to answer these questions, we must delve into a bit of history of the text. This history usually begins by affirming that the most important witnesses to the original text of the Old Testament are found in the Hebrew manuscripts. There are three major sources for these Hebrew witnesses: (1) the Masoretic Text, a Hebrew text preserved by a group of Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes (A.D. 500–1000); (2) the Samaritan Pentateuch; and (3) the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Judean Desert at Qumran.