We
extract the subjoined from the Jewish Intelligence, with whose character
our readers are acquainted, as an evidence that Christians think the
knowledge of the Hebrew
all-important. How strangely this compares with the endeavours of some
modern Jews to banish the Hebrew from our public worship! Will not the
comparison bring the mantle of shame to their cheeks, and cause them to
hesitate before they proceed in their unholy work of destruction? Ed. Oc.
“It
may seem strange indeed that the study of that sacred tongue which was
spoken by patriarchs and prophets should require an ‘Apology.’ Shall
a son apologize for wishing to read the letter received from a beloved
father in the original—in the very words employed by his parent?
Surely every expression, and every phrase, in such a communication must
be considered valuable, and be treated with affection and respect. Those
who cannot read themselves must indeed be greatly indebted to kind
friends, who will take the trouble to render the intelligence thus
received, accessible to those most concerned in it; but if it be
possible for the son to read his own letter, we should not think him
either dutiful or affectionate, if he leave it to strangers, to
communicate that information which was addressed to himself. But as it
regards our Father in heaven, we have been content to hear through an
interpreter; and while anxious to hold intercourse with the poets and
wise men of antiquity, and to hear them discourse in their own tongue,
have thought it sufficient if we could gather the substance of the
message delivered by prophets and taught by apostles, without knowing in
what particular terms they expressed themselves.
“We
have forgotten that, to use the words of Dr. Jelf, ‘Greek and Hebrew
are the two keys with which, by the aid of God's Holy Spirit, we may
open the ark wherein is laid up the whole covenant of God.’
“And,
as Dr. M’Caul has well observed,—
“
‘Hebrew is the language in which the Almighty spake to Moses and
Isaiah, and all the glorious company of the prophets. Who is there that
remembers this who does not desire to utter the very sound, and
penetrate into all the accuracies of signification, perceptible only in
the original? It is not only true of the Hebrew original, as of that of
every other book, that there is sometimes a beauty, a force, and
propriety in the Hebrew, which is lost in the best translation; but it
is certain that he, who reads Moses and the Prophets in a version, reads
them at second-hand—that he suffers an inconvenience, similar in kind,
but infintely greater in degree, to that which must be felt by him, who
is obliged to receive an important communication through the medium of
an interpreter. He cannot tell whether, in the transmission, it may not
have been weakened, misrepresented, changed, if not wilfully corrupted,
and, the more vital the interest concerned, the greater and more painful
must be his doubts and an anxiety. The Hebrew verity, as it is
well called by ancient writers, is that which was revealed by the
Almighty. To it, therefore, must be the final appeal in all matters to
be proved by the testimony of Moses and the prophets. The man who is
ignorant of Hebrew can but imperfectly investigate the mind of the
spirit as revealed in the Old Testament.’ (Apology, pp. 12,
13.)
“In
studying the sacred original the Rabbinical writers may be consulted
with the greatest advantage:—
“
‘Jewish commentators have done good service in clearing away
difficulties, and in reconciling apparent contradictions in the Old
Testament Scriptures. Masters of the cognate dialects, they led the way
in the harmonic study of the Semitic languages. It is true, that in the
history of ancient Gentile nations, and in geography, the rabbies are
deficient, but this cannot detract from their value as transmitters of
the Jewish tradition respecting the meaning of words, and frequently of
the sense of passages. Their familiarity with the language, in which they
spoke and wrote as in their mother-tongue, and which has never been
equalled by any Gentile student, their knowledge of the letter of
Scripture, which they appear to have known by heart, their ready memory
making them living concordances, and their proverbial acuteness, give
their commentaries a value which the greatest Hebrew scholars of every
nation have been ready to acknowledge. Nor is it merely in exegesis that
the writings of the rabbies are profitable. In controversy with their
modern disciples, with the Socinians, and all others who deny the
Christian interpretation of the prophecies, they render most important
assistance, as appears abundantly in the works of Maius, Hulsius,
Wagenseil, Edzard, Allix, Pearson, and that great host of writers who
have followed from Raymond Martin to Archbishop Magee.’ (Apology,
p. 10.)
“Dr.
M’Caul illustrates the importance of cultivating an acquaintance with
the Hebrew text very forcibly, by mentioning some of the serious
mistakes made by the ancient fathers, who were contented with referring
to versions instead of the original.
“It
is surely high time that the study of Hebrew should become common among
us, for—
“When
men believe that time is made and given by God for the study of his
Word, the Old Testament as well as the New, and that the language of
Moses and Isaiah is at least as useful to an interpreter of their
writings, as that of Voltaire or Schiller, or Goldoni or Cervantes, or
an acquaintance with Ovid and Anacreon, or a knowledge of the
Differential Calculus, a time and a place will be found for this study
also. There can be no doubt that the acquirement of every species of
learning, and of every branch of science is desirable to him, who ought
in nothing to be inferior, but practically to demonstrate that theology
is not the province of the ignorant or the imbecile. When men are
convinced that the study of Hebrew ought not to form the only exception,
it also will be cultivated.’ ” (Apology, p, 19.)
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