Scripture's witness to points continued: iota and tittle; late punctuation is impossible
The Scriptural argument continues from Luke 16:17, where the keraia — the "tittle" or little horn — is distinguished from the jota, which is the least of the letters and therefore does not belong to their bare shape, as Erpenius holds in the Arcanum of revealed punctuation and Capellus in the Myrothecium. Rather it is beyond doubt the tiniest mark: among the vowels the upper holem, the middle segol, the lower hireq; among the accents, rebia. Nor may one take refuge here in the apices of the Samaritan Bibles and Scripture, of which Jerome speaks in the preface to the books of Kings. For besides the fact that that writing too is done without points, as some note, Christ speaks of the Law, and indeed of authentic Scripture which the Jews had received. Erpenius and Capellus deny that the tittle signifies some little body separate from the letters, and the rabbis do have certain keraiai — tagin, or little crowns — set on letters even in unpointed books; yet it is not likely Christ is so taken here, because a letter's flourish in writing often either perishes or is lengthened, and varies strangely at times. Christ's saying stands best if He is believed to have said: No letter, nor point, and so not even the least of them, will be changed in the Law.
(6) It is impossible. For those who assert the novelty of the points are driven either to say that certain points are missing from the letters, or to set up something analogous to them. Johannes Drusius (Animadversiones 2.60) does not deny that diacritical points occur in a codex before Jerome's time — after which the rabbis themselves say they undertook the work of pointing. Schickard, when in Mishpat ha-melekh he treats the writing of the royal Bibles in the Old Testament and explains a rabbinic saying that mentions pointed letters, says: The points it mentions here are not vowels and accents, but certain extraordinary points. For the rest, as those copies lack vowels, so in turn they have something else our codices do not know — namely very frequent apices, not arbitrary but in a fixed number and in due places, which they call tagin or little crowns, because as a beth stands high on kings' heads, so these stand out above the words.
Latin
Luc. 16.17. ubi κεραία corniculum distinguitur a jota, quae minima literarum est, ideoque ad harum nudam formam haud pertinet, ut vult D. Erpenius in Arcano punct. revelato & Capellus in Myrothecio: sed minutissimum punctum proculdubio est, quod ex vocalibus superius est holem, in medio segol, inferius chirec; ex accentibus vero est rebia. Neque est quod quis hic ad apices Bibliorum & Scripturae Samaritanae confugiat, de qua Hieronymus praefatione ad libros Regum. Nam praeter quod & illa sine punctis scribatur, ut quidam annotant, loquitur Christus de lege, & quidem authenticae Scripturae, quae a Judaeis recepta erat. D. Erpenius & Capellus negant quidem corniculum significare aliquod a literis separatum corpusculum, & Rabini habent quasdam κεραίας, Tagin, seu coronulas literis impositas etiam in libris non punctatis: at hic ita a Christo accipi non sit verisimile, quia literarum corniculum inter scribendum saepe vel perit vel producitur, mireque interdum variat. Optime vero constat Christi sermo, si dixisse credatur: Nulla litera, neque punctum, adeoque nec minimum quidem illorum mutabitur in lege. 6. Impossibilis est, quia qui punctorum novitatem afferunt, vel puncta quaedam literis carere, vel iis aliquid analogum constituere coguntur. Johannes Drusius lib. 2. animadv. c. 60. diacritica puncta non negat in codice occurrisse ante tempora Hieronymi, post quae demum opus punctandi Rabini aggressi ipsi dicuntur. Schickhardus cum in Mischpat hammelech c. 2. th. 5. §. 5. de scriptione Bibliorum Regiorum in Vet. T. agit & explicat dictum Rabinicum, in quo literarum punctatarum mentio fit: Puncta, inquit, quorum hic meminit, non sunt vocales & accentus, sed extraordinaria quaedam puncta intelligit. Ceterum, ut vocalibus carent, ita vicissim quid aliud habent, quod nostri codices ignorant, nempe creberrimos apices non arbitrarie, sed certo numero debitisque locis impositos, quos Tagin sive coronulas nominant, quia ut beth in capitibus regum, sic illi supra voces eminent.