This is another monster (55 hour audiobook) romp through history. The setting is Israel, from about 10000 BC until the modern day. An archeological dig at fictional Makor near the Sea of Galilee ties the ages together – different findings and different levels follow the history of the different peoples who lived on that site. The “source” of the title refers to a well at Makor, and also the region’s role as birthplace of Judaism and its offshoots, Christianity and Islam.

We start off with some cavemen who start both agriculture and religion in a single generation … hmmm, no I think it was more gradual than that. Interesting take here on the start of religion: agriculture made people more vulnerable (to storms/crop failure/etc) so they were more fearful, and more prone to call out for help to spirits and to offer them sacrifices as bribes.  Something good happen after praying? Must be the gods answering.  Something bad happen? You didn’t make the right sacrifice to the right god, now he is upset.

By 2000 BC, the most potent gods and religious practices spread throughout the area. Ironically, the more demanding the god (such as those demanding periodic infant sacrifice in order to ensure survival of the village), the more powerful he seems and thus the more people seek him out.  So, religion tends to get more serious and extreme over time. Priests control access to temple prostitutes (“priestesses”), and the hope of being chosen to participate in fertility rituals with the priestesses is powerful motivation.  Priests also keep track of calendar (important to know the time of planting and harvest, etc.) and serve as judges.

Then we have the coming of the Jews. Their big idea is monotheism – not that only one god exists, but that only their god is worthy of worship.

I was frequently mad at the Jewish characters over the next several sections. Not at all because they are Jews, but because of their religious zealotry. I’m sure someone else with a different background may see their faith as inspiring … but I just see them as stubborn and a little crazy, and so hurtful to progress.

• Zadoc is a prophet of sorts who hears the voice of god; I would call him a little mentally disturbed. He and his Hebrews are welcomed in by the generous and tolerant Canaanites of Makor. Yet time and again Zadoc stubbornly tries to force his religion and customs on the long time residents.  Ultimately, this ends with a Jewish attack and the Canaanite’s destruction.  (Is that why tolerant and accepting societies don’t last – they are killed off by the zealots?)
• Somewhat later is the widow Gomer who I am also mad at.  Oh, you hear voices from your “god” that he’s better than the other (made-up) gods?  So you kick out your good Canaanite daughter-in-law and grandson to the street?  And sabotage your own town?  Crazy religious kooks spoiling all progress…  All the “my god is better than yours” stuff is just so aggravating!
  • I was reminded of this quote: “If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.” – Penn Jillette
• Finally there’s Jehubabel and his silly proverbs, decrying the positive and wholesome Hellenist focus on fitness and beauty.  He ends up beating his own son to death for being “too Greek” and reversing his own circumcision. (I’ll admit it’s actually a nice literary conflict, as the Jews of Makor were at the time under pain of death for performing that operation on their infants.)

There was one admirable main character through this period though – the engineer Hupo. Though he’s funny-looking and often mocked, he is a genius and builts a clever siege-proof tunnel protecting the town’s access to the well. Though his zealot wife leaves him for a shady singer of psalms who takes her to the promised city of Jerusalem, Hupo finds satisfaction in his work, which endures and impresses through the ages.

Now the coming of the Christians.  At first I was surprised that Jesus didn’t make a personal appearance in the narrative – but in retrospect I bet the author was just trying to avoid controversy. And actually it probably reflects the relative importance of Jesus during his own time – which was not very high; it wasn’t until centuries later that Christianity started to have a bit impact. I had never heard before how Queen Helena, mother of Constantine, visited the holy land and “identified” sites where important Biblical events happened. Where any of these identifications based on anything but mere feelings? No idea, but many, basilicas built and immediately began receiving pilgrimage traffic.

The Jews during this period were busy codifying the law (writing the Talmud) and getting very particular about what god did and did not like. The story describes years-long debates over what is or is not permissible under the law, given the incomplete and ambiguous word of God as recorded in scripture.  Absurd questions like: is a woman throwing out dishwater on the Sabbath ok because it is “cooking,” or not ok because it could be “sowing” (since she may inadvertently end up watering some stray seeds)?  All seems to me like debates about angels dancing on pins, or who would win in a duel, Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker… Then there are the more sinister applications of the law, such as the rabbis insisting a woman must marry her murdered husband’s brother, even though he is the murderer and the motive was to cover up his rape of the woman in question…

Christianity, at least initially, seems a more accepting alternative to Jewish stubbornness. There’s a Jewish character who is born out of wedlock, thus stigmatized as a bastard with no path to join mainstream Jewish society.  Sympathetic allies concoct a convoluted scheme wherein he would steal ten drachmas, get sold into slavery for five years, marry another slave, then earn freedom, all of which would result in his kids (never himself though!) being permitted to be full Jews.  But instead, he is accepted unconditionally by the Christians and experiences a great relief and lifting of weight at conversion. (I’ve been through this “changing of mind” myself – it comes quite suddenly when you realize that what you’ve been taught and believed is not the only way …)

A lot of the rest of the book, from the Crusades onward, dealt with the mistreatment of Jews by European Christians. A funny thing that happened time and again during the Crusades – the ignorant Crusaders attacked Christian villages, or local Christian armies riding out to join them, because they were “dressed funny” and “didn’t look like Christians”! Good grief…

Later in Europe we have schizophrenic treatment of Jews by the Catholic church over the centuries.  On the one hand, they were considered horrid enemies who killed Christ.  But on the other hand, prophecies said that they would be converted when Christ returned – so they must be protected. To some extent at least … they were often packed away in the crowded “judenstrasses” or ghettos, “for their own safety.” There was regular mockery (such as Podi, Italy forcing the five fattest Jews each year to race against town prostitutes, all while wearing skimpy underwear) and outright purges.  Probably the worst was the Spanish Inquisition, where suspected secret Jews being tortured via a rope tied to the feet and being dropped 30 feet, dislocating all joints at once; followed by and being burned at the stake.

(Interesting aside: the Jewish move into money lending was due to Christian interpretation of a scripture that they may not charge interest to anyone; but Jews interpreted a different scripture as they could only charge interest to non-believers.)

In summary … quite the epic! And it is special and impressive that the Jewish identity still remains a thing after such a long time. Why would one group survive while so many other ancient religions are left in the dust? One explanation is that they were the last man standing … some examples already cited, but also Islam (a descendant of Jewish tradition) famously showed no mercy for pagans, but allowed the “people of the book” (Jews and Christians…both of which they saw as misguided predecessors) to survive. So there is some self-selection involved in surviving religions.

It isn’t directly explored by the book, but I wonder (thinking mainly back to Zadoc and his ilk) if there’s something to the following mechanism of religious propagation: 1) a people does something reprehensible (ie. exterminate a group of neighbors), either for their own safety, or out of religious belief.  2) Later, they regret their (or their father’s/grandfather’s) choice and/or realize their beliefs were false. 3) But, they propagate the belief or a narrative of innocence to later generations anyway, because “God commanded us to do it” is an easier exploration than “we were wrong.”

Published January 23, 2026February 4, 2026