Thomas Cahill's The Desire Of The Everlasting Hills

The meaning Thomas Cahill attributes to the title of the book he wrote: The Desire of the Everlasting Hills isn’t what I expected. Having taken this phrase from Jacob’s blessing for Joseph, Cahill elaborates his thoughts “Is not the desire of the everlasting hills that they be saved from their everlastingness, that something new happen, that the everlasting cycle of human cruelty, of man’s inhumanity to man, be brought to an end?”(8) I would imagine that the Everlasting Hills could also represent Heaven and the desire for them representative of the desperate need to experience never-ending perfect second life. Beyond the meaning of the title, Cahill’s foremost concern is to ask and thoroughly examine the question: Does the life and death of
Cahill begins with the story of Alexander the Great. In detail he explains how Alexander came into power. He also emphasizes the relationship between Alexander and his mother. This reminded me of how important Jesus’ relationship with Mary was. Cahill address Mary’s relationship with Jesus more, later in the book. In giving a rather brief history lesson, Cahill describes the beginning of Hellenizing. After telling the rise and fall of Alexander the Great Cahill writes about a familiar player in the Jewish and Roman history: Judas Maccabeus. I didn’t know the full extent of the revolt led by Judas before reading the book. The story somewhat reminded me of the movie 300. Cahill does a good job of touching on both of the religious extremes, the Zealots and the Essenes. After the Greek occupation came the Roman occupation and so the cycle of occupation continued, as I had already learned. However Cahill’s detailed description of the way each nation ruled helped me understand how impossible life must have felt for the devout Jew and how much they wanted a savior, a true Jewish