of learned Jews, called Masorites, who composed a critical work, the Masora, the object of which was to guard the sacred text from violation or corruption. Incredibly minute and accurate were the labors of the Masorites. "They collated copies, and corrected the text where it appeared to be faulty; they divided the books into verses; they invented, (or, at least, increased the number of) the vowel-points, to mark the accurate pronunciation, by which the sense is in many cases determined; they invented the system of accentuation, and affixed to each word its accent, to mark what they considered the proper modulation of the voice; and they accurately enumerated the verses, words, and letters, as well as the sections of the different Books, noting the middle verse of each, and in some cases, the middle word.—The Masora points out the places in which anything was supposed to have been omitted, added, or altered; the words which were written full, that is with the quiescent letters inserted, and those which were written defectively, that is with the same letters omitted; and also, those words, in which any anomaly occurred in the use either of the vowel-points or accents. It indicates the number of times the same word is found in the beginning, middle, or end of a verse; what letters are to be pronounced, what are silent, what are inverted, suspended, diminished, or enlarged. The Masora to the Pentateuch informs us which is the middle letter of the Law; and the Masora, at the end of the Bible, is said to give the number of times that each letter of the alphabet occurs, from the beginning to the end of the Old Testament. It also shows the sum total to be 815,280 letters."[1]
- ↑ Porter's Principles of Textual Criticism, Book II., Chap. I.
