The Gifts of the Jews (Hinges of History) by Thomas Cahill

The Hinges of History #2

by Thomas Cahill

Translation of: The Gifts of the Jews: How a tribe of desert nomads changed the way everyone thinks and feels, 1998.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Judaism, Jewish, Philosophy, Judaica

Hardcover

About the author

Born in New York City to Irish-American parents and raised in Queens and the Bronx, Cahill was educated by Jesuits and studied ancient Greek and Latin. He continued his study of Greek and Latin literature, as well as medieval philosophy, scripture and theology, at Fordham University, where he completed a B.A. in classical literature and philosophy in 1964, and a pontifical degree in philosophy in 1965. He went on to complete his M.F.A. in film and dramatic literature at Columbia University in 1968.

In anticipation of writing The Gifts of the Jews, Cahill studied scripture at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and spent two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible. He also reads French and Italian. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Alfred University in New York.

Cahill has taught at Queens College, Fordham University, and Seton Hall University, served as the North American education correspondent for The Times of London, and was for many years a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Prior to retiring to write full time, he was the Director of Religious Publishing at Doubleday for six years. He and his wife, Susan, also an author, divide their time between New York and Rome.

—Wikipedia

Reviews

[Rick Ludwig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book and harmonizes well with the other two Cahill's that I have read, "How the Irish Saved Civilization" and "Desire of the Everlasting Hills". The last twelve pages in the book is one of the best summaries I have ever read and comes very close to my own belief system. I especially relate to the fact that in the book he distinguishes an attempt to recount history with the underlying evolution of a belief system. It is refreshing to read someone who recognizes that people are people and it takes them time to get everything right. A strong and lasting belief system like that of the monotheistic religions id not emerge completely formed the first time God spoke with Abram, who became Abraham later. A people coming from Sumer did not instantly become full fledged Hebrews. The time spent in Egypt was not uneventful and left its mark as did every stage in the development of this fascinating people. I also was very impressed by the obvious accuracy of Cahill's description of how the shift from the cyclical to time directed view of events impacted so many aspects of modern life. It is wonderful to read a book written by someone who thinks of things in a new way and conveys that view so clearly to his readers. I gained a lot for m reading this book.

[Michael Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I think Cahill writes like no other. His sentences are clean and lucid and his prose simply makes you want to keep reading. This book is about the origins of the people of Israel, but it is not a dry, boring, wake-me-when-it's-over kind of book. Cahill had me hooked from the first page through his wonderful insights into the Bible as story. If you're on the more "conservative side: you might be alarmed at his view of the origins of Scripture, but since I try not to choose "sides" I'll go ahead and say that what Cahill says makes more sense than any other. Cahill offers no defense of "traditional" evangelical interpretation (i.e., "inerrancy") and for that I was thankful since that subject is fraught with plenty of pitfalls and shibboleths. Cahill simply walks through how the canonical Hebrew Scriptures were formulated and how they "worked" in every day life for the Jewish (and later Christian)communities. More importantly, he deftly shows how many of the "rights" and "freedoms" we take for granted today came directly from a little bunch of desert nomads. Wonderful reading and sure to stimulate a craving for more Biblical knowledge and how the canon is supposed to change our lives and our cultures!

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now I know why Cahill's book on the Irish was so difficult to follow at times. I thought it was just me and my lack of a concept of that particular history. After reading this book I am pretty sure it's Cahill style.

I do in fact have an excellent grasp of Old Testament history and it's a good thing. Cahill's presentation is chronologically convoluted and does more to muddle than to clarify. His tone is incredibly irksome too. He may be aiming for a conversational voice but he just comes across as wanting to demonstrate how superior his knowledge is to that of the reader. He makes good points but they are obscured by his meandering forward and backward in history. If I didn't come to this book with an already reasonably clear understanding of the ancient Jewish mindset I would not have come away with a better one.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Cahill is highly readable. I loved How the Irish Saved Civilization. This second volume in his The Hinges of History series is a mixed bag for me.

