GIFTS OF THE JEWS, THE(ISBN=9780385482493)
Thomas Cahill, author of the bestselling How theIrish Saved Civilization , continues hisHinges of History series with The Gifts of the Jews , alight-handed, popular account of ancient Jewish culture, theculture of the Bible. The book is written from a decidedly modernpoint of view. Cahill notes, for instance, that Abraham moved theJews from Ur to the land of Canaan "to improve their prospects,"and that the leering inhabitants of Sodom surrounded Lot's lodging"like the ghouls in Night of the Living Dead ." The Giftsof the Jews nonetheless encourages us to see the Old Testamentthrough ancient eyes--to see its characters not as ourcontemporaries but as those of Gilgamesh and Amenhotep. Cahill alsolingers on often-overlooked books of the Bible, such as Ruth, todiscuss changes in ancient sensibility. The result is a fine,speculative, eminently readable work of history.
¥69.00
