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Portion of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, Leviticus 11:42, where the Hebrew letter Waw is enlarged to make it stand out as the middle letter of the Pentateuch.

Portion of the Aleppo Codex at Psalm 80:14 (English, verse 13), showing where the Hebrew letter ʽAʹyin is suspended to indicate it is the middle letter of the Psalms.

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This ability to determine where the middle letter was to be found shows that the Masoretes had counted the letters of the entire text of the five books written by Moses and of the Psalms. It reflects the extreme care taken by copyists to transmit the Bible accurately.

How was it possible to transmit the Bible over a much longer period of time and yet with such accuracy that we can be certain of the authenticity of its present form?

First, most of those who copied, or assisted in copying, the Bible had great respect for it and its Divine Author. The Masoretes (a group of Jewish Bible scholars who lived between the sixth and tenth centuries C.E.) are known to have painstakingly counted every individual letter of the Bible text so as to avoid making any mistake or even omitting a single letter from the Holy Writings. This reliable method may have been used even long before their time to avoid making mistakes in copying the Bible. It was possibly in reference to this habit of copyists that Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Sooner would heaven and earth pass away than for one smallest letter or one particle of a letter to pass away from the Law by any means and not all things take place.”​—Matthew 5:18.

This endeavor by copyists to maintain the purity and accuracy of the Bible text explains why the Dead Sea Scrolls of the first and second centuries B.C.E., containing among other things the entire book of Isaiah, match almost exactly the text we have at present.

Second, the majority of these scholars and copyists were only interested in what was involved​—transmitting the sacred text—​not in getting any credit for themselves. In fact, these men often sacrificed personal honor, possessions, health, and even life itself, to make sure that the manuscripts were correctly copied or were placed in the hands of scholars who would use them to help preserve the Bible text.

Konstantin von Tischendorf, for example, was willing to risk the dangers of the wilderness and of a trip through the desert, in the mid-19th century, in order to secure one of the 4th century’s most reliable Bible manuscripts. He had previously discovered it in a wastepaper basket in the monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai.

Third, many of the individuals who were so intensely interested in transmitting the Bible text accurately had great love for God’s Word. Like a writer of the Psalms, they took delight in God’s Word and rejoiced in making the Bible text available to others.​—Psalm 1:1, 2.

Fourth, and most important, it should not be forgotten that the Divine Author of the Bible inspired the original writing of the Holy Scriptures. He gave the men who worked on the Bible the decisive help they needed to write down things that have aroused in man his deepest emotions and have helped in “setting things straight” for him. (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) It is logical that he would oversee a faithful transmittal of his Word down to our present day.