Judaism and Story: The Evidence of the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan

In this close analysis of The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan a sixth-century commentary on the Mishnah-tractyate The Fathers (Avot) Jacob Neusner considers the way in which the story as a distinctive type of narrative entered the canonical writings of Judaism. The final installment in Neusners cycle of analyses of the major texts of the Judaic canon Judaism and Story shows that stories about sages exist in far greater proportion in The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan than in any of the other principal writings in the canon of Judaism of late antiquity. Neusners detailed comparison of The Fathers and The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan demonstrates the transmission and elaboration of these stories and shows how these processes incorporated the newer view of the sage as a supernatural figure and of the eschatological character of Judaic teleology. These distinctions as Neusner describes them mark a shift in Jewish orientation to world history. Judaism and Story documents a chapter of rabbinic tradition that explored the possibility of historical orientation by means of stories. As Neusner demonstrates this experiment with narrative went beyond argumentation focused on the explication of the Torah. The sage story moved in the direction of biography but without allowing biography to emerge. This development in Neusners account parallels the movement from epistle to Gospel in early Christianity and thus has broad implications for the history of religions.