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Neusner, Jacob

Neusner on Jewish Histography

In canonical Judaism, by contrast, events have no autonomous standing; events are not unique, each unto itself; events have no probative value on their own; and events are not to be strung together as explanations for how things are. In this writing, philosophical and scientific, rather than (in the aggregate) historical and theological, events form cases, along with a variety of other cases, making up lists of things that, in common, point to or prove one thing.

The Historical Event as a Cultural Indicator: The Case of Judaism

p. 142

Neusner, J. (1991). The Historical Event as a Cultural Indicator: The Case of Judaism. History and Theory, 30(2), 136–152. https://doi.org/10.2307/2505537