Comparing the Mishnah to four biblical codes and two codes found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Neusner (Bard College) argues that the Mishnah is unique in its Israelite context of Scripture and tradition. Resisting the whisperings of his personal bias, he does not claim that the Mishnah is superior to all prior codes except by its own criterion, but he does contend that by objective criteria it is different from all, a quality he attributes to the intellectual vitality of its authors to imagine paths to truth none had trod before. As usual, he dispenses with an index. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)