The Gifts Of The Jews (Hinges of History, #2)

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The Gifts Of The Jews (Hinges of History #2)

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 1,903 ratings · 157 reviews

The author of the runaway bestseller "How the Irish Saved Civilization" has done it again. In "The Gifts of the Jews" Thomas Cahill takes us on another enchanting journey into history, once again recreating a time when the actions of a small band of people had repercussions that are still felt today.

"The Gifts of the Jews" reveals the critical change that made western civ...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published 2001 by Lion Hudson plc (first published 1998)

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May 02, 2013 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: quasi-history, reviewed

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 and kosher food, the written word (along with Phonecians, Greeks, Sumarians, etc), a code of law, and monotheism, including caring for widows and orphans via a tithing system -- much like paying taxes. H...more 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 and kosher food, the written word (along with Phonecians, Greeks, Sumarians, etc), a code of law, and monotheism, including 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.)

I read the first four books in the Hinges of History series, starting book 1 almost 20 years ago, so my memories dim, but they stuck with me fairly well. Kudos to Cahill for that. Since then, he has written two more books, but I have not read them. This is not fiction, but rather quasi-history told in an accessible narrative style. Each book examines how a particular European people changed the world (sorry Asians and Africans). The four cultures (one per book): Irish, Jews, Christians, Greeks. I enjoyed them all. They are easy to read. I'm not a historian so cannot adequately argue Cahill's points -- but he's not a historian either, even though he has studied these topics. Most likely, he 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 adequately.

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. I was appalled at the destruction of art, books, and buildings. However, I felt Cahill overplayed his hand, making more of his grand theory than history warrants. His Irish ancestry may have led him to wax poetic. Also, he embellished what little we know about Saint Patrick, but admits it.

Book #3, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, 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). Cahill also attributes to Christianity the transformation of cultures that engage in human sacrifice, and the spread of literacy. He was a little scattered in his arguments. It felt at times weak, yet he makes some good points, and I enjoyed it. He made slight mention of the atrocities perpetrated by the Spanish Inquisition, however.

Book #4 is Sailing the Wine Dark Sea. I enjoyed that book, but was a little disappointed. When I think of all the Greeks were and did, and how much they influenced modern civilization, I grow almost dizzy. So I was giddily anticipating the book, but it fell short of expectation. However, I was intrigued by the notion of the Greeks as intellectual scavengers, sailing the Mediterranean to various ports, bringing the best "foreign" ideas and inventions back to Athens and integrating them into their culture. Eventually, these ideas trickled or gushed into other cultures, and remain part of civilization today.(less)

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Oct 11, 2007 Michael Mills rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone desiring to know the background of the Hebrew Scriptures

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...more

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Jan 28, 2009 brook rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 ca...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Rick Ludwig rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-since-retirement

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 ar...more

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Oct 08, 2007 Elise rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants to understand the cultural/religious heritage of the western hemisphere.

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 th...more

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Feb 02, 2008 Renee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-adult

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 belief...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Elderberrywine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

Second volume of an on-going series by Cahill.

Once again, Cahill is positing that history occurs between the cracks, so to speak, and in this volume, he explores the innovation of the Jews in wrenching the Circle of Life narrative to something entirely different.

So, 'Avram went', two of the boldest words in all literature. They signal a complete departure from everything that has gone before in the long evolution of culture and sensibility. Out of Sumer, civilized repository of the predictable,...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Shenek rated it 2 of 5 stars

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...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kate by: Book Group

Shelves: jewish-christian

". . . the Bible is full of literature's two great themes, love and death (as well as its exciting caricatures, sex and violence) . . . " (7).

I thought this insight that sex and violence are caricatures of the great themes of love and death was really interesting!

"The sky shows itself as it really is: infinite, transcendent . . . . 'Most high' becomes quite naturally an attribute of the divinity" (40).

"We may consider naive the absolute confidence of primitive peoples in the rightness of their i...more

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Jul 13, 2009 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

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Jan 05, 2008 William Drysdale rated it 3 of 5 stars

By the author of "How the Irish Saved Civilization," This book shows how the ancient Israelites' monotheistic religion gave rise to a linear as opposed to a cyclic view of time.

The cyclic view of time was shared by polytheistic religions.
Under the polytheistic view, the cycle of life repeats with no possibility of significant change.

The Israelites view of time as linear showed the possibility of progress and individual human destinies, that is, that tomorrow can be better.

