Meet The Puritans

What Can We Learn from John Owen on the Hebrew Vowel Points?

Posted on 15. Mar, 2010 by Ryan McGraw in John Owen

John Owen believed that the vowel points of the Hebrew Scriptures were divinely inspired and given through Moses. On the basis of the idea that it would be impossible to read the Hebrew text without the vowel points, Owen viewed it as blasphemous to assert that the vowel points originated with the Masoretic scribes, since this would threaten the integrity and the authority of the text of Holy Scripture. The idea here is that a group of scribes known as the Masoretes added the vowel points between the seventh and eleventh centuries, while making their hand copies of the Hebrew Bible. Today, most students of the Hebrew text, both liberal and conservative, take for granted the later origination of the vowel points through the Masoretic scribes. Owen’s contention that the text could not be read without the vowel points is demonstrated to be wrong even by the simple fact that newspapers in modern Israel do not include the vowel points unless there is need for clarification. Because Owen saw the authority of Scripture itself bound up with the vowel points, he often criticized his opponents sharply, even harshly at times (John Owen, Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam To Christ, trans. Stephen P. Westcott [Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1994], 499–500). In spite of this fact, we have much to learn from Owen’s teaching on the vowel points. Owen’s criticisms of the unbelieving “scholarship” of his time provide an excellent model for how we should study the Bible today.

1. “Boldness and industry” wedded to scholarship leads to great error (Biblical Theology, 498). Pride with intense labor in influential positions can do great harm to the Church.
2. “The greater gain and reputation . . .” leads to increased boldness in dishonoring Scripture (Biblical Theology, 503). Today this is often hidden under the guise of “progress” in theology.  Do we love the praise of men more than the praise of God?
3. Be wary of “naked conjectures and unsupported claims” (Biblical Theology, 505).
4. Beware of only accepting evidence that “contributes to the furtherance of [our] own cause” (Biblical Theology, 509). In a sense Owen was guilty of this by presupposing the divine inspiration of the Hebrew vowel points, but the truth is that we all come to the text and doctrines of Scripture with our own presuppositions. We must be willing to come to Scripture with a willingness to criticize and correct the causes we have adopted, rather than to twist Scripture to affirm what we already believe.
5. A scholarly thirst for continual “advances” is dangerous (Biblical Theology, 513). For many scholars, “advancement” is equivalent to change and novelty. For us as believers, however, “advancement” should equal a clearer understanding and application of Scripture.
6. Convictions cannot be formed by a “display of authorities,” but by Scripture only (Biblical Theology, 519). “No man is more ready than I to give due reverence to the names and reputations of great scholars, but still it would be a sheer waste of time to bother to undertake a refutation of some of the ‘reasons’ which are advanced, while even in our own day the converse camp may boast of names as great, of reputations in literature as notable, as any of theirs.”
7. Do not trust sources cited by reputable scholars without verifying them (Biblical Theology, 519). How often do we act as though a well-respected pastor or professor cannot possibly be wrong in his area of expertise?
8. Truth is not determined or denied by the ability or inability of scholars to understand it (Biblical Theology, 527–528). “Shall man sit in judgment of the Word of God, using the measuring rod of their own admitted ignorance? Is this fair dealing? I, for one, have greater hopes of him who professes to know nothing than he who claims to know everything!”

May we follow Owen’s counsel so that we may contend for the truth once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). As we benefit from the work of gifted men, may we learn to call no man teacher or father (Matt. 23:8–10). May we learn from the Father, as we come to him through the Son, and as the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth by and with the Scriptures in our hearts.

Tags: Bible, Hebrew, Old Testament, Owen, vowels