[730] Diodor. Sicul. l. 4.
[731] Plin. l. 7. c. 56.
[732] Euseb. præpar. Evang. lib. 18.
In like manner, the matter upon which men wrote, in ruder times was different. Some wrote on rinds of trees, whence Liber, signifying originally a rinde of a tree, is now used for a book:[733] some wrote on tile-stone with a bone instead of a pen; some on Tables; this last was chiefly in use among the Jews, the Decalogue was was written in two tables. Again, write these things upon a table, Esay. 30. 8. ἐπὶ πυξίου, saith the Septuagint, as if the writing-tables at that time were made of Box-trees. They used not then pens or quills, but a certain instrument or punch, made of Iron or Steel, called Stylus, it was sharp at one end, for the more convenient indenting or carving of the characters, and broad at the other, for the scraping or blotting out what had been written: whence sprang that Proverbial speech:[734] Invertere stylum, to unsay what he had said, or to blot out what he hath written: Scribe stilo hominis: write with the pen of man, Esay. 8. 1. Afterward before they came to bind up books in manner as now we have them, they wrote in a roll of Paper or Parchment, which sometimes was ten cubits broad, and twenty long, Zac. 5. 2. This they called מגלה Megilla, in Hebrew, from Galal, to roll, Volumen in Latine, in English a volumn, from volvo, to roll. In the volumn of the book it is written, Psal. 40. 7. And Christ closing the Book, gave it to the Minister, Luk. 4. 20. the word is πτύξας, complicans folding, or rolling it up: and vers. 17. ἀναπτύξας, explicans, unfolding, or opening it.[735] These volumns were written not with one entire continued writing, but the writing was distinguished into many spaces, columns or platforms, like unto so many Areæ: these platforms, filled with writing, were instead of so many pages in a book: and thus we are to understand that Jer. 36. 23. When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a pen-knife, &c. These leaves were nothing else but such spaces, and platforms in the roll. After this manner the Jews reserve the Law written in such rolls, and with such spaces, in their Synagogues at this day.
[733] Diogen. Laert. in vitæ Cleanthis.
[734] Erasm. in Adag.
[735] Buxtorf. institut. epist. p. 4.
It is much controversed, whether the Jews did from the beginning write with vowels and accents, or whether they were added by the Masorites; for the understanding of which, it will be needful, First, to enquire who the Masorites were: Secondly, what their work was; and then to deliver in a proposition what may be probably thought in this point.
First, concerning the Masorites, we are to know that מסר Masar signifieth tradere, to deliver, and Masor a tradition, delivered from hand to hand to posterity without writing, as the Pythagoreans and Druides were wont to do; but by the figure Synecdoche, it signifieth those critical notes or Scholion, written in the margine of the Bible, and those that were the Authors of those critical observations were termed Masoritæ, Masorites. Concerning these Authors, who they were there are two opinions. Some[736] think that they were certain learned Jews living in the City Tiberias, they termed them Sapientes Tiberiadis, the wise men of Tiberias. These wise men are thought to have added these marginal notes unto the Hebrew Bibles[737] some time after the finishing of the Babylon Talmud, which was about the year of our Lord, 506. This opinion is unlikely for these two reasons. 1.[738] Because we cannot find in Histories, the continuance of any Colledg or School in Tiberias so long, but rather that degrees in learning ceased there within four hundred years after our Saviour his birth. 2.[739] In both Talmuds mention is made of the Masora, and the things contained therein. Others therefore more probably say,[740] that the Masorites were that Ecclesiastical Senate or Council held by Esra, Haggai, Zachary, Malachi, and divers others assembled for the reformation of the Church after their return from Babylon; they are called Viri Synagogæ magnæ. This Council continued at least forty years: for Simeon the just, who went out in his Priestly robes, to meet and pacifie Alexander the Great, coming in hostile manner against Jerusalem,[741] was the last of that Council, and that was above three hundred years before the birth of our Saviour. Esra was the President or Chief of this Council; he was of such repute among the Jews, that they parallel’d him with Moses, saying,[742] Dignus erat Esra, quod data fuisset lex per manus ejus Israeli, si non præcessisset eum Moses.
[736] Aben Esra vid. Buxt. commen. Masor. c. 3.