Thomas Cahill's Feelings Towards Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                    

FILE - Historian and author Thomas Cahill poses in his New York apartment on Sept. 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Hawthorne, File)

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Thomas Quinn Cahill (March 29, 1940 – October 18, 2022) was an American scholar and writer. He was best known for The Hinges of History series, a prospective seven-volume series in which the author recounts formative moments in Western civilization. One of the 7 was his "THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS,  how a tribe of Desert Nomads changed the way everyone thinks and feels."    A man of my day, dying only 4 years ago.  

Cahill was born in the Bronx on March 29, 1940. His father, Patrick, worked as an insurance executive; his mother, Margaret (Buckley), was a homemaker. Cahill attended Regis High School in Manhattan, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin. He was thrown out and went on to graduate from Fordham Preparatory School. He continued his study of Greek and Latin literature, as well as medieval philosophy, scripture, and theology, at Fordham University.                                  

                           They will now embark on their vocations as Jesuit priests, serving the Catholic Church and the people of God.

There he completed a Bachelor of Arts in classical literature and philosophy in 1964, before obtaining a pontifical degree in philosophy the following year as part of his studies to become a priest for the Jesuits. Jesuit, member of the Society of Jesus (S.J.), a Roman Catholic order of religious men founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 and officially established by papal approval in 1540. Noted for their educational, missionary, and charitable works, the Jesuits are regarded by many as having been the principal agents of the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. The religious order was later a leading force in modernizing the church. In 2013 Pope Francis (formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires) became the first Jesuit to serve as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

He ultimately decided not to pursue the priesthood, and went on to complete his Master of Fine Arts in film and dramatic literature at Columbia University in 1968.

In anticipation of writing The Gifts of the Jews (1998), Cahill studied scripture at Union Theological Seminary, a Christian school in New York. He also spent two years as a visiting scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible. In addition to Hebrew, he read French, Italian, and German. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Alfred University in New York. Alfred University is a private university in Alfred, New York, United States. It has a total undergraduate population of approximately 1,600 students. The university hosts the statutory New York State College of Ceramics, which includes The Inamori School of Engineering and the School of Art and Design.                                                              

Cahill was definitely on the Left.  The current Hall of Justice at 850–880 Bryant Street served as the San Francisco Police Department's operational headquarters until 2015. It is internally referred to as "850 Bryant" and "the hall". The complex serves as the main San Francisco County Jail, as well as base of operations and headquarters for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, and garage for the majority of vehicles for the SFPD. The San Francisco Police motorcycle traffic division is completely based there as well. In 1994 the Hall was renamed for Thomas J. Cahill, the Chief of the SFPD from 1958 to 1970.

Prior to retiring to writing full-time, Cahill was the director of religious publishing at Doubleday for six years. He and his wife divided their time between New York and Rome.                                                 

Thomas Cahill’s attitude toward the Jewish people and ancient Israel is overwhelmingly positive, deeply respectful, and highly celebratory, as evidenced primarily by his bestselling 1998 book, The Gifts of the Jews. However, it is important to note that his focus is primarily historical, theological, and cultural rather than political, centered on the ancient Israelites and the foundation of Judaism rather than the modern State of Israel. 

His perspective can be understood through several key themes:  I bring this up because his writing and interpretation has a feeling of Catholicism seeing the scope of our history, not that of a Jewish person. One's background does color the picture.  I noted that and found it difficult to carry on.  A young cousin had the same experience.   

1. Architectural Value to Western Civilization

Cahill famously argues that the ancient Israelites are the foundational architects of the Western worldview. He asserts that "virtually the entire modern world is based on the Book of Exodus" and its core narrative of national and individual freedom. In his view, Western ideas of progress, human rights, and the value of the individual stem directly from early Jewish thought. I'm happy with these conclusions.  

 I figure that even though he studied Hebrew, he is using the Greek interpretation of words in a New Testament Bible, not my Tanakh, a Stone Edition that covers the Torah, the Genesis,  Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also with comments by people like RASHI.  

2. The Shift from Cyclical to Linear Time---AND BACK--SPACETIME

Before the emergence of Israel, ancient civilizations (such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians) viewed time as a wheel—an endless, repetitive, and fatalistic cycle of life and death. Cahill credits the ancient Jews with the revolutionary realization that time is linear and irreversible, possessing a distinct beginning, a purpose, and a trajectory toward a better future. This concept gave birth to the modern belief in historical progress. 

    Why Science Says It’s Not Linear:  Cahill is not in touch with Time

Relativity and Spacetime: Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity showed that time is not a universal metronome. Instead, it is woven into a flexible four-dimensional fabric called spacetime. 
Time Dilation: Time is relative and elastic. Clocks tick at different speeds depending on your speed (velocity) or how close you are to a heavy gravitational field. As discussed by users on Reddit, time dilation is a verified physical reality used in technologies like GPS. 
The Block Universe: Many physicists view the universe through the "block universe" or eternalism model, where past, present, and future all exist simultaneously in a multidimensional coordinate matrix. 
Quantum Mechanics: Emerging quantum research and non-local causality suggest that basic equations of the universe do not strictly demand a one-way flow, and recent experiments even test how causality or state-reconstruction can behave non-linearly. 

3. Ethical Monotheism and "The Conscience of the West"  (He studied Hebrew, not Judaism)

Cahill highly lauds the Jewish transition to monotheism. He writes that by introducing a single, unified God who values compassion and justice over outward ritual or polytheistic chaos, Israel provided "the Conscience of the West". He highlights how Jewish law and the biblical prophets uniquely demanded care for the poor, marginalized, and downcast, establishing a moral continuum that continues to govern modern ethics. It's good he sees this coming from Judaism, not from just one person.  

4. The Perspective of the "Margin"

"As a historian, Cahill was fascinated by how a relatively small, nomadic tribe could permanently alter human psychology. He attributed their deep insights precisely to their lack of imperial power, noting that because the Jews historically lived on the margins of dominant societies, they were uniquely positioned to look inward and "see more deeply into the truth of things" than those at the center of empires." 

That small tribe multiplied quickly and grew into an empire, David's Empire.  They were powerful for over 1,000 years.  

Critical Nuances

While highly complimentary, Cahill's work has drawn specific types of critique:

Academic Criticism: Scholars from forums like r/AcademicBiblical note that his popular history sometimes borders on hagiography. They point out that he occasionally overstates the absolute isolation or originality of certain Jewish concepts, downplaying parallel or surrounding regional influences (such as Persian Zoroastrianism). 
Modern Ethical Judgment: Some theological reviewers have expressed frustration with the final sections of The Gifts of the Jews, noting that Cahill occasionally uses a modernist moral framework to judge or dismiss harsher elements of biblical narratives and ancient divine judgments that do not align with modern ethics. 
We have 613 rules given to us with the first 10 the most well-known.  The other rules are made up of rules we already practice unknowingly.  Others have a wonderful background explaining the ethical effects on people.  What he didn't understand, naturally he dropped.  That happened a lot.  They adore Jesus as their god-or most do, and have adopted what the believe he said, but it was all from Judaism in one form or another as that was his background first and foremost.  After all these years of Judaism's development, he may have also added a pinch of this and a pinch of that from other communities, for sure.  


I think he was the perfect person to give the Catholic perspective of The Jews.  It was kind.  He saw its importance to the world and hopefully to his own religion.