Posted on 07/17/2014 4:58:01 AM PDT by NYer
Generally speaking, the Israelites of Christ’s time were frugal eaters. Frankly until about 100 years ago, frugality in eating was more imposed than chosen. The food was more scarce and less convenient than today. It’s availability was seasonable, and all the elements needed to be made from scratch, including hauling in the water from wells etc.
Bread was the essential, basic food. So basic was it that in Hebrew “to eat bread” and “to have a meal” in the same thing. Bread was treated with great respect and many rules existed to preserve that reverence. Any crumbs of over the size of an olive were expected to be gathered, and never simply discarded. Bread was never to be cut, but always broken. The poor ate barley bread, the rich the bread of wheat. Barley or wheat grains were ground between two millstones, almost always by women, and this was done at home. From this the flower and then the dough was made and worked in needing troughs. To make the heavy barley bread rise, women use very strong millets, and barley yeast. The loaves were usually made round, such that one spoke of “a round of bread,” or simply “a round.” Because bread would become moldy very soon, one would only bake enough for a day or two.
Corn (grain) – Though the Bible mentions corn, it has nothing to do with what we call corn today. Such a crop was unknown in Middle East. “Corn” in the Bible refers to what we call grain.
Milk – Cows’ milk was rare, and in any case it was not liked as much as the more common milk of ewe lambs and of goats. Since milk tended to spoil quickly, cheese making was very common.
Honey was the sweetener that was used for most things. Cane sugar was unknown the Holy Land. The source of honey was bees, which like today were colonized. Saps from various trees and the thickened juice of grapes (jelly) were also common sweeteners. So much honey was made in the holy land, that some of it was exported.
Eggs – As for eggs, very few of them were eaten. The thought of eating eggs was something brought into the Holy Land only from the outside, especially to the East. It tended to be food only for the very wealthy. Indeed, the eating of poultry at all seems to have come to Jewish regions only after the exile in Babylon (587 – 500 BC).
Vegetables – The diet of ordinary people included a great many vegetables: beans and lentils came first on the list. Cucumbers as well were very much esteemed. Onions were very popular.
Meat – There was far less meet consumed than today. Meat was a food of luxury and only the wealthy it a great deal of it. Poor people never slaughtered an animal for their own eating, except when there was a family feast. Generally when such a feast approached, an older animal was chosen, and fattened up by feeding it grain. Therefore such an animal spent its last months eating well and working little so that its muscles were softer, and fattier. Goats, and lambs provided the most common meat; occasionally a calf (i.e. a cow). The animal was usually roasted. Chickens were scarce, though pigeons and turtledoves were cheap. Game was much sought after, but generally only the wealthy ate much of it. Deer and gazelle were considered kingly dishes, and peacock was reckoned a great delicacy.
Fish – But for most common people, fish was more important than meat. Bread and fish was a common meal. This is illustrated by the miracle of The loaves and the fishes, as well as the meal at the lakeside in Galilee where Christ prepared fish for them over a charcoal fire. The Sea of Galilee had great quantities of fish; and fish were also gotten from the Mediterranean Sea. Since fish soon turned bad, it was often salted. The consumption of fish was so great, that some of it had to be imported.
Locust – One of the most surprising forms of food was the locust. (But perhaps no stranger than some of our things today such as frog legs, snails, and live oysters). An ancient Jewish document claims that there were 800 different kinds of edible locust. Sometimes they were cooked rapidly in salt water and had a shrimp like taste and color. Usually their head and legs were taken off. Sometimes they were dried in the sun. After being dried, some were ground down to powder, known as Locust powder which tasted rather bitter and was often mixed with flour to make a much prized bitter biscuit.
Butter (oil) - Butter was rare in use, olive oil was much more common. So abundant were olives and olive oil, that some was exported. Many olives were eaten directly, others had the oil pressed from them at an oil press at home (left). Olive oil was highly prized, and many passages in the Bible hold it up it’s a symbol of strength and health.
Fruit – had an important place in the people’s food. They had many melons and figs along with pomegranates, blackberries and dates. Here too fruit was an abundance, so it was often exported as well.
Nuts – Nuts were in some abundance, especially walnuts, almonds, and pistachios. Like today, they were roasted.
As for seasonings and other condiments, the ancient Jews seem to like their food strongly seasoned. Certainly there was salt in abundance from the Dead Sea area, which also helped preserve certain foods. Other common spices were mustard, capers, cumin, rue, saffron, coriander, mint, dill, rosemary, garlic, onions, and shallots. Pepper however was scarce and expensive as was cinnamon, both of which came from the Far East.
Salted - Without refrigeration, fish, meat, and some vegetables were preserved by salting, or pickling them.
Pork was absolutely forbidden as was rabbit, and any meet with blood still in it. Meat had to be carefully drained of all blood, for it was believed that life was in the blood, and life belonged to God.
Drinks – People drank water when it was pure, the Spring water was to be preferred strongly over well water. Milk, and vinegar diluted with water were also drunk. Juice from pomegranates or dates was a preferred fruit juice. And a kind of light beer was made from barley and millets.
