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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.