I’ve finished Thomas Cahill’s “The Gift of the Jews” and really feel the better for having read it. His contextual supplements to the stories that I’ve been raised with in the Bible is extremely beneficial, and gives me such a greater appreciation for the life and times of the Israelites, the Jews, and their struggles.
Though I do think he has great points, his inconsistencies are too much to be overlooked at times. In one place he quotes Augustine: “We are talking about God. Which wonder to you think you understand? If you understand, it is not God” p. 159). But then he goes on to say that he doesn’t understand that God commanded the Israelites to put all Canaanites to death and flat out says that he considers these acts to be “unworthy” of God. (p. 245) Thomas, if you understand, it is not God, right? I will give him more credit than that though, because in the very same chapter, he does give much credit to the unknown movements and workings of God, he just has an impossible time swallowing carnage, and who doesn’t?
The same is true of the most miracles that he touches upon from the Bible. He is quick to talk down or give a scientific reasoning of miracles, for instance: “Mahn-hu, or “whaddayacallit,” which most English Bibles transliterate as “manna” (and is traditionally thought of as “the bread of heaven”) was probably white edible insect secretion to be found on the branches of some rare Sinai plants” (p.133). But then he describes and quotes the passages of the burning bush that was not consumed, or, for example, where “a mighty hurricane split the mountain and shattered the rocks before YHWH. But YHWH was not in the hurricane. And after the hurricane, an earthquake. But YHWH was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, fire. But YHWH was not in the fire.” (p. 211). Is it really that hard to imagine bread coming from heaven when you’re imagining a mountain being torn apart by hurricane, earthquake and fire?
