But this was really the last
great effort. That the case was lost was seen by the fact that
Danzius felt obliged to use other missiles than arguments, and
especially to call his opponents hard names. From this period the
old sacred theory as to the origin of the Hebrew points may be
considered as dead and buried.
II. THE SACRED THEORY OF LANGUAGE IN ITS SECOND FORM.
But the war was soon to be waged on a wider and far more
important field. The inspiration of the Hebrew punctuation having
been given up, the great orthodox body fell back upon the
remainder of the theory, and intrenched this more strongly than
ever: the theory that the Hebrew language was the first of all
languages--that which was spoken by the Almighty, given by him to
Adam, transmitted through Noah to the world after the Deluge--and
that the "confusion of tongues" was the origin of all other languages.
In giving account of this new phase of the struggle, it is
well to go back a little. From the Revival of Learning and the
Reformation had come the renewed study of Hebrew in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, and thus the sacred doctrine regarding
the origin of the Hebrew language received additional authority.
Pages:
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045