Rating: 
Summary: Flawed but still well, well worth it
Review: Normally, I only include books on this page that I recommended highly and unequivocally. In the case of The Gifts of the Jews, I do recommend it, but with a bit of equivocating. There's no sense rehashing all the critiquing that has already been done on this short and fascinating volume -- it is truly a quite thought-provoking attempt at some historical paradigm shifting. My question is whether such shifting is warranted in light of the evidence Cahill brings to bear on his thesis. Like most bible-based historical analyses, Gifts suffers from assumptive leaps often grounded on precious little substance. For example, to claim that our very concept of time evolved from one of cyclical and unbreakable repetition with no end and no beginning to our current "processive" notions of past and future because of the Jews begs more questions than Cahill tackles. Among them are how the Egyptians managed to spend decades building monuments that were intended to last forever if they were convinced it would all be for naught when the next cycle began anew. For that matter, how did the Sumerians ever get around to building cities? The author also provides mountains of detail regarding the emotional states of biblical figures whose words and behaviors were described in the barest of minimalist proportions, attributing broad and profound meanings to mere handfuls of words. To his credit, Cahill chose for his basis an unconventional translation that hews much closer to the meaning of the original language, and in fact his presentation of that novel interpretation is the best part of this book, but some of those interpretations strain credulity to such an extent that his underlying thesis is too often undermined. As an example, jumping directly from the Burning Bush to the conclusion that "God...can burn in us without consuming" is poetic and clever but did this actually occur to the early Israelites? Overall, there is far too much speculation upon which to hang a serious thesis, and it put me in mind of the classic skit in which one syllable uttered by a diplomat becomes three paragraphs from the translator. However, the book is so full of wonderful nuggets that it is still a delight to read, at least once you get past the overlong and overly-discursive discussion of the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh," and that's why I am recommending it. Cahill's reading of the Abraham and Isaac story is tremendously moving, as is the story of the exodus from Egypt, particularly as concerns the ongoing frustrations of Moses. One of the most soul-stirring sections is the one dealing with the "minor" prophet Amos, who openly scorns the "elegant piety" of the people of Israel and exhorts them to put away the symbolic sacrifices and instead "let justice flow like water."
Rating: 
Summary: Don't overlook this little book!
Review: Cahill's work in "Gifts of the Jews" is much more literarily entertaining and captivating than Volume I in the "Hinges of History" series. Cahill starts his book by linking Hebrew descendancy to Sumerian culture, which, as some reviewers erroneously assumed, is correct. Although scholars diverge to some extent about Abraham's influences, a Sumerian background has not been openly proved or demonstrated, but it is a plausible theory. I believe Cahill points this out in a footnote, which is fine, but this reader would like to have seen this point preempted within the text itself. Secondly, and this is a warning to conservative Christians and Evangelicals, Cahill's perspective on Biblical inerrancy is VERY LIBERAL (see pages 129-131, 243). I would say that the sort of brandish manner which Cahill writes about the text of the Bible and its origins would probably chap the hide of most conservative Christians. Cahill also challenges modern evangelical theology by demonstrating past use of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, which most evangelicals have abandoned. Cahill also tries to show that Jewish theological evolution was epigenetic, or that God's revelation to his people was increasing over time, something most liberal theologians condone, but most conservatives do not (even "via media" theologies may disagree with the epigenetic model). All in all, if you're a conservative Christian, you might be offended by this book's contents. Personally, I found this book refreshing and quite praiseworthy of the Jews; a class of people that have been marred and singled out for centuries. This book gives them their due recognition in more ways that one. Cahill convincingly shows that much of Western thought and culture stems from this "little tribe of desert nomads," which he apellates "the dusty ones." I recommend it with 5 stars (if you're open to liberal theology and biblical-cultural interpretation).