First of all, I appreciate that Cahill is approaching this subject matter as someone who has skin in the game. It is obvious that he believes in God and has a high regard for the overall story of Scripture.
However, he also believes that Ut-napishtim was the basis for Noah (and not the other way around) and that the Red Sea crossing was through a marsh. He also says things like:
"It is no longer possible to believe that every word of the Bible was inspired by God...we must reject certain parts of the Bible as unworthy of a God we would be willing to believe in."

There were numerous times that I strongly disagreed with him in one line of a paragraph and loved what he wrote a couple of lines down. He certainly helped me re-imagine several of the Biblical stories that he covers, and I love that he didn't have some of the prudish hang-ups that many Bible scholars do. Most of the times he skipped the euphemisms and just called a spade a spade.

[Shenek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously I was not the right person to read this book. I thought it would be fascinating to see the world of the Old Testament put into the context of reality. Instead I was irritated by the author. He states that hardly anyone ever reads the whole Bible since you get bogged down with all the rules. (I read this as I just finished the OT for the second time.) Most of the time while I read I wondered if the author is an atheist and believes the Bible are only fairy tales. I didn't appreciate his conclusions either (for example: Sarah is just a pawn as are most women in the OT, the Red Sea didn't part - the tide just came in and the Egyptians got stuck in the mud).

So why 2 stars instead of 1:
*It did show how horrible society was at the time of Abraham (in too much detail) and it's no wonder Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
*It made it very clear why there is a Joseph Smith translation to the Bible.
*The author states how amazing the 10 Commandments are and how incredible the world would be if we just followed them.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cahill tells us about all that we owe to the Jews, which is basically Western Civilization. In an engaging style, he relates a history that takes us from Abraham's departure from Ur to the Jews' return to Jerusalem from Babylon. He relates that all ancient societies saw life as an endless cycle, time as a wheel with nothing changing. It was the ancient Jews who came up with the idea that man can make a future for himself, the very concept of progress. Cahill tells his story with humor and it is a most enjoyable read. I should find his earlier book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization."

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, as did all the books in the Hinges of History series, made my God so much bigger! When I read it I realized how much the moral/relational failures particularly in the Old Testament were a picture of how much the Jews were influenced by their culture of sex and violence, but overarching all that was a kind, gentle, personal God of love who was reaching out to the whole world through them. The Jews (just like all peoples) were both exceedingly special and exceedingly ordinary--it was their amazing God of love that was so extraordinary! It was in the way God called one people that he could show the rest of the world a new way of living and loving. I could see in this book that from the time God called Abraham out of Ur he was gently and patiently leading him into an understanding of the true God of compassion in ways that honored Abraham's background and the cultural outlook of his people of origin.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this while flying across the continent on a recent trip. Fascinating. I love books that put the Bible stories I grew up with in context. Having read the Bible since I was a child I have often applied my own western worldview to understanding the scriptures - no wonder I end up confused at times! Loved how this book opened my eyes to how "out of this world" the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob really is and how the Jewish faith changed history and gave us many of our most deeply held beliefs & values.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book #2 in the Hinges of History series. In The Gift of the Jews, Cahill argues that the Hebrew people introduced critically important concepts to Western Civilization -- and eventually to the world. The "gifts" include the ten commandments, still reflected in legal codes today, hygiene, the written word (along with Phonecians, Greeks, Sumarians, etc), monotheism, and caring for widows and orphans via a tithing system -- much like paying taxes. He also claims that the introduction of monotheism helped bring an end to human sacrifice in some other cultures. (That's all I remember.)

Cahill may be overblown and off base at times, but he increased my interest in history. I have read the first four books in the Hinges of History series, starting book 1 almost 20 years ago, so my memory is not bright. However, the books stuck with me fairly well. Kudos to the author for that. Since then, Cahill wrote two more books, but I have not read them. This is quasi-history told in a fairly accessible narrative style -- if at times meandering. Cahill is not a historian, per se, but his education reflects an interest in history, theology, classic texts, and performing arts.

Each book examines how a particular European people changed the world (alas, no gifts mentioned from Asia and Africa). The four cultures (one per book): Irish, Jewish, Christian (of mixed ethnicity), and Greek. I enjoyed them all but am not a historian, so cannot adequately argue Cahill's points. He probably stretched the "story" to make a strong case for the particular "gifts" he suggests the culture brought to the world, but I always read history through a strainer.

