother tongue of all tongues,The Hebrew the mother tongue most auncient and worthy. & was the only tongue, vntil the confounding of the tongs at Babel: in which confusion, som words were changed altogether, in others the significations were altered, & many hauehave bin depraued and corrupted by continuance & succession of time.Others deriued from it. Therefore as this tongue is to be honored, so this diligence in comparing & deriuing other tongues,The benefit of diligence in comparing the tongues. must needes be of exceeding great profit many wayes: & amongst other, for this very purpose of conceiuing or cōmitting to memory, & retayning the Hebrew more surely, by other wordes better knowne to vsus.
Other wordes which cannot be remembred thus,How other words may be remembred, which cannot be so deriued. yet may be remembred by the learned, by some thing which they sound like vntounto, in one of the three tongs; So that we forget not to animate that which we remember by: that is, to conceiue of it in our minde, as being liuely and stirring; like as we noted before in the Greeke.
The rest of the roots besides these,The hardest rootes which seeme to hauehave no affini…y. will be but few: and being noted with a line with a black lead pen (as was said) or any marke, and oft run ouer, they may soone be gotten.
Besides these,To marke out also the harder deriuatiues in the Hebrew. som mark would be giuen vnderunder eueryevery deriuatiue, in each roote, which doth differ much in signification from the Radix, and cannot be remembred well by the Radix, nor how it may be deriued from it.
Spoud.
Such a Nomenclator as you speake of, must needs be a rare and speedy helpe to all the tongues, if it were well gathered by some very learned and iudicious Hebrician. But in the meane time, what abbridgement would you vse for getting these Radices of the Hebrew?
Phil.
The Epitome of Pagnine I take to be most common:The best Epitome for getting the Radices. but Buxtorphius his abbridgement (going vnderunder the name of Polanus) must needes be the best in all likelihood; as hauing had the helpe of that and all other, and gathered by great iudgement.
I hauehave seene a draught of another,This is not fully finished. much shorter then them both, collected by comparing Pagnine, Auenar, and others; shewing also for most part how the Hebrew deriuatiues, which are more obscure, are deriued from the Radices, giuing at least a probable reason for them: and also in sundry, shewing the agreement and manner of the deriuation of the tongues, one from another, and the affinity of many of them; to helpe the memory with the speedy and sure getting of all.
Spoud.
It were great pitie, but that that should be perfected; for the benefite of it must needes be very great. But might there not be such a deuise, of contriuing all the Hebrew roots into continued speeches; and so learning them by studying them out of verball translations, as you shewed for the Greeke?
Phil.
Yes vndoubtedly,The way might be more compendious by the rootes reduced to Classes. it might easily be accomplished by some exquisite and painefull Hebrician, to make this labour yet much more compendious: Although I doe not doubt but any indifferent memory, might in the space of a twelue monethmonth or lesse, get all the Hebrew Radices very perfectly,By the Dictionary alone they might be gotten in a short time. by the former meanes of Buxtorphius or Pagnines abbridgement alone; spending but eueryevery day one houre therein. And when they were once gotten, they were easily kept by oft repetition, running ouer the hardest, being marked out; and by daily practice in reading some Chapters; though much more easily, by hauing the heads reduced to such classes, and the oft running ouer them.
I hauehave heard moreouer of all the Radices, with their Primitiue significations alone, drawne into a very little space; which being well performed, must needes be a notable furtherance.
Spoud.
What is your third helpe?
Phil.
The perfect verball translations written out of Arias Montanus,The third help, perfect verball translations, and continuall practice of them. by conferring with Iunius and our owne Bible, specially our new translation, and setting the diuers readings in the margents with a letter, to signifie whose the translations are, and also eueryevery hard Radix noted in the margent, as now sundry of them are; with references to them by letters or figures, as I shewed for the Greeke: these being vsed as the English translations, for getting the Latin, and as the Latine or English for the Greeke, will be found aboue all that we would imagine.
And that after this manner:
First, as I said for the others, by reading ouer the translations,The manner of vsing these repeated. to vnderstand the matter.
Secondly, learning to construe the Hebrew into the Latine exactly, and backe againe out of the translation into Hebrew; looking onelyonly on the translation, to meditate and beate out the Hebrew. This helpes vnderstanding, apprehension, memory, and all (as I said) to hauehave the text most absolutely.
Lastly, beginning with the easiest first (as in the other tongues) as eyther some part of the History (as namely Genesis, the bookes of Samuell) or else the Psalmes; and therin specially the hundred and nineteene Psalme, as most plaine of all other: or rather to beginne with the Praxis vponupon the Psalmes, the first, the fiue and twentieth, and the threescore and eight, set downe in the end of Martinius Grammar, printed by Raphalengius, Anno 1607. which will both acquaint the learner with the vnderstanding of Martinius, and set him in a most direct and ready way, by the other helpes.
For the certainty of this,Experience of this for assurance. besides that the reason is the very same with the Latine, and like as I said for the Greeke also, I hauehave moreouer knowne this experience in a childe, vnderunder fifteene yeares of age; who besides all kinde of studies and exercises, both in Latin and Greeke, as those mentioned before, and his daily progresse in them, had within the space of lesse then a yeare, gotten sundry of the principall and most necessary rules of Grammar. Also a great part of the Radices in Buxtorphius, though hee spent not therein aboue two houres in a day. And besides all this, hee had learned about foureteene or fifteene Psalmes: wherein he was so readie, as that hee was able not onelyonly to construe or reade the Hebrew into the Latine; but also out of the bare translation, to reade the Hebrew backe againe, to shew eueryevery Radix, and to giuegive a reason in good sort for each word, why it was so. Of this hath beene tryall by learned and sufficient witnesses.
