Masoretic Text and the Old Testament

What is the Masoretic Text? Did it only exist starting 916 A.D. or is there proof of it a thousand or more years earlier? Is the Greek Septuagint an improvement to the text God originally inspired in Hebrew? What is a jot and tittle in Aramaic? Do the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran support the Masoretic Text? What about the Great Isaiah Scroll? Was the Masoretic Text meticulously counted and checked? Do the silver scrolls, the Ketef Hinnom, of the 6th/7th century B.C. support the Masoretic Text for the Book of Numbers? What about the En-Gedi scroll citing Leviticus? Were any possibly associated with the Church of God, like Lucian of Antioch involved in textual support for what became the Textus Receptus? How about Pre-Waldensians or the Waldensians themselves? In addition to addressing these issues, Dr. Thiel addresses other issues pointing to the reliability of the Old Testament books used by the Continuing Church of God.
A free online book of related interest is available titled 'Who Gave the World the Bible? The Canon: Why do we have the books we now do in the Bible? Is the Bible complete?' URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/BibleCanon.pdf