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Jun 10, 2012 David Withun rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, history

Another excellent book from Thomas Cahill and a cogent and timely reminder that the Judeo-Christian tradition created nearly everything that we today recognize as normal human life. Our views of time, of personhood and interpersonal relationships, our views of the self, of society, and of morality -- all of them have been created and passed down to us by a small group of nomads bred in the deserts of the Middle East. Cahill's book will make you look at yourself, the society you live in, and the...more

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Jun 07, 2010 Zjay rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Jews trace their history back to Abraham. He was from Ur, one of the principal cities of Sumeria. Cahill contrasts the evolving conception of God by the Jews with the conception of Ishtar and other gods of Ancient Sumeria. A serious student of Jewish religious history, Cahill essentially retells Jewish history, focusing on the evolving nature successive Jewish leaders, prophets, storytellers and writers discovered in their God. The gifts we have received from the Jews are many, including the...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Rodney Farrell Sr rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cahill provides an insight to the contributions of the Jews to our society, government, religion, and law, just to name a few. Quoting from the book: "Unbelievers might wish to stop for a moment and consider how completely God - this Jewish God of justice and compassion - undergirds all our values and that it is just possible that human effort without this God is doomed to certain failure." Continuing to quote Cahill: "All who share this outrageous dream of universal brotherhood, peace, and just...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Megankellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: educationalnerdoutmaterial, history, holier-than-thou

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 Ab...more 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.(less)

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Jun 30, 2012 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-religions

I really enjoyed this book. What I loved most was its premise - the author states as his intent the very same thing that I myself stated I was trying to do when I went to the library and returned home with a stack of books (this one included).

What I liked least was that I wanted this to be a scholarly book and it simply isn't. I have studied enough to know that often when Cahill is not citing sources and research, he HAS done the research and his word is credible. There are other times when I f...more

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Jan 17, 2010 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 to...more 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.(less)

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Apr 20, 2009 Jann rated it 5 of 5 stars

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

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Sep 10, 2007 Grier rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A good old testament review. It is remarkable how the Jewish tradition was so different from what was going on at the time, and how so many concepts integral to modern western life arise from the Torah/Old Testament. However, if you have any religious education (like I do...yay Catholic school) then it will be a review, which is why I give 2 stars.

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Jan 28, 2013 Julieanne Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Personal relationship being the flip side of Monotheism is probably a key theme of this book. It is hard to comprehend ancients having a cyclical view of time because, thanks to the evolving Jewish worldview over centuries, we now see time as linear and full of promise for the individual. Concepts like self worth, having a vision of what could be,and justice have arisen from Jewish thread arising from Sumer in Mesopotamia in the form of Abraham and his descendents. The author does not do justice...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Landon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Cahill did another service to history by writing 'The Gifts of the Jews.' I enjoyed reading his perspective on how the Jews contributed to our psyche in ways so great that most of human existence today is still affected, regardless of whether they believe in God or not. At one point in the book he mentioned that college students today can go through an entire degree program without being introduced to the conceptual changes that the Jews gave us. I am a case-in-point. With a degree in history fr...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Thom Foolery rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, judaism, religion, primal-religions, mythology, philosophy

In this, the second volume in his "Hinges of History" series, Thomas Cahill explicates the Torah and finds within it the first inklings of Western ideals (now taken for granted as simply "the way things are").

"Most of our best words, in fact--new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith, hope, justice--are the gifts of the Jews," Cahill concludes on p. 241.

The "gifts of the Jews" that Cahill discusses are limited almost...more In this, the second volume in his "Hinges of History" series, Thomas Cahill explicates the Torah and finds within it the first inklings of Western ideals (now taken for granted as simply "the way things are").

"Most of our best words, in fact--new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith, hope, justice--are the gifts of the Jews," Cahill concludes on p. 241.

The "gifts of the Jews" that Cahill discusses are limited almost exclusively to that form of Judaism which scholar Jacob Neusner calls "Biblical Judaism," the form of Judaism recorded in the Hebrew Bible and transmitted to humanity by way of Christianity, via its "Old Testament," in contrast to the "Rabbinical Judaism" of the Mishna and Talmuds:

The link between the mainstream traditions of the Western world and the traditions of the Jews shows itself at its weakest when we consider the many prescriptions in the Torah that will come to serve as the basis for halakha, the body of Jewish prescriptive law that is meant to govern every aspect of life and that has grown to enormous proportions from the late classical period to the present. (153)

It might go without saying that monotheism is a gift of the Jews (whatever minimal impact Akhenaten might have had not withstanding). What this means, though, is lost on those of us for whom monotheism, (or a unified worldview, at the least) is the status quo. Regarding the horrific scene from Genesis of child sacrifice averted, Cahill asks the core questions that have confronted all subsequent monotheists:

