The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew version of the Scriptures in Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source for many English translations of the Old Testament. It is named for the Masoretes, a group of meticulous Jewish scribes who copied the text during the 7^th to 10^th centuries AD.

Discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls have largely verified the accuracy with which the Masoretic Text preserved the precise wording of the ancient Hebrew text of the Old Testament, though in some cases such discoveries also vindicated many of the variant readings that are found in the Septuagint and not in the Masoretic Text.

One must also remember that Hebrew is written with only consonants, and the practice of indicating vowels with dots and other such points did not develop until much later in history, so the vowel pointing in the Masoretic manuscripts may in some cases reflect the interpretation of later scribes. That said, the Masoretic Text has proven to be extremely accurate preservation of the books of the Old Testament.