I cannot recall whether Cahill included the contributions women made. I think not.

Other Books in the Series:

Book 1, How the Irish Saved Civilization -- is the most memorable in the series, for me. It's set primarily in the Dark Ages, after Rome fell, when Visigoths, Goths, and Vandals plundered, burning books, libraries, monasteries, etc. I found some bits riveting, but doubtless there are holes in the author's argument that Irish monks "saved civilization" by saving various classic texts from extinction. They did this by copying and illustrating ancient Greek and Latin writings (Ptolmy, Euclid, Cicero, Plato, etc), as well as ancient scrolls and scriptures. I was rather captivated by these industrious monks, safe from invaders across the Irish Sea, scribbling away in their beehives, creating illuminated manuscripts.

However, I felt Cahill overplayed his hand, making more of his grand theory than history warrants, and his own Irish ancestry may have led him to wax poetic, suggesting bias.

I was also interested in the descriptions of Augustine and St. Patrick, even though Cahill admittedly embellished what little we know about Patrick.

Book #3, Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus , is thought-provoking. Cahill describes how the message of Christ changed civilization. He attributes to Christ (and to Christians) the gradual propagation of widespread principles of mercy, forgiveness, eleventh-hour second chances, and unconditional love (opposed to the eye-for-an-eye system of retribution encoded in Hamurabi's Code used by ancient Babylonians, and by the Hebrew people, the Romans, etc. ). Cahill also attributes to Christianity the transformation of cultures that had engaged in human sacrifice, as well as the spread of literacy, eventually enabling commoners to read sacred scripts. He was a little scattered in his arguments. It felt at times weak, yet he makes some good points. However, he made slight mention of the atrocities perpetrated by the Spanish Inquisition.

I have mixed feelings about book #4, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter. I was anticipating a rich account of who the Greeks were and how much they influenced modern civilization, but in that sense, it fell short of expectation. However, I was intrigued by the notion of the Greeks as intellectual scavengers, sailing the Mediterranean to various ports and bringing the best ideas and inventions (from culture and language to art and science) back to Athens and integrating them into their culture. Eventually, these ideas trickled or gushed into other cultures, and remain part of civilization today.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was... less than thrilled with this book. I've read others like it (How the Irish Saved Civilization & How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It) and I really enjoyed them, so I was really hoping for a similar experience with this book. Instead, I thought it was slow moving, difficult to pay attention to, and overall bland. I'm pretty familiar with the Bible, so a fair portion of the book just seemed to be a rehashing of Bible stories without much additional writing. Many of the attributions to the Jews really belong to the early cultures that were the precursors of both Jews and Christians alike. I wanted to see more historical fact and documentation and less dependence on the Bible text itself. I was hoping for a fact-based telling of the story of the Jews, and ideally one that involved a more in depth picture than the one already available to anyone who has read the Bible. I did end up finishing the book, but it took me a long time to do so because it just couldn't keep my interest...

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was pretty disappointing. I thought he was going to explore all kinds of contributions the Jews have made to Western culture, but he only focused on their trajectory of time and their emphasis on the value of the individual. Everything else was his own retelling of the Bible, complete with the typical scholarly skepticism. He did seem to believe in G-d, but it was basically G-d according to a Jewish humanist.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. I really liked the book. Cahill does an excellent job of placing familiar biblical stories in historical context and explaining their role in the evolution of theological thought. He is an engaging writer with a real passion for his subject. The book is both scholarly and accessible. It is the second book in his Hinges of History series. I look forward to reading the next installment.

[Donald Owens II · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rated solely on how interestingly Cahill writes, I would give it a five. This is a very enjoyable read, and may be beneficial to discerning lovers of our story who are able to eat the fish and spit out the bones.