Can we open ourselves to the God who cannot be understood, who is beyond all our amulets and schemings, the God who rains on picnics, the God who allows human beings to be inhuman, who has sentenced us all to death? All the other gods are figments, sorry projections of human desires. Only this God is worth my life... For "there is no other." (86)

Monotheism, for Cahill, means not just the notion of one God, but an understanding of God, and of the universe, that is profoundly different from the pagan view of the gods as larger-than-life-human beings:

The religious center is no longer what it had been for the Sumerians and all other ancient cultures--impersonal manipulation by means of ritual prescriptions--but a face-to-face friendship with God. The new religion has been given shape through three generations of nomadic men and women who have ceased to bow down before idols or kings or any earthly image. They have learned, with many fits and starts, to depend on God--and no one else--this inscrutable, terrifying wilderness God. (90)

Of course, I would hardly describe what (almost) happens to Yitzhak (Isaac) as an ideal expression of "friendship with God" but as Cahill reminds the reader time and again, that is because I am approaching these gifts (including monotheism) as their long-time beneficiary and heir, forgetting how raw and radical this situation must have been at its inception.

Monotheism isn't simply about having one God in distinction to having many, according to Cahill, but also opens up new possibilities, new understandings of humanity's place in the cosmos and in history, indeed the experience of "newness" itself:

This God is the initiator: he encounters them, they do not encounter him. He begins the dialogue, and he will see it through. This God is profoundly different from them, not their projection or their pet, not the usual mythological creature whose intentions can be read in auguries or who can be controlled by human rituals. This God gives and takes beyond human reasoning or justification. Because his motives are not interpretable and his thoughts and actions are not forseeable, anything--and everything--is possible....Because all is possible, faith is possible, even necessary. (93-4)

Along with monotheism, and the idea of a personal relationship between individual human beings and their transcendent Creator, the Jews bequeath the gift of history and of a historical consciousness:

There are real differences--literary differences, differences of tone and taste, but, far more important, differences of substance and approach to material--between Gilgamesh and Exodus, and even between Gilgamesh and Genesis. The anonymous authors of Gilgamesh tell their story in the manner of a myth. There is no attempt to convince us that anything in the story ever took place in historical time.... The text of the Bible is full of clues that the authors are attempting to write history of some sort....there is in these tales a kind of specificity--a concreteness of detail, a concern to get things right--that convinces us that the writer has no doubt that each of the main events he chronicles happened....

We are looking here at one of the great turning points in the history of human sensibility--at an enormous value shift. What was real for the Sumerians (and for all other peoples but the Jews) was the Eternal. What was to become gradually real for the Jews and remains real for us is the here and now and the there and then.(126-8)

A new sense of history means a new sense of possibility, the unknowable, and of moral responsibility for the future:

For the Jews, history will be no less replete with moral lessons [than myth was for the ancients]. But the moral is not that history repeats itself but that it is always something new: a process unfolding throigh time, whose direction and end we cannot know, except insofar as God gives us some hint of what is to come.... We do not control the future; in a profound sense, even God does not control the future because it is the collective responsibility of those who are bringing about the future by their actions in the present (130-1)

The Jews gave us the first hint of the weekend, of a time without work, with its implicit valuation of freedom, education, creativity, and self-betterment:

No ancient society before the Jews had a day of rest. The God who made the universe and rested bids us to do the same, calling us to a weekly restoration of prayer, study, and recreation (or re-creation).... The connection to both freedom and creativity lie just below the surface of this commandment: leisure is appropriate to a free people, and this people so recently free find themselves quickly establishing this quiet weekly celebration of their freedom; leisure is the necessary ground of creativity, and a free people are free to imitate the creativity of God. The Sabbath is surely one of the simplest and sanest recommendations any god has ever made... (144)

Cahill sees in the stodgy old Ten Commandments ("a simple, incontestable thing to say that [they sound] banal. But for all our resourcefulness we have never yet managed to do [what is commanded]") a surprising freedom, much in the same way that students of Zen Buddhism discuss the freedom provided by the seemingly austere forms:

[T]his gift of the Commandments allows us to live in the present, in the here and now.... in this moment--and only in this moment--I am in control. This is the moment of choice, the moment when I decide whether I will plunge in the knife or not, take the treasure or not, begin to spin the liar's web or not. This is the moment when the past can be transformed and the future lit with radiance. And such a realization need bring neither regret nor anxiety but, if I keep the Commandments, true peace. But not the peace of death, not the peace of coming to terms with the Wheel. For in choosing what is right I am never more alive. (146)

Finally, the Jews gave us prophecy and with it the earliest notions of social justice and compassion:

[T]o serve God means to act with justice. One cannot pray and offer sacrifice while ignoring the poor, the beggars at the gates. But more radical still: if you have more than you need, you are a thief, for what you "own" is stolen from those who do not have enough. You are a murderer, who lives on the abundance that has been taken from the mouths of the starving. You are an idolator, for what you worship is not the true God. You are a whore, for you have bedded down with other gods, the gods of your own comfort and self-delusion... (214)

[T]he true prophet is the one who sees the future implicit in the present; and his authenticity is confirmed when his prophecy comes true. (226)

God wanted something other than blood and smoke, buildings and citadels. He wanted justice, mercy, humility. He wanted what was invisible. He wanted their hearts--not the outside, but the inside.