Rating: 
Summary: Sarcastic and Sardonic
Review: Considering its name, The Gifts of the Jews is not a book I (as a Jew) think Jews would enjoy. The author, Thomas Cahill, spends over 250 pages using a tone that could generally be described as sardonic and sarcastic. Mr. Cahill repeatedly cites the King James Bible to back up arguments which are often disrespectful to Judaism and seemingly designed to put biblical heroes in the most negative light possible. Kings of Israel and Judah are mentioned to "seldom measure up to expectations, exhibiting ... Solomon's cruelties or undesirable qualities all their own..." (209) while God Himself is referred to many times as "cruel" or "inhumane" while the circumstances and accepted levels of biblical exaggeration are rarely mentioned in these contexts. If the reader desires a narrative of Jewish history, he can attain a much less eccentric angle in Rabbi Wayne Dosick's Living Judaism, or Rabbi Benjamin Blech's Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture. Both of these contain large amounts of well organized information without the distortion evident in Mr. Cahill's book. Your series is a novel idea Mr. Cahill, but I find this book to be very poorly done.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated and Intellectually Insulting
Review: I expected more of Cahill's writing after watching him on a recent CSpan-televised lecture. His subject, aspects of which are fascinating, truly did not contain sufficient material for a book: an edited version would have made for a dandy essay. Some of the issues he raises are, indeed, revelatory (to me, at least), and, okay, those few items made the entire book worth the read; however, much of it seemed disjointed...a stream-of-consciousness ramble full of personal opinion (much of it contradictory), all couched within legitimate facts and pawned off in its entirety as irrefutable truth. This is not a book for the religious: Cahill likely would beg to differ, but it is chock full of what even moderate Christians and Jews would consider blasphemous. God's name, reputation,and motives are slung around just a little too carelessly for my taste.
Finally, I think the title of the entire series (of which this book is part, i.e., "The Hinges of History") is intellectually insulting. This particular volume is pop history written recklessly.
Rating: 
Summary: Cahill: Exaggertation and distortion, not elucidation
Review: I found this book to be an insult to one's intelligence, completely undeserving of the book jacket claim to having been written with the "rigor of a scholar." Had I, as a freshman at Wellesley College, attempted to make vast and unsubstantiated claims such as Cahill makes on nearly every page of this book, I would have flunked every course I took. The Jews were the only ones to value education and records of geneology? These claims are offensive to put it mildly. The Jews changed the way everybody thinks and feels? Where are Cahill's sources? Where is his bibliography? We get a note in the back that Cahill had permission to excerpt from a song by Bob Dylan, but no reference to books about ancient Sumeria or the cultures he dismisses so breezily. What about China, with the greatly advanced civilization they developed? What about every explorer from the time of the cave man who ventured out and away from his or her immediate tribal group? During the same week that I was reading Cahill, PBS rebroadcast a remarkable and thoroughly researched scientific program about "The Journey of Man" and the earliest journeys taken from Africa which eventually peopled the world with homo sapiens. What a difference between the approach of this brilliant and convincing presentation of the genetic history of mankind and that of Cahill and his foolish oversimplifications.
Cahill, do you ever look beyond your own convenient theory which you want to turn into a best-selling book which panders to a certain audience? Count me out. If this work is "scholarly" and you are depicted as having the skills of a "gifted teacher" then I fear for the present generation and its ability to look at and think deeply about history or any other subject. This book is to good scholarship as MacDonald's is to nutritious food.
Rating: 
Summary: exaggerated
Review: I won't need all thousand words for this. Quite simply this is a shocker - possibly the worst book I've ever read. I have seldom seen worse writing paired with such an interesting topic. Think I'm being nasty? Read the section on the early sexual-religious rites. Quite unlike old Tom's colleagues who he mentions in the forward as being 'shocked' (it's actually very mild, but very out of place in the book) I was just plan sad that so many trees had to die for this rubbish.
Rating:
Summary: A Unique View
Review: In "The Gift Of The Jews", Thomas Cahill advances the theory that the Jews introduced unique world views. In his view the Jews, unlike antecedent societies, viewed history as progressive, not cyclical. The Jews recognized the worth of each individual rather than seeing people only as members of a group. The Jews see human action as making a difference, rather than being the results of unalterable fate. The Jews see God as a person who talks with His people and who invites them to have a personal relationship with Him.
Cahill makes his case by telling the history of the Jews as told in the Old Testament, from the call of Abraham to the return form the Babylonian Captivity. Through his selection of Biblical stories he demonstrates the evolution of the Jewish world view over the millennia.
