Rating: 
Summary: Engaging, but...
Review: This was a fast and easy book to read. Cahill is a shrewd and entertaining writer. He makes a good living _as_a_writer._ If you are Jewish or devoutly Christian, you are the intended audience, and you will be pleased and even inspired. Unfortunately, within the book the author denigrates fundamentalist Christians and those who interpret the Bible literally--likely to be his strongest supporters. He even implies that Saint Paul was not really a Christian!Fun it may be, but as history, this work is a failure. It is not research in the generally accepted sense of the word. Cahill's theories are in the end nothing more than assertions; he does not even attempt to justify his interpretations of the body of literature he addresses herein. There are no corroborating citations of facts from multiple sources, nor anything but personal opinion offered. Among the sparse references are allusions to conversations with rabbis. He starts with a conviction and then proceeds to observation, which tends to shortchange the truth. Cahill throws out any claim to objectivity in the nearly-romantic foreword, in which he insists that anyone who disagrees with him is stupid, or "just plain evil"! Many, many intelligent, ethical people have found empirical evidence to support other views, to which I will return later. Cahill's central theme is that the concepts of both monotheism, and individual identity, were created by the ancient Jews. He demands this emphatically throughout the main body of the book. Then, in the appendices, he disclaims, stating that 1) Amenhotep IV (aka Akhenaten), who ruled Egypt shortly before the Jews' enslavement, imposed monotheism throughout the Empire, and that 2) of course no one can state unequivocally that monotheism and individual identity originated in one place and with one group. How then does he justify the ardor of his viewpoint?! I will say here that the appendices are much better-written than the chapters, a point to keep in mind when approaching Cahill's other books. If he ignores the constant reiteration by the author that "The Jews Are IT," and simply reads the book, the reader is going to get the definite impression that this book should have been titled "The Gifts of the Sumerians." The author makes a much stronger case for that non-Semitic people being the actual progenitors of Western Civilization, than he does for the Jews. Cahill notes that the Biblical Noah is predated in detail by the earlier Sumerian story of Utnapishtim, but he ignores the fact that the Moses-in-the-bullrushes story is similarly predated by the story of the Babylonian king, Sargon. Other large inconsistencies appear regularly. Up to this point, I have not been disputed Thomas Cahill's inclinations. Now I want to address the problems with his ideas. 1. Nowhere in this book does Cahill discuss Greece. All persons who actively establish modern Western culture, including architects, civic planners, artists of every persuasion, scientists, and others, including most notably political theorists such as the Founding Fathers of America, specify Greek and Roman influences as their main sources. Philosophy as taught in every university in the West starts with Greece. viz. "The Federalist", Hamilton, Madison, Jay; "The Principia", Newton; "The Politics", Aristotle; "The Republic", Plato. 2. The theme of individualism is present in every myth, legend, and folktale to be found in the corpus of worldly literature--*especially* in the story of Gilgamesh, a fact astonishingly missed by Thomas Cahill. Gilgamesh is the original rebel against authority, but every story of every hero of ancient times is the story of the search for freedom from the restraints of the village and from the conventions of the pack. A society whose national hero was such a firebrand was hardly composed of numb automata. viz. "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", J. Campbell. 3. Egypt had been in existence for thousands of years, and most of the highest peaks and accomplishments of Egyptian civilization occurred, before the Jews came on the scene. The clear evidence in the historical record is that Egyptian culture was the dominant influence in every civilization that succeeded it in the Near East. The Egyptian records tell the story of a society with the organization capable of administering a vast empire, and capable of producing architectural miracles. The Jews never approached this level of culture. An interesting point is that Egyptian society was rather "progressive." Women and men were considered equal under the law. This was definitely not true among the Jews. To really appreciate the depth and breadth of Egyptian culture requires much reading. No single volume can address every aspect. viz. "Ancient Egypt", D. Silverman et al, and thousands of other books on Egyptology. 4. Other major civilizations coeval with the Hebrews, such as the Mitannians and Hittites, have left us too few documents to discern their full histories, but nevertheless exerted heavy influence on the peoples they conquered. No absolute claims of first sources can ever be made when the historical record is so incomplete. 5. Christianity, which has certainly been a tremendous influence on Western history, is based on the sayings of Christ, as reported by the Apostles, as interpreted and expanded by Paul, but also influenced by Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Germanic culture, Byzantine politics, Milton's Paradise Lost, Dante's Inferno, etc., etc. It is utterly distinct from Judaism, the rejection of which was one of Christ's primary missions. Hebrew culture is incompatible with Christian European societies, so incompatible that the Jews have been under fire for their differences for thousands of years. Christ happened to be a Jew, but that is where the connection ends. viz. article on "Zoroastrianism," Encylopedia Britannica; "Sun Songs", R. Van Over et al.; any book about Emperor Constantine and Council of Nice; works mentioned above. In sum, an "A" for style, but an "F" for content.
Rating: 
Summary: Cahill says Jewish people gave us a new worldview...
Review: This book is chockfull of original thinking and presents in a clear, concise way the contributions of the early Jewish people to civilization. Cahill shows how the Jews moved us from a cyclical to a processive worldview. They gave us the concept that time has a start and an end, and replaced the world seen as a wheel by a world as a journey. Life came to have value and people developed a conscience. All of this and the Ten Commandments too. This book is a must read and buy.