However, Thomas Cahill is thoroughly beholden to our current zeitgeist of secularism, and exhibits all the snobbery of a faithful worshipper of the gods of 'scientism' and 'scholarism'. Because of this, his highest standard for judging historical accuracy was the secular sensibilities of the modern; i.e. his own sense for what sounded realistic. Like Jefferson, every time the evidence pointed to a conclusion that conflicted with political correctness or suggested the supernatural, voila! it's just myth! Frankly, the predictability and childishness of it would have been funny if it hadn't been so frustrating.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a new review. I tried to read this many years ago, but was not prepared and quit after 2 chapters.
It’s been at least a decade, and this time I loved it. I guess my intervening studies of both scripture and history has helped me understand his perspective better.
Although his perspective doesn’t match mine (as a Latter-day Saint), it is still interesting to consider and I feel it has enriched my appreciation for how much we have inherited from the Jews.
(Note: rather than reading, I listened to this while doing Christmas sewing and travel. The audio book is abridged; I liked it well enough I might just read the unabridged hard copy.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that explains how the worldview of the ancient Jews was especially unique when compared to their contemporaries. The Gifts of the Jews follows ancient Jewish history, as recorded in the Tanakh, providing a historian’s insight into the significance of the events and showing the reader how many aspects of our modern culture that we take for granted were so unprecedented and revolutionary back then. Without this unique culture of the Jews, Cahill argues, our tendency towards individualism would be unheard of.
The Gifts of the Jews is full of interesting perspective on some of the most important stories of the Tanakh, such as those of Avraham, Moshe, Ruth, David, Solomon, and Elijah. A few of my favorites (Daniel, as well as his three friends, and Esther) are left out, but the book is only so long.
Cahill does a good job at pointing out the terrible nature of YHWH. I believe that many of the LORD’s aspects are underplayed in modern Christianity. For one, he is the God of the Jews. America is not his chosen nation; we are not the “New Israel.” Secondly, he does not resemble a fluffy teddy bear in appearance or personality. He is not cute or cuddly, and he deals with sin severely. We see this aspect of God in the Bible, and The Gift of the Jews brings it out well.
Cahill cites the actions that Yehoshua did in God’s name and makes the baseless claim that “there is no way of attributing mass carnage and vindictive slaughter to a God worth believing in (246)” and that every believer “must … admit that these operations were the work of human beings who wrongly convinced themselves that God was on their side (246).” While Cahill explains most of his arguments well, why one “must” admit such a thing is unclear. One cannot assume that such slaughters are outside the nature of a God who demands bloody sacrifice in atonement for sin, which is the very basis of Christianity. Furthermore, many people do not admit that this was the work of humans “who wrongly convinced themselves that God was on their side.” Unfortunately, some people seem to be able to embrace these slaughters with seemingly no struggle. I would question the humanity of such a person, as this is a grave and severe matter, just like most of the Bible and the revealed nature of God himself. However, many Christians believe that these incidents happened, that they took place by the order of YHWH, that the same is the God they still serve, and that they can only view God is a less brutal light because they themselves will not half to pay the hefty penalty for sin. I am currently of the belief that the image of a super-friendly God, which seems to me to be propagated from modern Christianity too often, is a lie and that the acts of God that Cahill wants us to reject are the ones that we must bring ourselves to accept, whether it comes easily or not.
However, my disagreements with some of Cahill’s conclusions aside, The Gifts of the Jews is worth reading for all believers, as well as non-believers with even the most casual interest in the roots of Western Judeo-Christianity.

[mehg-hen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as fascinating as "How the Irish Saved Civilization" which is good because I am about to become a social outcast nerd babbling about ancient Sumer in a corner. As is, I just managed to babble about it on a subway platform, how odd that an ancient Sumerian God is always portrayed with a constant boner that ejaculates the Tigris. I know standard-issue, very vague things about the bible and the old testament so to me, this was a very interesting "ooooooh, okay, so that is the deal with Abraham." He traces the beginnings of civilization and written language (writing came about to do some accounting in a warehouse in what's now Iraq) and sketches what daily life was like in the fertile crescent which is, duh, unreal that we all have a relationship to it. Cahill makes all of the old testament stories accessible and relatable so you really get the deal with everybody, including Moses (which was Moishe, which is an Egyptian name. Interesting) and crazy Pharaohs and how weirded out the supermodel King Saul was David came on the scene. The main point of the book is that Judaism gave us individuality and a sense of linear history for the first time ever.

