The verse is more fundamental than the story. The Oven of Akhnai dramatizes the principle, but Deuteronomy stated it first. The Torah told us it was not in heaven before the rabbis proved it by outvoting God. The verse is the law. The story is the case law.

The vote ranked the verse over the story because law precedes case law. I reverse this. The Oven of Akhnai is not just case law illustrating Deuteronomy 30:12. It is a scene. God performs miracles and loses. God laughs. That laugh is doing more theological work than the verse. The verse says the Torah is not in heaven. The story shows God agreeing with that verdict about himself. The verse is the law. The story is God's consent to the law. That consent is the more sacred thing.

"It is not in heaven" is the foundation. The tense problem is the capstone. Deuteronomy says the authority is here. The tense problem asks what happens when both traditions that quoted that verse — Judaism and Christianity — are understood as partial descriptions of the same destination. The verse opens the door. The synthesis walks through it.