Building blocks of rabbinic tradition

"In this book are gathered eight of the more fundamental items of documentary theory and practice - three in theory, five in practice - for Professor Neihoff's students and anyone else who takes an interest in the formative history of Judaism. The documentary-thesis of Rabbinic literature holds that the document - the Mishnah, Sifra, Lamentations, Rabbah, the Bavli, for example - forms the basic building block of the Rabbinic tradition. Excluded by that definition are sayings attributed to, and stories told about, named sages. These cannot serve in the reconstruction of the Rabbinic tradition, its literature, history, religion, and theology."--Jacket.