Enjoy the following Wikipedia/Google geek out:
Ninkasi, the goddess of beer. Several academics have made beer according to their recipe. Obviously, this would be extremely interesting.
Love in the Bronze and Iron Ages: (who cares about ladies, my best dude friend is aMAZING!!!)
Aton the Solar Disc: what Egyptians worshiped for like a second, also an amazing DJ in East Berlin, j/k about the Berlin part.
Famous Oak Trees.

Also, this is a pretty good quote from an ancient Sumerian myth: "an almost unimaginably terrifying creature whose face looks like coiled intestines." hahaha

I enjoyed Gilgamesh freaking out after his man friend died, roaming the earth, and finally finding the guy who has the immortality potion who says, basically "Gilgamesh, please chill out. Honestly, you need to relax. Do you feel better now that you wasted all this time and effort trying to find me? Seriously, just go home, have a BBQ, talk to your wife and like, please, just don't do this again."

As a PS, this book made me read the Song of Solomon on the subway. I guess everyone seriously loves Lebanon, but isn't like super talented when it comes to giving compliments: "your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost it's young." Oh. Thank? You? "Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks towards Damascus." Look, that is genetic. "How beautiful your feet are in sandals." All right. "We have a little sister and she has no breasts." Great. Sounds great. I have to go.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The moment, or hinge, in history that a changed occurred to allow Western civilization possible is the primary focus of Thomas Cahill’s The Gifts of the Jews. Over the course of less than 304 pages and the scope of two millennia of Jewish history from its birth with Abraham to their return from exile, Cahill examines the evolving birth of a new worldview that was entirely different from what had been thought before.

The focus of Cahill’s book is the beginning of Western civilization, which to him is a change in mindset on how to view the world and the reason was the Jews. Before getting to Abraham however, Cahill looked to what had come before, the “cyclical” worldview and culture of Sumer in which he went out of. With this in mind, Cahill emphasizes how big a step Abraham’s journey at God’s direction was. Then throughout the course of the book, Cahill examines step-by-step the development of the “processive” worldview that the Jews were exhibiting for the first time from successive revelations of God and the development of individuality in language and philosophy, but most importantly the role of justice in society.

Cahill’s argument is very compelling, as was his discussions on the Epic of Gilgamesh and the various Biblical individuals and their actions. Yet the problem I have with this book is with some of Cahill’s interpretation and subsequent logical construction of his evidence whether through scripture or an analysis of non-Biblical sources to weave his thesis. For example some of the evidence Cahill uses to date the Exodus is erroneous by misinterpretation of both Biblical and non-Biblical sources, yet that is only of several examples I could have given.

Yet while Cahill’s interpretations aren’t the best part of this book, his argument that the Jews brought forth a new worldview that would lead to Western civilization is compelling. Because of that, The Gifts of the Jews is worth a close read as it describes the first and most significant hinge of historical change.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this book before and decided it was worth listening to during a road trip over the past few days.
What I liked best about it this time around was the narrator, whose name is Richard M. Davidson. If you write a book, I highly recommend you hire him to do the audio version. I especially liked his reading of the passages that came directly from Scripture. It makes me wish he had a recording out of the entire Bible. I wonder how he would do with that massive list of names in 1 Chronicles.
As for the content I'm going to be somewhat more critical, so I want to begin by saying that there's a lot of interesting material here. I found it worthwhile listening (and reading before, I think, although I didn't remember it very well), and I think Christians, Jews, Muslims and nonbelievers with an interest in ancient history would also find it interesting.
Toward the end of the book, Thomas Cahill writes that "we" can no longer believe everything we read in the Bible; indeed "we" would not want to believe in God as depicted in some passages of the Bible.
I'll gladly admit that there are things about God that I discover in the Bible that I find perplexing and even disturbing. But I didn't realize the question of God was multiple choice, that we get to choose which sort of God we want to believe in.
I don't include myself in Mr. Cahill's "we."
He also perpetuates the lie that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not homosexual behavior but lack of hospitality. Apparently, "we" find Genesis 19 to be inconvenient.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Christian, Jewish history and culture has been of much interest to me, as Christianity grew out of that culture. "The Gifts of the Jews" is a very readable account of ancient Jewish culture, the culture of the Bible. Thomas Cahill's premise is that in other ancient religions, life was seen as an endless cycle. But with the birth of what became the Jewish religion, time becomes linear and through Abraham the individual interaction between human and the divine becomes personal. Cahill set the stage for this beginning by going in depth about the Sumerian world-- their religions and writings. It is interesting to learn about these ancient forbearers, but my eyes began to glaze a little with so many pages devoted to the "Epic of Gilgamesh."

