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What a ridiculous argument you make! There weren't vowels and punctuation in the Hebrew written Scriptures so you can pull out whatever you want because of an emanation of a penumbra (where have we heard THAT argument before)? You expect everyone to accept your religion based upon oral tradition then castigate Christians? Tell me, do you accept the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures)? Were they able to translate from Hebrew to Greek by relying upon the written language?

Why is it you only see our arguments as "Protestant" vs. Catholic and unrelated to the arguments against your sect yet presume you are not doing the same thing? We are not "rejecting" everything not written in the Bible - as you should know that sola Scriptura means that the Divinely inspired Scriptures are the authority by which all truth claims should be measured. Jesus showed his followers THROUGH Moses, the prophets and the Psalms everything that was spoken of HIM. He proved he was who he claimed to be by the Scriptures. I guess you would conclude people that believed him were stupid and ill-informed back then but they saw his miracles, they searched the Scriptures, they saw the changes in others lives and in their own that he worked within them.

I don't expect you to take my words on faith, but you owe it to yourself to do quite a bit more research and praying before you jeopardize your soul for eternity. I'm praying for you. May God grant you to see the truth for yourself without the veil of confusion.

Tell me, do you accept the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures)? Were they able to translate from Hebrew to Greek by relying upon the written language?

Now BB, this is a really good and telling point as to the question of presence or absence of vowels in the written Hebrew. Jesus Himself spoke of the preservation of every jot and tittle in the (written) Law:

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Mt. 5:18 AV, cf Lk. 16:17). To pinpoint what He said, the letter "yodh" is the smallest consonant in the Hebrew alphabet ( י ), is rendered in the Koine as ιωτα (pronounced yota) and Anglicized as "jot". In English "tittle" comes frpm "tit" meaning a single dot, like a period, and is the translation for κεραια (pronounced ker-ee-ah) in the Greek, which is the translation of the smallest element of Hebrew vowel pointing, the dot or chireq ( חִירִיק ) (pronounced as kee-reck) and represented as " . "

Both can be used as punctuation also.

My understanding is that the Hebrew written for Hebrews did not lack vowels or punctuation, but rather having been learned, and the context understood (especially for well-known and memorized Scripture), including the vowel while writing was just too laborious. Probably the vowel pointing system was so that he meaning could be transmitted as an assist to Gentiles or Jews for whom Hebrew was a second language, one of which they were not native speakers.