The discipline of Old Testament textual criticism is foundational to biblical studies. To quote a famous book title, “Is There a Meaning in the Text?” presupposes a text to study and interpret. For western Bible scholars and Christians, that text is almost always the Masoretic Text. Despite this reliance on the Masoretic Text, there is current debate about the status of this text during the late Second Temple period. In particular, most scholars argue that the consonantal text preserved by the Masoretes moved from a state of fluidity to fixity around the turn of the era. The evidence cited most often to support this view is quantitative in nature (e.g., Barthélemy, Young, Lange, and Ulrich). That is, the textual evidence shows a decrease in textual plurality at this time and an increase in textual unity. Although this view is commonplace among scholars, qualitative evidence and sociological evidence suggests a different explanation. The Masoretic Text, with some possible exceptions, was not standardized around the turn of the era but was already fixed.