What is the Masoretic Text of the Bible?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

When people speak about the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, it can sound as though there has always been one universally identical Hebrew text passed down from generation to generation. The history of the biblical text, however, is considerably more complicated. Long before modern printed Bibles existed, Jewish scribes copied, preserved, compared, corrected, and interpreted biblical manuscripts across many centuries. The textual tradition that eventually became dominant in Judaism is known as the Masoretic Text.

In this article, I’ll explain what the Masoretic Text is, how scribes preserved and standardized it, the diversity that existed within the Hebrew textual tradition, and the manuscripts and traditions that preceded it. I’ll also compare the Masoretic Text with other ancient Hebrew Bible versions to see where these ancient witnesses differ.

Want to understand the origins of the Hebrew Bible? Check out our course with Dr. Joel Baden!

What Is the Masoretic Text?

In Rabbinic Judaism, the Masoretic Text is considered the official Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Hebrew Scriptures. Its name comes from the Hebrew word masorah, meaning “tradition.” Dr. Emanuel Tov notes that while it is often thought of as a single text, it is actually “a group of manuscripts closely related to each other.” These scholars transmitted and meticulously annotated an already ancient Hebrew textual tradition, while developing systems for recording pronunciation, cantillation, and textual details.

The written form of biblical Hebrew used an alphabet of 22 consonants and no written vowels. Ancient readers relied on a long oral tradition and contextual clues to supply the correct vowel sounds. However, even with these, pronunciation and meaning were vulnerable to mistakes over time.

Think of it like this: if English had only consonants, how would you decipher a word written without vowels as BCK? Is it BACK? BUCK? BECK? You could only know if someone told you the correct pronunciation directly and if the word made sense in the context of the whole sentence and/or passage.

To alleviate this difficulty, Jewish scribes known as the Masoretes added vowel points and accent marks, still used in modern Hebrew, to standardize correct pronunciation. As an example, the original way to write the Hebrew word shalom, meaning “peace,” was שלום. With vowel markings added by the Masoretes, the word looked like this: שָׁלוֹם. Notice the dot over one letter and the mark underneath another. These indicated the respective “ahh” and the “ohh” vowel sounds of the word shalom.  

In addition, Emanuel Tov notes that the Masoretes added detailed notes in the margins which included precise word counts, letter frequencies, and spelling variations to prevent future copying errors. They also fixed the formal division of books, paragraphs, and verses.

Within Judaism, the Masoretic Text remains the traditional standard for the Jewish canon used today. It also serves as the primary base text for the Old Testament in most modern Protestant and Catholic Bible translations. The oldest complete surviving copy of the Masoretic Text is called the Leningrad Codex, completed in 1008 or 1009 CE. 

Other incomplete manuscripts of the text included the Aleppo Codex (920 to 930 CE) which was badly damaged and lost portions during the 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo; roughly 40% of the estimated original manuscript is now missing, including most of the Torah. Finally, there is Codex Cairensis (traditionally dated to 895 CE, although modern radiocarbon research indicates an 11th-century origin), which contained the prophetic writings but also has many parts damaged or missing.

(Affiliate Disclaimer: We may earn commissions on products you purchase through this page at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site!)

Diversity Within the Masoretic Text Family

The Masoretic Text (MT) family, (remember that the MT was based on related manuscripts) is internally varied across historical periods, regional traditions, and scribal schools. While medieval codices were eventually standardized, earlier proto-Masoretic textual witnesses (more on this later) and competing traditions show that there was a shifting background of minor textual, orthographic, and vocalization variants.

For instance, Menachem Cohen notes that biblical texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls show that “the Qumran scribes did not have the notion of an ‘ideal’ text in the exact image of the current MT.” In other words, even within the scribal culture of Qumran, there were acceptable differences between copies of biblical texts. In fact, Cohen writes that many of the differences that occurred were left up to individual scribes:

The Qumran manuscripts demonstrate that multiple textual forms of biblical books circulated during the Second Temple period, including manuscripts closely related to the later Masoretic tradition, as well as other textual forms.

However, efforts at a strict standardization of the Hebrew Bible began in the medieval period. Two rival scholarly families in the 9th and 10th-century, Ben Asher and Ben Naftali disagreed on correct vocalization, accenting, and precise spelling. However, Ben Asher's tradition gradually gained preference, and Maimonides' influential 12th-century endorsement of a Ben Asher codex greatly strengthened its authority and contributed to the decline of the competing Ben Naftali tradition.

What Manuscripts Did the Masoretes Use?

Since they were writing over the course of several centuries, the Masoretes did not work from a single external manuscript but from many ancient Hebrew textual traditions (often collectively called the proto-Masoretic text) that dated back to at least the 1st century CE. Working primarily in Tiberias and Palestine between the 7th and 10th centuries, they compared older master scrolls and codices, added diacritical marks, and compiled their own authoritative standard manuscripts.

Discussion of the Masoretes’ sources begins with the proto-Masoretic text. The Masoretes inherited an already-established Hebrew textual tradition whose antecedents can be traced through ancient manuscripts, including proto-Masoretic texts from the Judean Desert. However, regional differences in these traditions produced different textual traditions, as Emanuel Tov writes,

However, the Masoretes did not draw from the Septuagint, only from inherited Hebrew consonantal texts.

Then, with the medieval advent of the Ben Asher and Ben Naftali traditions, these rival scholarly families in the city of Tiberias in Galilee, compiled different authoritative master copies, leading to two distinct prominent systems of vocalization and accentuation. There were also earlier lost master copies cited by the Masoretes, including the Codex Hilleli, Codex Mugah, and the Codex Babylonian.

Comparing the Masoretic Text and Other Textual Witnesses

The four primary ancient textual traditions used for modern textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible are the Masoretic Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. These differ significantly in language, date, and textual families. They are also the principal textual witnesses used in modern Bible translations. 

