Saul’s Age & the Math That Doesn’t Add Up. When God Lets the Numbers Blur to Expose the Heart. The opening line of 1 Samuel 13 has long puzzled readers and translators alike: “Saul was … years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel.” Both numbers are missing. The Hebrew Masoretic Text leaves blanks where digits should be. Every translation since has been forced to guess.

The Masoretic Text: What It Is—And What It’s Not. If you’ve ever read a Bible that didn’t include the so-called “Apocrypha,” or noticed differences in Old Testament quotations between your Bible and the New Testament authors, you’ve likely encountered the effects of the Masoretic Text (MT). But what is it, really? Where did it come from? And why does it matter?