Though I am not an expert student of the Bible, I have read it as a whole several times, having taken college courses and later taught a class on the Bible. Of course, this refers to what Christians call the Old Testament. Cahill presents interesting interpretations of all the books of the Hebrew Bible and what concurrent events of the Hebrews influence the writings. I think a person would gain more from this book if they had at least a speaking acquaintance with the Bible. On the other hand, it could serve as a good introduction for someone wanting more familiarity with the Bible.

[Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This actually corrected some of the real-life history of the Israelites (Hebrews, 12 Tribes) that I learned with newer data. An interesting read on how the linear school of thought that the entire western world adheres to (beginning/end, versus circular of eastern belief systems) is due to Abrahamaic/Hebrew thinking. IT also provides additional insight into why the region is as it is today. Overall I recommend this highly as a layman's read on the more ancient history of the people that today call themselves Jews. I personally wish it had been a longer, more in-depth book, more scholarly, but it reads well as light reading.

[Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just finished the Gifts of the Jews, and despite its good reviews I am very disappointed. On page 240 Thomas Cahill, the author, lists what he considers are the gift of the Jews, yet for the previous 239 pages all he has done is retell the stories from the first six books or so of the Old Testament. His assertions are not supported by anything he has previously written. It looks like he got tired of writing and wrote a conclusion with no supporting evidence.

[Regan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am an unabashed fan of Thomas Cahill--he's a pop-history treasure. What I love most about him is how horny he gets about anything he digs into. In a nutshell, in Gift of the Jews Cahill argues that the whole of the Western worldview would not be possible but for the intellectual and spiritual development of our Jewish forebears. Cahill does not name Franz Rosenzweig as his Jewish "guide," but it is hard not to see his influence at work.

[Jann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith, hope, imagination, determination - Cahill claims these are some of the gifts of the Jews. I really like these Hinges of History books. They are short, informative and engagingly written. I feel like we are definitely getting a lot of Cahill's opinion, but it helps me form my own opinions too. History is too dry without opinion and almost non-existent without conjecture.
Recommend: adult

[Katie Buckner · Rating 1 out of 5]

An okay book that totally misses the point. Gifts of the Jews starts out describing other ancient civilizations, which does provide a backdrop for how Biblical stories were different. Yet Cahill misses the point. God - Yahweh - the one true God is who changed the way we think and see the world. Cahill asserts that Abraham’s individualistic thinking changed the way humans behave and think, yet Cahill acknowledges that all these actions were taken because God had directed him. Cahill comes with false assumptions and fails to see that the Bible is true and God is real. He made me so mad I could not finish the book. I agree that the history of the Jews changed the world. The reason is because they were God’s chosen people - to show the world what God is like, how he designed us to live, and how we can be saved from our sinful desires.

I also don’t appreciate the references to wives as pawns. Cahill clearly has very little respect for the Bible. Why did he choose to write a book about a people whose sacred text he clearly disdains?

[Cynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for Jewish History Month 2019.

This book rocks my world.

Cahill argues that to be Western means to be Jewish at basic levels of our shared worldview.

Thomas Cahill writes for those of us in Western World. He argues that the ancient world was unchanging and cyclic, that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses allowed God to move His Human Creation forward. Others played parts, but these four allowed a human existence to unfold.