There is no way of exaggerating how strange a thought this was.... There was in every human being an "inside," which the Jews had never steadily adverted to before. Could God possibly mean that each of them was to be a king, a prophet, a priest in his own right?... Those who first thought these thoughts must have felt that a great thunderclap had shaken them to their roots. They could now look back over the whole of their history... and see that God had been leading them all along, from one insight to another, and telling them a story, "something new on earth," the story of themselves. (226-8)

This book, like its predecessor How the Irish Saved Civilization is an engaging read that brings some scholarly insights to a popular audience, but this work lacks the sparkling wit that made the former volume at times laugh out loud funny. (That is possibly because the Irish commentators were more ribald and carefree than the Hebrew chroniclers of the Tanakh, and so Cahill less funny--if more profound--material with which to work this time around.)

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Jun 04, 2011 Mary Stephanos rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book surprised me in a way that How the Irish Saved Civilization didn't. The second in Cahill's Hinges of History series, the Gifts of the Jews argues forcefully that the fundamentals of Western consciousness came from the Jews. These include a strong sense of justice, a concrete history of time (particularly the past and the future), and the inviolable importance of the individual. According to Cahill, the Hebrew bible described the evolution of a way of being in the world that continues t...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Bob rated it 1 of 5 stars

There are many other books about the Jews that are far superior. Along the way Cahill states that to believe the Bible is inspired by God one must be self-deluded. Also if you believe the Bible to be the Word of God you are avoiding scientific inquiry. Of course he never gives any resources one can turn to he simply says it as if it is a given. He also concludes that one of the main reasons you cannot believe that the Bible is true is because there are disturbing commands given by God to slaught...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Carmen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-biography

Tom Cahill has a different way of looking at history, the positive side. He doesn't write that much about wars and enemies, instead he writes about positive changes and how they happened. This edition of his 7 book series focuses on what the Jewish people have given to the world. Of course, my first thought was that it would be heavily about Jesus. He isn't even mentioned. Instead he writes about how they began to think of people as individuals, instead of part of a community. They also were the...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Cahill's second book in his Hinges of History series looks at how the Torah influenced Western and ultimately global society. He shows how the Israelites evolved a religion (and isn't that a peculiar phrase in today's Creationist "debate") that was unique in the ancient world.

Overall I found it a fascinating and quick read. There were a couple of places where he made claims where I wanted some supporting evidence (in particular one about democracy toward the end of the book) but overall, regardl...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Kind of a slog. Only in the academic world would this be considered a popular, entertaining read. The core ideas were interesting: that the early Jews had one god, not many, and developed both a concept of inner life for the individual (as opposed to being cogs in society or fodder for the gods) as well as our modern orientation towards time (that we can move towards a future that is better, that we can learn from the past, etc.). Very important ideas. I just didn't enjoy the long narratives of...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I so enjoyed Cahill's "How The Irish Saved Civilization" that I looked forward to "The Gifts of the Jews" with great anticipation. However, this book falls short. In "Irish," Cahill claimed that Irish monks were responsible for the preservation of written language during the Dark Ages; in "Jews," he claims that ancient Israelites were the first to think of themselves as individuals and to see the world not as cyclical, but as processive. I'm not sure that theory really holds up. Cahill makes som...more

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Jul 15, 2010 Michelle rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 a...more

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Dec 21, 2008 Val rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the theologically curious (capable of independent analysis)

Shelves: christian-interest, historical-interest, nonfiction

This is good, though not my favorite of Cahill's works. His thesis is very provocative. I'm not sure I wholly agree with him in all things -- he can get cheeky and loose with his theology apart from what is widely accepted as traditionally "true" in the modern Judeo-Christian tradition. Be that as it may, as an historian I know well that -- God-breathed though scripture may be, it is also biased. I don't take everything Cahill says for absolute truth always -- i can think for myself -- but I do...more

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About Thomas Cahill

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...more

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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter

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The Gifts Of The Jews (Hinges of History #2)

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