The "Masora;"

or

Great Jewish Counterfeit Detector.

If God's Divine, Holy and ever blessed Law is only another form of expression for the Will* of God, made known to us by the Word of God, which he declares He "has (exalted) above all his Name, Psa. 138:2; we can see why the Holy "anointed, i.e. Messiah, of the God of Jacob," 2 Sam. 23:1, declares in his Psa. 119:72, "That the law of thy mouth is better than thousands of gold and silver," and that the "Judgments," or righteous decisions or sentence of this Holy law (when rightly interpreted and administered) are "True and righteous altogether, more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb." Psa. 19:9 and 10.

* And for the Truth of God, for it is said, "Thy Law is Truth."

Now, we can at once see the very great importance of this most Holy law of God; and so all important was this Most Holy and ever blessed law in the eyes of the Learned, or wise men of the East, that they saw the very great necessity of guarding and protecting it from all after Mistranslations, Interpolations and Perversions, by what is called by them the "Masora."

This "Masora" is a great and complete Jewish Counterfeit Detector, as you will at once see, for it fully proves the truth of God's word, which says, "He showeth his Word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any other nation; and as for his judgments (or righteous decisions), they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord." Psa. 147:19 and 20.

This Masora is a Fence, and most perfect security, in order to prevent any Alteration, Innovation, or Mistranslation of God's most Holy law, or word. It consists of every chapter, section, verse, word, letter, accent, vowel, and vowel point, being most carefully copied from God's Holy Law, as it was first given to Moses upon Mount Sinai, and herein lies its all-sufficient security against every attempt to alter it, or pervert it, so long as Israel are God's faithful Depositories, and as long as God's word is true, which declares in Isa. 59:21: "This is my Covenant with them, saith the Lord; my Spirit that is upon thee, (here then is the only true "Spiritual Israel,") and my words which I have put in thy mouth, (this is the "Masora,") shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever."

So that the only true reading and understanding of every Word of the Law and the Prophets is to be taken according to the letter and spirit of the Instrument as God taught Moses, during forty days and forty nights upon the Mount, that it might be preserved in all future ages unadulterated, and without any possibility of corruption, or mistake, of even one single word; this "Masora" informs us, that the whole Bible Pentateuch and Prophets consists of 23,206 verses; in the Pentateuch alone 5,245 verses.

Besides these, the number of chapters, sections, words, letters, accents, vowels and vowel points, are there most faithfully recorded, long, very long, before ever the period that it is falsely asserted that the Inspiration of God left his people, Israel, as the chosen Depositaries and Expositors of his Holy law, fully confirming the declaration by his prophet Isaiah, "Ye are my Witnesses , saith the Lord," 43:10; "Children that will not lie; so He was their Savior," 43:8; as will be most fully hereafter proved, when that very same "Ark of the covenant," now hid, shall be brought forth, in which was placed "The two Tables of the covenant of this Holy law, together with the golden pot of Manna and Aaron's Rod that budded; all of which, we are informed, was laid up in the Holy Ark, in order that it might be kept for your (future) generations, that they might see the Bread wherewith I fed you for forty years in the Wilderness, when I brought you forth from the Land of Egypt." And Moses said unto Aaron, "Take a Pot and put an Omer full of Manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations." Exod. 16:32, 33, and 34th verses.

Then all future generations will see to their own confusion, who are and ever have been God's faithful Depositaries and Witnesses, for every word of the covenant of this Holy law will then be seen, and will bear ample testimony, and that they both have been kept true and unadulterated, and that "God hath (only) shown his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any other nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. 147:19 and 20.

This is one reason why I became a Jew in Jerusalem, when I compared all the profession and mistranslations and false interpretations of the Missionaries of the Church of England to convert the Jews, with that of the word of God, and with that of the "Masora," which is in their hand; but it is one that is incontrovertible and unanswerable; so long as that "Masora" is in existence and can be produced, and that, too, so long as it Fences and protects God's most Holy Law, word, and will, defying all and every species of innovation and mistranslation.

Now let us look at the other side of this "Masora." Let us compare this "Masora" with the Christians' present authorized and received version of the Bible, by their own prelates and received by their own Bishops and Ministers, who were doubtless prepossessed and prejudiced in its favor.

Bishop Lowth mentions no less than "between seven and eight hundred errors" in his New Translation of the Prophet Isaiah.

Bishop Horsley, "no less than one hundred and twenty variations" in the small book of the Prophet Hosea, which only contains fourteen chapters.

Dr. Conquest has published his English Bible with "twenty thousand emendations and variations from the common version," which is now before the public.

Mr. Newman has also his work of "ten thousand mistranslations" of the Old Testament before the world.

Now, if all our hope of Salvation is dependent upon such a miserable mutilated and erroneous translation for everlasting life, we may well despair of ever obtaining it.

If God has "magnified or exalted his word, his written word, above all his name," or authority, Psa. 138:2, I must, before I can obey, I must understand the language (the Hebrew) in which that was and is written.

If I wish to make my Will known, and can only speak or express my will in the Arabic, the Arabic must first be understood correctly before ever my will can be correctly understood; and just so with the will of God. And not only so, only let us contemplate for a single moment that all this corruption and perversion of the Holy word and will of God, upon which the salvation of above one hundred and forty millions of the souls of Christians are entirely dependent for their knowledge of the Truth, (for how can Christians know the will of God, let me repeat it,) while it is all his up and contained in the Hebrew text, and no possible way to arrive at it but by understanding that text?

Surely the common English translation by King James's seventy biased and prejudiced Episcopalians cannot stand, with so many hundreds and thousands of mistranslations and perversions, and "some of them of very great importance," as is declared by Prelates and Bishops of their own church. See the Rev. Jno. Oxlee's Three Letters to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, page 53.

And most surely they could not have been prompted, nor inclined wantonly to deviate from the authorized and received version of their own church-- I mean that of the Church of England--which it was their interest to obey and serve, as it is well known that their Bishops are well paid above all others for so doing.

But what a most powerful and all-conclusive evidence is the above of the truth of God's word , that "Ye are my Witnesses, saith the Lord," (Isaiah 43:10;) and surely there are no Hebrew Scholars like the Jews themselves, who have been educated in it from their earliest infancy, and who even speak it most familiarly in their daily conversation in Jerusalem.

Now, we will confirm this by one of the greatest Scholars and Enemies to Israel who perhaps ever lived, as Moses himself has declared, "Our Enemies themselves being Judges," Deut. 32:31. I allude to Dr. Alexander McCaul, Professor of Hebrew in King's College. He says, in the "Jewish Intelligencer" of August, 1844, page 258, "Respecting the meaning of words, and frequently the sense of Passages, their familiarity with the language (Hebrew) in which they spoke and wrote as in their mother tongue, and which has never been equaled by any Gentile Student, (he himself is a Gentile*,) which they appear to have known by heart; their ready memory making them living concordances, and their proverbial acuteness giving their commentaries value which the greatest Gentile scholars of every nation have been ready to acknowledge." Is not this concession from an enemy enough to prove and satisfy every sincere and honest inquirer after truth, that God hath "shown his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel? He has not dealt so with any other nation, and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord."

* And the author of the "Old Paths."

Glory to the Father, to the Only One, and to His Holy Spirit. As it was in the Beginning, is now, and ever more shall be, world without end. Amen.