This work examines the entire corpus of authoritative documents of Rabbinic Judaism - from Mishnah, ca. 200 C.E. through the Talmud of Babylonia, ca. 600 C.E. Jacob Neusner argues that governing rationalities may be discerned both within and across these foundation documents. Together these governing rationalities form a single mythic and symbolic system, a coherent theology.

Three methods are employed for investigating the inner logic of this symbolic system, including 1) identification of paradigms and models, 2) analysis of systematic prepositional composites, and 3) examination of the recombination of verbal symbols. This prolegomenon lays out a way of accurately describing that system as a whole while exposing the relationships, balance, and order evident among the parts via a detailed and complete survey.