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A review by sarahcoller
Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus by Thomas Cahill
1.0
I found very little redeeming about this book and finally abandoned it about 2/3 through.
The author has a very secular understanding of the Bible and Jewish history. He misses half the point, the whole point, and all of the beauty most of the time. His chapters on the life of Jesus were full of mocking untruths and misunderstandings. I get the overall impression that this author calls himself a "Christian" but I'd love to read something like this from an actual whole Bible believer.
Even taking into consideration his odd sense of humor (at one point I wrote in my notes: "it takes a bit to get his humor. I think I’m probably more sensitive than I should be with some of his points.") his very skewed interpretation of the impact of Jesus and the Bible makes this book extremely disappointing. In fact, looking over his biography, this is the perfect example of someone who hears the word, studies the word, (paid good, good money to learn the Hebrew Bible even), but completely misses the message.
I often wondered, "is he actually a respected historian?" (He describes martyrdom as a genre of mythology.) I couldn't get past the screwy interpretations that Paul and the first century church were not encouraging their followers to follow Torah. The author misunderstands, misinterprets, and misrepresents Torah throughout. It takes more than big words and reputation to make a scholar. This one can’t get his own theology straight, saying on one page that 2 Timothy couldn’t possibly have been written by Paul but on the next page encouraging us to imagine Paul “thinking, as he wrote in Second Timothy…”. Ok then.
He relegates Revelation to a silly fun mystery story written by a bored John in exile. He cracks the 666 code for us (oh thank you, wise scholar!) and explains (with a "big duh!!! mentality) that it merely refers to Nero. News flash: 666 using gematria also works for several phrases including the name Barak Obama, Prince Arthur, Thomas Cruise, and "This is a Hoax". When whoever this person is is actually revealed, this passage will be made clear, just as the ones about the delivery of the mark of the beast or the fact that the whole world will look on the dead witnesses were made more understandable once technology caught up and revealed possible scenarios.
The nonsense probably didn't stop there, but that's where I stopped. I can't stomach this "scholarly" misrepresented garbage. I'd encourage potential readers to save time and do their own research. Much of what he talks about is common knowledge of history---this book was more about furthering the enemy's secular agenda disguised as modern day Christianity.
The author has a very secular understanding of the Bible and Jewish history. He misses half the point, the whole point, and all of the beauty most of the time. His chapters on the life of Jesus were full of mocking untruths and misunderstandings. I get the overall impression that this author calls himself a "Christian" but I'd love to read something like this from an actual whole Bible believer.
Even taking into consideration his odd sense of humor (at one point I wrote in my notes: "it takes a bit to get his humor. I think I’m probably more sensitive than I should be with some of his points.") his very skewed interpretation of the impact of Jesus and the Bible makes this book extremely disappointing. In fact, looking over his biography, this is the perfect example of someone who hears the word, studies the word, (paid good, good money to learn the Hebrew Bible even), but completely misses the message.
I often wondered, "is he actually a respected historian?" (He describes martyrdom as a genre of mythology.) I couldn't get past the screwy interpretations that Paul and the first century church were not encouraging their followers to follow Torah. The author misunderstands, misinterprets, and misrepresents Torah throughout. It takes more than big words and reputation to make a scholar. This one can’t get his own theology straight, saying on one page that 2 Timothy couldn’t possibly have been written by Paul but on the next page encouraging us to imagine Paul “thinking, as he wrote in Second Timothy…”. Ok then.
He relegates Revelation to a silly fun mystery story written by a bored John in exile. He cracks the 666 code for us (oh thank you, wise scholar!) and explains (with a "big duh!!! mentality) that it merely refers to Nero. News flash: 666 using gematria also works for several phrases including the name Barak Obama, Prince Arthur, Thomas Cruise, and "This is a Hoax". When whoever this person is is actually revealed, this passage will be made clear, just as the ones about the delivery of the mark of the beast or the fact that the whole world will look on the dead witnesses were made more understandable once technology caught up and revealed possible scenarios.
The nonsense probably didn't stop there, but that's where I stopped. I can't stomach this "scholarly" misrepresented garbage. I'd encourage potential readers to save time and do their own research. Much of what he talks about is common knowledge of history---this book was more about furthering the enemy's secular agenda disguised as modern day Christianity.