Church History · About AD 600 to 1008

The Masoretes Guard the Hebrew Bible

From about AD 600 to 1000, Jewish scribes called the Masoretes added vowel marks, chanting marks and careful notes to the Hebrew Bible. Their work produced the Aleppo Codex around 930 and the Leningrad Codex of 1008, the oldest complete Hebrew Bible we have.

Read it in the Bible: Matthew 5:18 Romans 3:2 Isaiah 40:8

The Masoretes were Jewish scribes who worked from about AD 600 to 1000, mostly in Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee. They did not change the words of the Hebrew Bible. They protected them. They added small marks to show the vowels and the way each verse should be read aloud, and they filled the margins with notes that tracked spelling and letter counts. Their finished text is called the Masoretic Text, and it is the Hebrew text behind the Old Testament in almost every English Bible today, including The Owner's Manual.

What Does Masoretic Mean?

The name comes from the Hebrew word masorah, which means tradition, the thing that is handed down. The Masoretes saw themselves as guardians of the text that had been handed down to them. Their job was to make sure it got passed on exactly as they received it.

Why Did the Hebrew Bible Need Vowels?

Hebrew was written with consonants only. Imagine reading English that way. The letters "bk" could be book, bike or bake. Readers who grew up hearing the text read in synagogue knew the right words. But as Jews scattered across the world and spoke other languages, the risk of losing the sound of the text grew.

So the Masoretes created a system of dots and dashes placed above and below the letters. These vowel points show how each word is pronounced. They also added accent marks that show where a verse pauses and how to chant it. Crucially, they did not touch the letters themselves. The consonants were sacred, so the new marks went around them.

One small example matters for every Bible reader. Out of reverence, Jews did not say God's name, YHWH, out loud. They said Adonai, which means Lord. The Masoretes put the vowels of Adonai under YHWH as a reminder to readers. Centuries later, Christian scholars mixed the letters and vowels together and got the name Jehovah. Most scholars today think the name was pronounced closer to Yahweh, which is why The Owner's Manual uses Yahweh. See How It Was Translated on this site.

How Careful Were the Masoretes?

Extremely. In the margins they wrote notes called the Masorah. These notes record how often a word appears, flag unusual spellings, and mark where the reading tradition says a word should be read differently from how it is written. They even counted letters and words and noted the middle verse and middle letter of the Torah. If a copy came out with a different count, the scribe knew something was wrong.

That might sound a little obsessive. It was. It was also love. Jesus spoke with the same kind of care for the smallest parts of Scripture.

For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:18

What Is the Aleppo Codex?

The Aleppo Codex is a beautiful handwritten Hebrew Bible made in Tiberias around AD 930. The vowels and notes are credited to Aaron ben Asher, the most famous Masorete. It became the standard copy that other scribes checked against. The great Jewish teacher Maimonides is widely believed to have praised it in the 1100s.

For centuries it was kept in the synagogue of Aleppo, Syria. In 1947, riots broke out there and the synagogue was burned. Much of the codex survived, but almost 200 pages went missing, including nearly all of the five books of Moses. What remains was smuggled to Israel in the late 1950s and is now kept at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

What Is the Leningrad Codex?

The Leningrad Codex was copied in Cairo, and its note at the end dates it to 1008. It follows the Ben Asher tradition closely. Unlike the Aleppo Codex, it is complete. It is the oldest complete Hebrew Bible in the world.

It is called the Leningrad Codex because it is kept in the national library in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which was called Leningrad when scholars began using it. Because it is complete and reliable, it is the base for the standard printed Hebrew Bible scholars use today, the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. When modern translators open their Hebrew Bible, this is very likely the text in front of them.

How Do We Know the Masoretic Text Is Accurate?

For a long time, the Masoretic manuscripts from around AD 1000 were the oldest Hebrew Bibles anyone had. Skeptics wondered how much had changed over the many centuries before that. Then in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They include copies of Old Testament books about a thousand years older than the Leningrad Codex.

The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran agrees with the Masoretic Isaiah in the vast majority of its words. Most differences are spelling and small details that don't change the meaning. The scrolls also show that a few other forms of the text existed, some closer to the Septuagint, which is why modern translations sometimes note other readings in the footnotes. Overall, they show the Masoretes were guarding something very old. Read more in the Dead Sea Scrolls article and the Old Testament Introduction on this site.

Why It Matters for You Today

When you read the Old Testament in English, you are standing on the shoulders of scribes who spent their whole lives counting letters so that you could trust what you read. Paul said the Jewish people had been given a sacred trust.

Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. Romans 3:2

The Masoretes took that trust seriously. Christians owe them a big thank you, and God's promise stands behind their work.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

Get Nate's Highlighting Guide Free

Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Questions People Ask

What is the Masoretic Text?

The Masoretic Text is the traditional Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible as preserved by scribes called the Masoretes between about AD 600 and 1000. They added vowel marks, chanting marks and notes without changing the letters. It is the main base for the Old Testament in most English Bibles.

What is the oldest complete Hebrew Bible?

The Leningrad Codex, dated to 1008, is the oldest complete Hebrew Bible. It is kept in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and is the basis of the standard scholarly Hebrew Bible used by translators today.

What happened to the Aleppo Codex?

The Aleppo Codex, written around 930, was damaged when the synagogue in Aleppo, Syria, was burned during riots in 1947. Almost 200 pages were lost, including most of the Torah. The surviving pages are kept at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Do the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Masoretic Text?

Many of them match it very closely, especially the Great Isaiah Scroll, even though they are about a thousand years older. The scrolls also show that a few other forms of the text existed. Overall, they show the Masoretic Text preserves a very ancient text with great care.

Sources

← Charlemagne Is Crowned Emperor The Great Schism: East and West Split →

See the whole Church History