This monumental work was begun around the 6th century ad and completed in the 10th by scholars at Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine, in an effort to reproduce, as far as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament.

Is the Masoretic Text the oldest?

The oldest manuscript fragments of final Masoretic Text, including vocalications and the masorah, date from around the 9th century. ... The Aleppo Codex, once the oldest-known complete copy but missing large sections since the 1947 Civil war in Palestine, dates from the 10th century.

Who created the Masoretic text?

The system of masoretic symbols was developed by the Masoretes of Tiberias on the sea of Galilee around the 10th century CE. The Tiberian masoretic system superseded the Palestinian and Babylonian systems, which date to the 6th century CE and are less detailed.