Contrary arguments: First, from the perfection of the Hebrew language.
Contrary arguments: First, from the perfection of the Hebrew language.
§ 345. The following are the stronger arguments of those who say that the vowel points are not as old as the letters in the codex of the Bible: (I) From the perfection of the Hebrew language. “There is no absolute necessity for the vowel points, because all the inflection of Hebrew verbs rests primarily on the consonants; in the case of nouns, however, numbers, cases, and genders are distinguished by the formative [nonroot] letters. In other languages (so they say) variation in conjugation and declension lies primarily in vowels, but in Hebrew this depends on the formative letters.” We respond. (1) Even if it were granted that the need for vowel points is not absolute, yet it would only follow that some copies of the Bible could at one time have lacked points, but not that all of them actually lacked them. (2) Although letters are used particularly for the inflection of nouns and verbs, the roots themselves, when the genuine points are removed and others substituted, produce another and far different meaning. (3) It is known to those skilled in Hebrew that the vowel points do perform a function for the actual inflection of verbs and nouns: 
can be read 
, “my word”; 
, “my words”; and 
, “words” (in construct). (4) There are many significatory words without formative [nonroot] letters; these are either roots themselves or derivations of roots through different vowel pointing alone.