I can never understand why people use the term “masoretes,” or “masorites,” or any other of the various spellings that I have seen, thinking it refers to any group of people. It seems like these bewildered and foolish people seem to think that it was a group of people from a fictional place called “Masorah” or something. However, in the real world, that cannot be further from the truth.
The confusion here lies within the total lack of understanding of the Hebrew language. The word in question is – מַסּוֹרֶת – massoret which is the construct form, or genitive, or possessive, or whatever you want to call it, of the feminine noun – מַסוֹרָה – masorah; which is related to, but not identical in meaning to the masculine noun – מָסוֹר – masor.
Both of these words come from the root verb – מָסַר –masar, which means “to transmit,” “to deliver,” “to hand over,” “to pass down, etc.” Whereas the masculine version of the noun refers to being a traitor, as in giving vital information to the enemy; the feminine version means tradition, as in handing things down from father to son. And the specific word – מַסּוֹרֶת – massoret means “tradition of.” Therefore massoretic text means “traditional text of.”
“Massoretes” were not a specific group of people from a specific region or anything else; in fact “massoretes” were not a people at all. They were just concerned with Jews in the diaspora forgetting their native language, and wanted to prevent that. They added vowels and accentuation marks and nothing else, as is perfectly visible when comparing the Great Isaiah Scroll with the Aleppo Codex which are 1,100 years apart.
Masorah means passed down tradition; nothing else.
And if Mr. Wick Stick has the specific catalogue number of the document that he is talking about, I certainly would appreciate it. Because after 10 years of working in the field of papyrology, some 35 years ago, I have never heard of such a document.