Note 879 — Chapter IX · (continued 2)

Here, again, the “Masorah,” by converting one name into another, has helped to falsify the little that was left original in the primitive Scriptures.

De Rossi, of Parma, says of the Massoretes, in his “Compendis,” vol. iv., p. 7: “It is known with what carefulness Esdras, the most excellent critic they have had, had reformed [the text] and corrected it, and restored it to its primary splendor. Of the many revisions undertaken after him, none are more celebrated than that of the Massoretes, who came after the sixth century ... and all the most zealous adorers and defenders of the “Masorah,” Christians and Jews ... ingenuously accord and confess that it, such as it exists, is deficient, imperfect, interpolated, full of errors, and a most unsafe guide.” The square letter was not invented till after the third century.