Ancient Jewish texts have long been read through the distorting lens of an assumed, unified "Judaism beyond the text" - a practice that obscures their individual meanings and historical contexts. The prevailing scholarly tendency to interpret documents like the Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud through later Jewish traditions creates anachronistic readings that fail to capture each text's distinct voice. Through detailed textual analysis, this research demonstrates that a document-by-document hermeneutical approach, examining each work within its specific historical and literary framework, yields more accurate interpretations than approaches advocated by critics like Maccoby and Sanders, who impose external theological categories onto the texts. The methodology centers on treating each document as an autonomous statement while resisting the importation of later interpretative traditions. This fundamental disagreement about how to read religious literature extends beyond textual analysis to core questions about the nature of religion, the interplay between individual belief and communal practice, and the divide between theological and academic approaches. A secular hermeneutical method, one that approaches each text as an independent and rational statement, ultimately provides the clearest window into the systematic worldview of ancient Jewish sages.