Changes

The law has a shadow <ref>[[Heb 10:1]] ¶ For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.</ref>, something which is not the law, but is attached to it. It is the shadow which speaks of Christ. teh law was 'dinner theater' to the Jews to prepare them for the big reveal that Jesus 'fulfilled' all the shadows of the law. =p.16.2=The 'literary impulse' likely began as the first tablet was written by the finger of God, a feat repeated with Moses, and handed to Adam. Adam had an impulse to write, which impulse and record was passed from Father to Son, along with the impulse of accurate preservation of the record. <ref>See the Wiseman 'Toledoth' theory. </ref> Parallel stories in ancient cultures would trace back to a common knowledge at Babel, where the grandparents of Abraham carried the written record, leaving all other language groups to preserve their history orally. =p.17.1=Some would have us believe, that in the story of Jephthah, a fable was created to explain an odd tradition. Odd traditions do not just spring into existence that need fairy tales to explain. There was a historical event which produced the tradition. Even today there are Christians who view keeping a vow as more important than the sin that might be performed in keeping it. A fad called "Promise Keepers" started off with an odd belief that if a man made a vow to other men, he would be more likely to keep his vow to his wife. " This fad elevated to people actually eating dirty socks, with all the inerrant dangers of serious infection ingesting so much bacteria, just to keep a silly bet made over a sports game. "If they win, I'll eat my dirty socks". It is not unreasonable to believe that Jephthah has such a religious fetish. In each of the cases mentioned by Alter, the record is there to add a transparency to the picture of Christ and the cross. As it turns out, behind the scenes, God used that record to paint a picture of Christ and the cross. And to rid any notion of such future fetishes, the law contains a provision that if a wife makes a vow, her husband may annul it when he hears of it. When a Christian (the bride) makes a sinful vow, Christ releases him of it and provides grace for the sin. Your secret oaths (Masons, Mormons, and others), under penalty of death, were sinful, and you are not bound by them. Receive grace from Christ. =p.18-20=Alter demonstrates skill in Literary criticism and the tools of close reading. I hope to add to his tool box formations and notarikon, as well as other techniques specified by the second century teacher, Rabbi Eliezer.

Alter: Introduction to the Old Testament