We’ve already looked at the Masoretic Text’s tradition, but a brief comparison of the other three ancient sources can illustrate how and why they are often used in conjunction with the Masoretic Text as sources for modern biblical translations.

Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS)

The various manuscripts of books from the Hebrew Bible found among the DSS are written primarily in Hebrew, with some Aramaic and Greek. As a whole, they were written between about 250 BCE and 68 CE. They were discovered in the Qumran caves between 1947 and 1956. The DSS are certainly useful for textual critics since they predate the MT by about 1,000 years and contain fragments of every Hebrew Bible book except Esther. 

Additionally, they demonstrate that while a proto-Masoretic text type (a “text type” is a distinct grouping of ancient manuscripts that share a common pattern of variations and readings) represents the majority, other diverse textual families circulated freely during the Second Temple period. However, Andrew Perrin notes that when compared with the MT, the DSS “revealed that, in most instances, [the MT’s] content is a reliable representation of Scripture in antiquity.”

Septuagint (LXX)

The LXX was written entirely in Koine Greek. Scholars have determined that it was translated from Hebrew progressively from the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE, starting in Alexandria, Egypt. It was used by the Jewish diaspora and later adopted by the early Christian Church, which is why the majority of Hebrew Bible quotes used by New Testament authors come from the Septuagint translation, according to Gilles Dorival. 

The LXX often reflects a shorter or alternative Hebrew parent text compared to the MT and has some different numerical calculations and chronology in Genesis. Perrin notes that wherever the LXX differed from the MT, the traditional scholarly assumption was that the Greek translators had erred. However, many of the LXX readings found Hebrew parallels in the DSS, meaning that the LXX indeed represented a valid ancient form of the Hebrew Bible.

Samaritan Pentateuch (SP)

Samaria was and is a region in central Palestine. Its ancient inhabitants follow a distinct form of Judaism, accepting only the first five books of the Bible as divine law and worshipping on Mount Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem.

The Samaritan Pentateuch or Torah was written in Hebrew, albeit in the distinct Samaritan script. While the movement split much earlier the specific manuscript tradition of the SP formed around the 2nd century BCE. Although the SP contains only the first five books of the Bible, Robert Anderson and Terry Giles note that it features around 6,000 differences from the MT. Many are simply minor spelling changes, but theological alterations designate Mount Gerizim as God's chosen holy site, resulting in an additional Commandment to accompany the ten well-known ones.

Textual Variants Between the Various Witnesses

With so many ancient scribal traditions attempting to reproduce the Hebrew Bible, it was inevitable that textual variants would occur. The following are a few examples.

Genesis 2:2

This verse says that God finished creating the world and then rested. However, the MT says that God finished his work on the seventh day. By contrast, the SP and LXX say that God finished His work on the sixth day (before the seventh-day rest). In his book The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, Emanuel Tov argues that scribes or translators may have changed "seventh" to "sixth" to prevent any misunderstanding that God performed work on the Sabbath.

Exodus 1:5

In this verse, the MT and SP both say that the total number of children born to Jacob was 70. However, the LXX and the DSS say the total number is 75, matching the total when including specific descendants of Joseph. In Exodus: A Commentary on the Greek Text of Codex Vaticanus, Daniel Gurtner writes that the larger number may reflect different ideas of who officially counts as a family member.

Deuteronomy 32:8

In the MT & SP, this verse says God set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the "sons of Israel" (bənê yiśrāʾēl). But the LXX reads "angels of God" (angelōn theou) or sons of God in some traditions, reflecting an ancient divine council worldview. Finally the DSS manuscript 4QDeutʲ says "sons of God" (bənê ʾělōhîm), aligning with the Hebrew text underlying the Septuagint and differing from the later Masoretic change. 

What accounts for these differences? Emanuel Tov argues that “sons of Israel” is an example of scribes altering the text to remove polytheistic imagery, where the Most High assigns different nations to lesser divine guardians or gods before choosing Israel for Himself.

Conclusion

The Masoretic Text is not simply a single ancient manuscript handed down unchanged from the biblical authors to the present day. Rather, it is the culmination of centuries of Jewish scribal and scholarly tradition. 

The scribes known as the Masoretes inherited an already ancient Hebrew consonantal tradition and preserved it through meticulous copying, and added vowel points, accent marks, and extensive marginal notes to establish and protect a standardized reading tradition. The medieval Masoretic codices, particularly the Aleppo and Leningrad Codices, ultimately became the foundation of the textual tradition used in Rabbinic Judaism and much of the modern Christian Old Testament.

At the same time, the evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, and Samaritan Pentateuch demonstrates that the history of the Hebrew Bible was more complex than the existence of the medieval MT might initially suggest. 

Different textual forms circulated in antiquity, sometimes differing in spelling, wording, chronology, and even theological emphasis. Yet these differences do not mean that the Masoretic Text is unreliable. On the contrary, comparison with much earlier manuscripts shows that the MT frequently preserves a remarkably ancient form of the biblical text, even though particular passages sometimes preserve readings that differ from other ancient witnesses.

The Masoretic Text is consequently best understood not as the beginning of the Bible's textual history, but as a major endpoint in a long process of transmission, preservation, interpretation, and standardization. Its importance lies not only in what it says, but also in the remarkable history of how Jewish scribes preserved, documented, and transmitted the Hebrew Scriptures across centuries.

Interested in the topic of this article? Then you should check out the upcoming Biblical Studies Symposium hosted by Bart Ehrman. It’s a one-day online event scheduled for Saturday, November 21, 2026. Streamed live worldwide, it features leading scholars discussing the origins of the Bible, paired sessions comparing the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and a closing debate on eyewitness testimony in the Gospels.