text reflects society

We have already seen in Tamar/Judah, Genesis, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel that it is possible that there is more to the text than an obvious nice simple surface narrative.

Sometimes there are secondary meanings that play out in the names used in the text.  Sometimes there is an agenda in words whose translation is a little more complicated than it seems at first glance.

In later Judean literature (the books of the Maccabees), there is particular agenda:  reminding the audience of its glorious past (TaNaKh), while presenting a narrative of relatively contemporary events.

The change in Judean text from the direct narrative of the historical books and from the sayings of the Navi’im can be attributed to Greco-Roman receipt and misunderstanding of those narratives of the more modern texts that were produced in Judea at the time of the Bar Cochba revolt.  The change in direction of the Greco-Roman cult, from wanting to participate in and be accepted by the Judean Temple cult can also be traced to the receipt and misunderstanding of those same texts.

First, we will look at the documents that arguably precipitated that change:  the earliest “gospels.” Then we will look at how Judean narrative changed, as it is represented in the Mishnah and the Talmud.