With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid twentieth century many examples have been recovered of the Old Testament in Hebrew from the time of Christ and the Holy Apostles and earlier. Scholarship during the past half century based upon these Dead Sea discoveries has revealed a close agreement between the LXX and pre-Masoretic Hebrew texts. In a review of some of this scholarship, Hershal Shanks<ref> Hershal Shanks, ''4QSama - The Difficult Life of a Dead Sea Scroll'', Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol 33 No 3, May/June 2007, pp66-70.</ref> notes that ''”…many Hebrew texts [are available] that were the base text for Septuagintal translations…”''. Further he notes that what ''”…texts like 4QSama show is that the Septuagintal translations are really quite reliable”'' and ''”…gives new authority to the Greek translations against the Masoretic text”''. Quoting Frank Moore Cross (a co-author of the book under review), Hershal continues ''”We could scarcely hope to find closer agreement between the Old Greek [Septuagintal] tradition and 4QSama than actually is found in our fragments”''.

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