For much of this book, Cahill seems to have merely paraphrased most of the Hebrew scriptures. If a reader already has a working knowledge of this text, they may find this book boring and not very informative. Since I came to this book with a good understanding of the Hebrew Bible, I was very disappointed. Perhaps a reader who is not familiar with the Hebrew text would find the large middle section informative and interesting. As for me, it was merely annoying, because I keep waiting for new information or a new insight.However, his commentary of the development of the beginning of Western thought was interesting. It was an angle that I did not consider before. We are so used to Western Civilization being around, that we forget that the thought had to develop at some point. To trace that development was interesting... but I just wish that that tracing did not have to include the paraphrase of much of the Hebrew Bible.