Masoretic Text

Carpet page from the Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete manuscript of the Masoretic Text
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The Masoretic Text[a] (MT or 𝕸; Hebrew: נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, romanized: Nūssāḥ hamMāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the mas'sora. Referring to the Masoretic Text, masorah specifically means the diacritic markings of the text of the Jewish scriptures and the concise marginal notes in manuscripts (and later printings) of the Tanakh which note textual details, usually about the precise spelling of words. It was primarily copied, edited, and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries of the Common Era (CE). The oldest known complete copy, the Leningrad Codex, dates from the early 11th century CE.[citation needed]

The differences attested to in the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that multiple versions of the Hebrew scriptures already existed by the end of the Second Temple period.[1] Which is closest to a theoretical Urtext is disputed, as is whether such a singular text ever existed.[2] The Dead Sea Scrolls, dating to as early as the 3rd century BCE, contain versions of the text which have some differences with today's Hebrew Bible.[3][1] The Septuagint (a Koine Greek translation made in the third and second centuries BCE) and the Peshitta (a Syriac translation made in the second century CE) occasionally present notable differences from the Masoretic Text, as does the Samaritan Pentateuch, the text of the Torah preserved by the Samaritans in Samaritan Hebrew.[4] Fragments of an ancient 2nd–3rd-century manuscript of the Book of Leviticus found near an ancient synagogue's Torah ark in Ein Gedi have identical wording to the Masoretic Text.[5][6]

The Masoretic Text is the basis for most Protestant translations of the Old Testament such as the King James Version, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, and New International Version.[citation needed] After 1943, it has also been used for some Catholic Bibles, such as the New American Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible.[citation needed] Some Christian denominations instead prefer translations of the Septuagint as it matches quotations in the New Testament.[7]


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  1. ^ a b Tov, Emanuel (1992). Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
  2. ^ Shanks, Herschel (4 August 1992). Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls (1st ed.). Random House. p. 336. ISBN 978-0679414483.
  3. ^ "Piece of coal deciphered as ancient biblical text". 5 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Controversy lurks as scholars try to work out Bible's original text". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  5. ^ "Scanning software deciphers ancient biblical scroll". Associated Press. 21 September 2016.
  6. ^ "From damage to discovery via virtual unwrapping: Reading the scroll from En-Gedi". Science Advances. 21 September 2016.
  7. ^ Pentiuc, Eugen J. (2006). Jesus the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible. Mahwah, NJ, US: Paulist Press. p. xvi.