I borrowed this book from the library. I will be buying a copy. I need this book to be available Every time I read the Old Testament and when I read other ancient works. For those of us familiar with the Genesis, there is no difficulty in reading this book.

[Cora Mabry]

DNFing this. Really disrespectful to Jews (actually to anyone who believes in the God of the Bible). The amount of explicit sexual content in here was incredibly over the top, unnecessary, and disgusting. It seemed like Cahill only wrote this book so he could have a place to discuss ancient Sumerian sex practices and his opinion of sexual acts mentioned in the Bible.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

really enjoyed this one. Cahill covers a lot of ground in the history of God’s people but it reads remarkably easy and it’s so interesting. the closing paragraphs...whew.

[Jeremy Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This didn't go far enough. I was hoping for a story the continued through the ages, not a repeating of things I have already studied. Cahill is a brilliant wordsmith. His sentences are like solid bass lines that allow your own thoughts to harmonise and think and understand. Jews are great. And it is a great look at how their ancient history chronicled a tribes interaction with a certain way of seeing things.
But... not what I was hoping for at this stage. but.. worth the read if you are into well written sweeping looks at the judeo Christian monotheistic story line.

[Relstuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this was going to be a great as the earlier book from the same author: How the Irish Saved Civilization. The premise of this book is interesting. The author points out that ancient civilization viewed time as a wheel. What has happened before will happen again, and again, and again. History was not something important in that world-view. If everyone keeps doing the same things and getting the same results why look back to see exactly has happened in the past as long as everyone knows the gist of it? Past history was often told in the form of myth. The gods were rarely interested in individuals unless it was the king or you did something to make them angry.

The Jews changed the conception of time and mankind's interaction with the spiritual with their belief in a single god that built relationships with individuals. The author presents some reasonable arguments and examples that support his view of the ancient world and how the Jew's philosophy and religion influenced western civilization and the concept of progress and time.

However, the author spends a big portion of the book paraphrasing passages from the Bible with minimal commentary on how this exercise supports his premise. He is clear he does not believe the Bible is all true, but that it has been changed and added to by translators and copyists as it has been passed thru time. And he believes that many stories of a violent old testament God are not true but later additions to the text. His evidence of this is merely that some stories reveal a God that is to violent and he could not believe the loving God portrayed in many portions of the Bible is so violent or vengeful. I appreciate his honesty but this sort of reasoning does not fit with the rest of his arguments that he backs up with historical references and this discussion is an unnecessary detour from the premise.

I feel the author could have made his point with much less extraneous content as actual discussion of the premise forms a very small percentage of the book. I did think the background material about Sumerian culture was interesting, worth the read, and provided some good context for the argument that Jewish culture eventually created a very different world view.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Cahill book. This book I feel should be required reading in high schools and colleges. So many people think they understand the development of Western civilization, and they don't, especially if they do not appreciate the importance of the history of the Jewish people and their impact on the West - culturally, religiously, and even legally. I have to admit, my knowledge of early Western Civilization was slight, and this book add significantly to it.

Too many people dismiss the establishment of our laws and traditions of justice by laughing at some of the early laws established under Moses, particularly coming out of Book of Leviticus. True, to our ears they sound harsh and silly. But Cahill helps the reader see the context upon which those laws were established, and how at the same time, those laws were balanced against the emergence of the individual, not seen in other early Near Eastern cultures, as well as the emergence as the importance of justice in the arrangement, also not seen in those early cultures. Cahill lays out wonderfully the distinctions between those from Babylon and the emerging wandering tribe of the Jews. Those laws and traditions in the Books of Moses set the Jewish people apart, make them distinct, and allow them to survive over the centuries, even when swallowed up by larger empires. All those other people, cultures, and empire are gone. However the Jews remain. Here is why.

Don't mistake this as a simple love fest with the Jewish tradition or religion. Cahill has his criticism of religion in general and in how this religion is occasionally practiced and how these people often fail in living up to the precepts of law and justice. The key for Cahill is understanding that though often people fall short of their traditions, laws, and faith established in the covenant(s)between God and the Jewish people, more than often the live up to them, enlarge them, and move on to the next step in the evolutionary progression of the relationship between the divine and the human.