The which experience with the daily trials of reading the Latine so exactly and readily out of the English, and getting it (as it were without booke) by that practice, doefully assure me that by this daily exercise the very originals of the Hebrew may be made as easie and familiar as the Latine is; yea, in time with continuall practice, to be able to say very much of it without booke:A Student cannot be better imployed then in thus imprinting the originals in his hart, if he hauehave leasure. as I shewed before for the Greeke. And what Student, especially of Diuinity, can euer bestow some part of his time in a more pleasant, easie and happy studie? when there will be no more but reading ouer and ouer with meditation, and still to be reading the words and wisedome of the Highest; in whose presence he hopes to dwell, and to heare the same sweete voyce in the Temple in heauen eternally.
Spoud.
By these means, it seemeth to me that any tongue may be gotten speedily.
Phil.
Yea verily,☞ I do so perswade my selfe. For seeing (as I said) that there is no more in any tongue,It seemeth that any tong may be gotten thus. but wordes and ioyning of those words together; therfore the words being first gotten, chiefly by being contriued into continued speeches, & those so learnd out of such verbal translations: secondly, some few rules of them being knowne: thirdly, continuall vse of such translations; would make any tongue to be vnderstood and learned very soone, so farre as I can conceiue.
Spoud.
How soeuer this be, which seemeth indeede most probable;These tongues, Latine, Greeke, and Hebrew may be gotten in each Nation, by these means of translations in their owne …ongues. yet I take it, there can be no doubt of this, but that in eueryevery country of the world, the Latin, Greek, & Hebrew may be attained by the same meanes: which three are enough (yea the two last alone sufficient) to know God and Iesus Christ to eternall life: and that so by the knowledge of the Originals, men may hauehave a certaine knowledge of the eternall worde of the Lord.
Phil.
I can see no reason at all to the contrary, but that these our Latine Classicall Authours being translated Grammatically into other tongues, by some who are learned amongst them, the Latine may as well bee learned thereby by them out of their translations, in their own tongues, by such helps of rules as hauehave bin mentioned, or the like, as out of translations in our English tongue. Secondly, the Latine tongue being once gotten, the getting of the Greek and Hebrew are the very same vntounto them which they are to vsus.
Or otherwise, the Greeke and Hebrew but translated so alone,Greeke or Hebrew most easily learned by perfect translations in each tongue. into the seuerall tongues of each Nation (I meane verbally) they might as easily, if not more easily, be learned in each countrey out of them, as out of the English or Latine; and the sense or meaning also, if in eueryevery difficult place, or where the wordes seemed to be out of order, it were set in the margents ouer against them.
The same I say for our English; into which the Hebrew, in most places translated verbatim, doth keepe a perfect sense, and might bee learned out of it. Also the most absolute fulnesse of vnderstanding of the matter in our heads, doth bring wordes, most readily to expresse it; which I hauehave oft tolde you of.☜
But remember this that I hauehave said;Of the vse of perfect verball translations for getting the originals. that the verball Translations, for these originals, shall make the learners most cunning in the text, and in the very order of the wordes of the Holy Ghost, without danger of any way deprauing, corrupting or inuerting one iotte or tittle: though for the Latine, the Grammaticall translations bee farre most profitable, as we hauehave shewed.
Spoud.
Are these all the directions that you would giuegive me herein?
Phil.
These are all which yet I know.
Spoud.
By these then it seemeth that you are fully perswaded that this holy tongue may be obtayned.
Phil.
Yea vndoubtedly, so much as shal be requisit for vsus, by obseruing withall those generall rules, set downe for the getting of the Latine; and chiefly that, of making markes vnderunder eueryevery hard word in each page, without marring our bookes; and to runne oft ouer those.
But herein it is necessary that I put you in minde againe,Obseruation re… eated how much and what to learne in eu… ry booke▪ of that which I admonished you of in the Greek; that your schollar learne so much onelyonly, as eyther the present time requires: I meane, whereof he may hauehave good vse presently, or else when he shall proceede to higher studies in the Vniuersities, or to other imployments. And for other speculatiue or more curious knowledge in Quiddities, eyther to cut them off altogether from hindring better and more needefull studies, or to reserue them to their due time and place; or to leaue them onelyonly to them who shall giuegive themselues wholly to these studies, to be readers in the Vniuersities, or for like purposes; as, the learning of the musick and Rhetoricall accents: the Prosodia metrica, and the like.
Spoud.
What is then the summe of all?
Phil.
For them who desire to be exact Hebricians, to be very perfect in the Grammar; for them who desire but only the vnderstanding, to hauehave,
1 Some necessary rules, and principally examples of Nounes and Verbes very readily.
2 The Radices.
3 Continuall vse of verball translations, or others; as in the Greeke.
4 Oft running ouer the hardest wordes.
But these, as all other things, I write vnderunder correction, and with submission and desire of better iudgement.