MT, DSS, and LXX — A Comparison

The Masoretic Text, the Scrolls, and the Septuagint — A Comparison

How the three great witnesses agree and differ

The three principal witnesses to the Old Testament text are the Masoretic Hebrew (MT), the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), and the Greek Septuagint (LXX). For most of Scripture they agree closely; but in a number of places they diverge, and the differences are instructive. The table below sets out the general character of each, with representative kinds of difference.

Witness

Language / Date

Character

Masoretic Text

Hebrew; fixed 6th–10th c. CE

The received Jewish text; consonants ancient, vowels and notes added; transmitted with great care.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Hebrew (and Aramaic); 3rd c. BCE – 1st c. CE

The oldest copies; sometimes agree with MT, sometimes with LXX or the Samaritan text, sometimes unique.

Septuagint

Greek; 3rd–1st c. BCE

The oldest translation; for some books rests on an older or different Hebrew than the MT.

Representative kinds of difference

Length: in Jeremiah the LXX is about one-seventh shorter than the MT, and orders some passages differently; a short Hebrew form like the LXX has been found among the Scrolls.

Wording: in Deuteronomy 32 and in 1 Samuel, the Scrolls often agree with the LXX against the MT, showing the LXX rests on a real Hebrew variant.

Numbers and chronology: the ages in the genealogies of Genesis differ between the MT, the LXX, and the Samaritan text.

Additions: the LXX carries the deuterocanonical books and the additions to Daniel and Esther, not in the Hebrew canon.

The lesson of the comparison is that no single witness preserves the original text perfectly at every point. The restored text seeks the earliest recoverable reading, weighing the three together, and noting honestly where they cannot be reconciled.