18. (a) Who were the Masoretes, and what valuable comments have they made on the Hebrew text? (b) What are some examples of their corrections, as noted in the New World Translation?

¹⁸ The Masora Reveals Alterations. The scribal successors of the Sopherim in the centuries after Christ came to be known as the Masoretes. These took note of the alterations made by the earlier Sopherim, recording them in the margin or at the end of the Hebrew text. These marginal notes came to be known as the Masora. The Masora listed the 15 extraordinary points of the Sopherim, namely, 15 words or phrases in the Hebrew text that had been marked by dots or strokes. Some of these extraordinary points do not affect the English translation or the interpretation, but others do and are of importance.h The Sopherim allowed their superstitious fear of pronouncing the name Jehovah to ensnare them into altering it to read ʼAdho·naiʹ (Lord) at 134 places and to read ʼElo·himʹ (God) in some instances. The Masora lists these changes.i The Sopherim or early scribes are also charged with making at least 18 emendations (corrections), according to a note in the Masora, though there evidently were even more.j These emendations were very likely made with good intentions because the original passage appeared to show either irreverence for God or disrespect for his earthly representatives.

The Masoretes made no changes whatsoever in the texts that they transmitted but recorded marginal notes in the Masora as they saw fit. They exercised great care to take no textual liberties. Additionally, in their Masora, they drew attention to textual peculiarities and gave corrected readings they considered necessary.