On the Gifts of the Jews

Ultimately, Cahill looks at the religious traditions of the ancient Near East and finds that they all saw the world in a cyclical manner, best represented by the moon. Like the moon, or the seasons, time passes but there is no “progress” to time. Cahill then argues that it was the Jews who were the first to break out of this cyclical universe and develop the “arrow of time,” as we might call it today.

Quite frankly, this argument is unconvincing. Although it is true that progressive time can be seen in the Hebrew Bible, it seems more likely that all cultures have had a mix of cyclical understandings of time, as well as progressive time. This is certainly true today, as best represented by the axiom, “history repeats itself.” Whether this is true or not is irrelevant, we still think cyclically as well as linearly, in a more Hegelian sense. As such, it seems that Cahill’s argument is tenable if the worldviews of peoples are simplified excessively, but there is more nuance to the way people think that is missed by Cahill.