<P> The current received text finally achieved predominance through the reputation of the Masoretes , schools of scribes and Torah scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries , based primarily in the Land of Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem , and in Babylonia . According to Menachem Cohen these schools developed such prestige for the accuracy and error - control of their copying techniques that their texts established an authority beyond all others . Differences remained , sometimes bolstered by systematic local differences in pronunciation and cantillation . Every locality , following the tradition of its school , had a standard codex embodying its readings . In Babylonia the school of Sura differed from that of Nehardea ; and similar differences existed in the schools of the Land of Israel as against that at Tiberias , which in later times increasingly became the chief seat of learning . In this period living tradition ceased , and the Masoretes in preparing their codices usually followed the one school or the other , examining , however , standard codices of other schools and noting their differences . </P>
<P> The current received text finally achieved predominance through the reputation of the Masoretes , schools of scribes and Torah scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries , based primarily in the Land of Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem , and in Babylonia . According to Menachem Cohen these schools developed such prestige for the accuracy and error - control of their copying techniques that their texts established an authority beyond all others . Differences remained , sometimes bolstered by systematic local differences in pronunciation and cantillation . Every locality , following the tradition of its school , had a standard codex embodying its readings . In Babylonia the school of Sura differed from that of Nehardea ; and similar differences existed in the schools of the Land of Israel as against that at Tiberias , which in later times increasingly became the chief seat of learning . In this period living tradition ceased , and the Masoretes in preparing their codices usually followed the one school or the other , examining , however , standard codices of other schools and noting their differences . </P>
what were the scribes called who preserved the old testament text
what were the scribes called who preserved the old testament text
Masoretes
Masoretes