Rating:
Summary: Comparatively Speaking
Review: [Please excuse typos] After completing Cahill's first three installments of his *Hinges of History* series, I believe that this second volume is the best of the three. *The Gifts of the Jews* has an innate ability to place the reader in history like no other non-fiction I've read to date. The personal style and seemingly anachronistic figures of speach add to the accessibility of the text. E
Rating: 
Summary: A Fresh Look At The Foundations of Our Civilization
Review: This is both a fascinating summary of the history of the Jewish people and a bold conceptualize of the Jewish contribution to mankind's world view. Cahill makes the subject come alive for me and often makes me see history in a new way. You won't always agree with him, but I'll bet you find yourself rethinking your own views.
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: A Decent History
Review: To begin, I suppose that I must lump myself in with the "fundamentalists" that are bashed in the conclusion of the book (pg 245). Having mentioned that, I will continue. I found that certain chapters of this book were brilliant. The opening chapter about the Sumerians is superb. It is especially helpful in explaining the "Epic of Gilgamesh." Cahill has an easy manner of explaining things into layman's terms. The "Babylon" chapter was also rather insightful and interesting. I felt that the end of this chapter would have made an excellent ending of the book, as it tells you what the gifts of the Jews were. Now for the review of the rest of the book, and the reason I claimed the "fundamentalist" tag at the beginning of this review. It seems, according to this work, that Abraham and David were just financial opportunists that just happened to get lucky along the way and became venerated. It seems also that Cahill counted the prophecies concerning the Messiah (Jesus or not) as an evolving Hebrew myth or daydream (pg 209). This degradation of faith is horrid. I know that this is a history of the Jewish people, but the Jews were not only a nation, they were a religion unlike any other. This religious aspect that permeates the Hebrew history should have been treated with a little more respect. I am a fan of Cahill's work, but this book pales in comparison to the first installment, "How The Irish Saved Civilization."
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but incomplete
Review: Cahill does a good job of establishing that people's myths changed from Sumeria to Israel. However, he fails in two major points. First, he does not establish that the change in myths is an actual change in world-view, as opposed to simply a shift in literary styles. Second, and more importantly, he does not even attempt to document any connection between the world-view of the Israelites and that of the Greeks, from which much of Western civilization descends.
Rating:
Summary: An exhilirating history and analysis!
Review: Cahill - The Gifts of the Jews I am relatively newly come to reading the theology and history of Christianity, the religion of my culture and time. I have spent a great deal of time and thought with my reading for the past four years. Cahill has enlightened me - he has filled in the great gaps in my knowledge of the stories of the Old Testament. He has made them live. But even more than that he has spoken to me of my own very strong belief in evolution - and especially here in the evolution of thought concerning the Creator God. There is nothing of which I am more certain - and nothing in religious thought of which I AM certain - other than that there IS a Creator God. I also believe that he has revealed himself to us, his creation. Exactly which of the versions of God is "right" or "wrong" - I do not know. I can only listen to the "still small voice" that speaks to me. But it seems to me that any religion that believes and practices "do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God" cannot be too far off the track and pleases God. Cahill has provided the history of the evolution of Jewish thought about God in a way that is fascinating. (I think I am now better able to tackle God, a Biography by Jack Miles). From the 1,000 plus years that Cahill outlines in his book we can trace this evolution from Abraham and the germination of the idea of monotheism to the thoughts of the prophets concerning social justice and personal responsibility. What a long, long way from the binding of Isaac we came in this book! We can see the Creator God of Adam and the God of Abraham who was primarily concerned with primogeniture, become the jealous and vindictive War-God of Moses and the Israelites. The evolution continues to the God who becomes impatient with the continuing practice of paganism, to the God who finally, with the prophets, becomes the God that I recognize - the one who wants us to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." And finally to the God who wants us to love one another and who celebrates along with us the love that we feel. From God's love for us, his creation, springs the possibility of human love. The trip was exhilarating! The next 700 or so years will bring the stories of the New Testament and the ideas of the Messiah that originated in Isaiah will be told. It makes more sense to me now, having read Cahill's book, where these ideas came from. I can better understand the history of the priests who were very much in the pockets of the civil authorities during the time of Jesus and understand Jesus as following in the tradition of the prophets with his message of love and compassion. One final note, I had not realized before that the pagan cults endured as long as they did! They still endured even 1,000 years after Abraham. It was not until the prophets that I began to recognize God as I understand him. It is also interesting to me to speculate that perhaps other generations -1,000 years from now - will look back at ours and also be fascinated with the fact that we have only come so far - and not any farther than we have in our understanding of our God and our thought about our Creator. This thing is a long way from being over! And as Cahill pointed out - the possibilities are endless!
Rating:
Summary: Loved It - Could have been Expannded
Review: The book is absolutely excellent in giving the reader of sense of what is happening in the old testament. Just, though, when it was getting real interesting, Cahill would move on to another subject. Felt like a Reader Digest version when I wanted the full story. I would still recommend the book to anyone who wants to know more about the old testament from a sense of how God unfolded itself to the people of Israel and eventually to Western Civilization.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: What makes this book truly remarkable is that its insights all seems so obvious in retrospect but never occur to us because we take our civilization so much for granted. A GREAT read.
| 
