The Manuscripts of the Old Testament – The Masoretic Text

Over the next few posts, we will look at the most important manuscripts of the Old Testament. We begin with what is generally considered the most important Old Testament text – the Masoretic Text. This text serves as the basis for most Hebrew texts today, and serves as the main Old Testament text family for most modern translations of the Bible.

The Masoretes were Jewish scribes who copied the Hebrew text from approximately 500AD to 1100AD. The Masoretes strove to faithfully copy the texts given to them. However, they introduced something new in the history of Hebrew texts – vowels! Until this time vowels had been pronounced when the text was read but they had never been written. Though this sounds strange to English speakers, it is common in Semitic languages – and is even common practice in modern Hebrew!

The Masoretes took their task very seriously. Thus, these Old Testament texts were meticulously maintained, even to the point of copying what was actually written (the kethiv – what is written) even if it was not what the Masoretes actually thought was correct and read in the synagogue (qere – what is read). They wanted to make sure to preserve the text as it had been handed down to them!

The Leningrad Codex (circa 1000 AD) is a Masoretic text that is the basis of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) – the most popular Hebrew text in use today. This is the Hebrew text consulted by most modern translators and scholars. It is the one I used in seminary and the one that I consult when studying the Old Testament today.

As noted above, the Masoretes were meticulous scribes. However, their work was separated from the original autographs of the Old Testament writings by at least 1,000 years – and often far more than that. Thus, scholars had long hoped for Hebrew texts much closer in time to the original documents. Next time we will look at the Dead Sea Scrolls – which did exactly that.

In Christ,

Bret