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MT includes scribal dots under or above letters serving to denote letters that had been deleted by the scribes, as often occurring in the Dead Sea Scrolls. These dots were meant to delete details in the text because it was technically difficult to erase letters in a leather scroll, and these dots were not meant to be copied to the next scroll.

Because of the extreme care taken in copying MT, the dots that appeared in the text from which the proto-MT text was copied were now included in the new copies through the medieval texts and our printed editions.

These dots had to be reinterpreted by the Masoretic tradition and they were now considered doubtful letters. Named »special dots« (puncta extraordinaria) within the Masoretic tradition, these dots, above the letters, show the strength of that tradition in preserving the smallest scribal details. For example:

Lot’s Older Daughter—MT has a dot over the waw of ובקוׄמה (»and when she arose«) in Gen 19:33, which refers to when Lot’s older daughter arose after cohabiting with her father. The rabbis suggest that the dot teaches that although the verse says, »he was not aware of her lying or rising« he was, in fact, aware of her rising. This makes his agreement to drink until intoxicated the next night much more problematic. The original meaning of the dot was simply to erase the letter and make the spelling defective, as it is with the description of the younger daughter rising in v. 35.

Esau’s Kiss—Another example is the dots above the complete word וׄיׄשׄקׄהׄוׄ (»and he kissed him«) in Gen 33:4, which refers to Esau’s kissing of Jacob after the latter returns to Canaan. The rabbis suggest that the kiss was pretended or even that Esau tried to bite Jacob. The dots more likely indicate that the word should be erased, although the original reason for this erasure is unknown. The word could have been lacking in another manuscript to which the text was compared.