Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>]

>>      But if you are using the Massoretic text, you are very much
>> effectively bound to the Massoretic marks.
>
>Who says?
>
>If you can point me to a consonantal text that is both better and
>older than the Masoretic text, I will gladly use that instead. In the
>meanwhile, an unpointed Masoretic text is better than nothing.

It depends on what you mean by "better," of course.

The DSS are older and frequently have more accurate texts.

In my NYU book I review some of the evidence for the historical
authenticity of the Masoretic text.

Wurthwien's _The Text of the Old Testament_ and Tov's _Textual
Criticism of the Hebrew Bible_ (both on my reading list:

          http://www.exc.com/JoelHoffman/ReadingList.html

) contain accounts of the fairly-well-known evidence about the
Masoretic text, and of the various alternatives to it.

-Joel M. Hoffman
 http://www.exc.com/JoelHoffman