This book's depiction of the evolution of the Jewish understanding of God and man's relationship to Him makes for a very interesting read. It is generally consistent with what I had learned in collegiate scripture classes.
From the perspective of an analysis of development of Jewish thought as reflected in the Bible, it is very good. My only question is whether the insights identified as being Jewish are truly unique. Cahill says yes, but I lack the knowledge to form an independent judgment. Overall, it is a fascinating book concluding with challenging questions for all readers.
Rating:
Summary: A book with limited scope and hence, limited impact
Review: In Gift of the Jews, Thomas Cahill's goal is to demonstrate how everything the Western World values are Jewish concepts. Concepts such as progress, freedom, individuality, community, redemption, and the like can trace their origins to the Hebrew Bible. He does this by starting with Abraham and contrasts his relationship with an unseen God (i.e. one that cannot be manufactured out any material substance and hence, one that cannot be manipulated by the worshipper) to the religions in existence in the ancient world with an emphasis on the religious practice of Abraham's attested people, the Sumerians. Through his analysis of the Biblical text, Mr. Cahill shows how the worldview of the Hebrews developed and how the concepts that we, in the Western World, hold dearest were born. In order to do this form of analysis, Mr. Cahill approaches the Five Books of Moses as a man made document developed over many centuries (Biblical Criticism). While this approach is heretical from a traditional point of view, it is critical for Mr. Cahill to implement to show how the development of Hebraic thought out paced that of the rest of the Western, Middle Eastern, and North African thought with regards to the moral and ethical codes we use to this day. While the implementation of Biblical Criticism was crucial to the writing of this informative text, Mr. Cahill's assertion that anyone who believes that God gave the first five books of the Bible to Moses is self-delusional, "scrupulously avoiding all forms of scientific inquiry," is itself lacking scientific validity. With all the work generated on both sides of the Biblical Criticism debate both textual and archeological, it is impossible to know with any certainty which approach is correct. What the author fails to realize is that when the morals and ethics exposed in the Hebrew Bible are taken to be man generated, they can be jettisoned by society as archaic which is starting to happen throughout the Western World. The end result of Biblical Criticism is not a society based on peace and justice for all, but on individual's rights at the expense of that of others.
Rating:
Summary: Gee-Whiz!
Review: Much of this book is a rehash of Sumerian legend from Gilgamesh and biblical stories from Genesis and Exodus, without getting into the unique characteristics of the Jews that made them so important to present civilization. Eventually he does get into the subject, but in such a peripheral way that he seems to be straining to try to make his argument. He should have concentrated more on those aspects of Judaism that have truly shaped the west (and he says the undeveloped world also, but that seems to be a real stretch) rather than try to show us that he has read the Old Testament and various versions of Gilgamesh. There is much less to this book than would appear, and his gee-whiz style starts to grate on the reader, at least on this reader.
Rating:
Summary: well-written, enjoyable read, even if you disagree...
Review: PERSPECTIVE: theologically interested reader, unfamiliar with Cahill's work The Gifts of the Jews is a wonderfully written exploration of the pivotal role the Jewish people have played in the shaping of our modern perceptions and life, irregardless of faith. Cahill brings extensive theological and historical training to bear, and goes to great lengths, including travelling the world, to do research for his chosen topic. His thesis, as he calls it, is that the Jewish people were the first to break out of the "cyclic boredom" of ancient world views. Through their culture, beliefs, and history, they have given the entire modern world crucial "gifts" of individuality, prospective thinking, freedom, justice, and many more. To illustrate this, he uses a wide variety of historical documents, texts, and commentaries, including several translations of the Hebrew Bible, and weaves them together with a style that is remarkably eloquent, delightfully funny, and impressively accessible. Whatever your religious or political beliefs, this thought- (and spirit-, if you are so inclined) provoking novel worth a read. Although it is, at its heart, an academic treatise, and as such is eminently open for debate, as exemplified by the many editorial discussions - with much heated agreement and dissention - it is important to note that it is easily enjoyable on a different level. FINAL WORD: Read this book! Buy it, check it out from the library, or buy it and donate it to your local library.
|