Wine was a very important staple, it is said that God himself first showed Noah how it was made. Vineyards and grapes were in abundance in ancient Israel. And the grapes were occasionally eaten directly, but most of them went toward making wine. Psalm 103:15 says that wine is joy to man’s heart. The book of Proverbs (31:6-7) also prescribes that there should be wine for the afflicted hearts. In Ecclesiastes 31:27 the author wonders what kind of life one could lead without it. Indeed, the vine was a symbol for Israel in the Scriptures. Since wine was considered sacred, it had to be kosher, that is made only by Jewish hands. It was only red wine that was consumed in biblical times; there is not even one mention of white wine. Wine was always spoken of as having the color of blood, and thus it was a deep red or purple color. They kept wine either in tall jars, or in wineskins made out of goats hide with wooden stoppers. Wine was filtered before it was consumed. Like today, there were different qualities of wine, some drier, some sweeter, some considered inferior some more desirable. They drink wine out of metal goblets or earthenware mugs, and although glass was known, it was scarce and expensive
Wine in moderation was considered a great blessing, but the ancient Jews were also well aware that excessive wine could be dangerous. Scripture is full of warnings about drunkenness. Nevertheless, wine was often had in some abundance, because water is not often pure. When Paul tells Timothy to drink some wine to settle his stomach, he was alluding to the fact that water alone tended to cause the stomach to be sore and inflamed, and to bring either diarrhea or constipation. Wine had the medicinal effect and helping kill water-born bacteria (of which the ancients knew nothing) as well as cheering the heart.
Food of course was very seasonal in availability. And thus the diet would be affected by harvest cycles. Here is a rough estimate of the harvests of different things:
Mid September – Ploughing time
Mid Oct – November – Olive harvest
Mid November – Grain is planted. Rainy season begins
February Flax harvest
Late March, Barley harvest
May – Wheat harvest
Mid June – Figs
July, – Grapes and vintage.
August – Dates and late figs
Wine and beer effectively kill off bacteria and have always been common as everyday drink.
In the colonies people, including children, drank apple cider with about 5% alcohol content. This was the rule until the Germans came in with their lagers which were much better and they became the drink of choice.
Which gives a new meaning to Johnny Appleseed’s quest to plant more apple trees.
As a boy I attended a small Pentecostal church, and that question came up in Sunday school. We were told that since drunkenness is a sin we could easily avoid that kind of sinning by never imbibing alcohol. Some projected that to extremes and became the teetotalers.
For Communion they served us grape juice, children and adults alike.
Wine in the Bible was wine; alcohol was the preservative before the days of refrigeration.
That was a discussion at our family Thanksgiving Dinner last year. How drinking wine was not a sin. The bible talks about everything in MODERATION. Also how in Europe even children start drinking wine but in a very small glass but you don’t see the whole population getting drunk. Wine has it health benefits. Christians from different cultures view alcohol differently.
One of the oddities in the prepper universe is that they buy all kinds of high tech water filters but don’t seem to know how to go about making wine and beer.
What NO TWINKIES? I think the Wookie would approve, I think.
Yes, like killing Infidels for the glory of Allah.
There was almost no teetotal movement in America until about the 1840s. After that it came mostly in reaction to Irish immigrants.
Absolutely. Remember, it was religious fanatics that killed Jesus.
We had a preacher who preached from the pulpit that at the marriage at Cana,
“And that is where Jesus changed the water into pure unfermented grape juice!”. We just quietly grinned to ourselves.
I believe it was the excess of drinking in the 1800s that lead to the Carry Nation attitude on alcohol.
I wonder if that story is taught to today's children as part of American history? John Chapman was an itinerant preacher who traveled about holding services, and carrying a bag of dried apple cores with which to plant apple trees wherever he went. There was a Disney movie about him back in the '50s that will NEVER be shown on TV today, probably because of this song:
The Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need,
The sun, the rain and the apple seed,
The Lord is good to me.
By the way, some of the more common presses used for making apple cider are the ones from Harbor Freight. The six ton is about 70 bucks and the 12 ton goes for 130.
I own a 12 ton and they work. A lot of businesses use them.
When I was young we wrte told the Johnny Appleseed story but I remember it as being taught as a simple story, not as history. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that Mr. Chapman was a real person and that he did plant apple seeds
Considering how apples were turned into clean drink, it appears that Mr. Chapman was a great benefactor to the people of America. Amazing what you can do with a simple shovel and a bag of seeds.
ping
My argument to any and all was: How was it possible, before the days of chemical preservatives and especially refrigeration, for things like apple and grape juice NOT to ferment?
Yeast spores are always floating in the air, and as soon as the spores would land on some sugary substance, such as fruit juice, they would be “born” from the spores. Then the yeast would do precisely what God had made them for; feast on the sugars an produce carbon dioxide and alcohol as waste products. It is as natural as when God commanded in Genesis Chapter 1:
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
I do think that the complete prohibition on alcohol as a religious tenant (and not a personal one) is anti-God. He just never commanded that, nor would He want to. Those Christians who say it is so are sinning as much as any other sin, and never realize nor question it. And I don't mean that they HAVE to drink alcohol, but those who profess that other people who do are sinning. Frankly, that is just wrong.
I remember going to some in-laws home for Thanksgiving in Tampa, Florida several years ago. I brought some very good and expensive German beer with me as a gift (we had just returned from Overseas--Germany and Italy--after 7 years). Well, my in-laws were appalled! They made me put the beer back in the car, and exclaimed they did not allow a single drop in their home due to it being sinful and of the Devil!!!
They were QUITE judgmental of my behavior after that. They never called me by my name after that, but to my wife only referred to me as "Your husband" (probably thinking, "The Lush"). However, I never get drunk.
Thanks for the ping to this very informative article.
I like good lean bacon, and used to like ham but can not stand pig roast, many people get boils from eating pig meat.
The Puritans in New England drank beer for the same reason. It was common for their water to be polluted.
...neither the ancients nor the Puritans knew anything whatsoever about bacteria...
The food was more scarce and less convenient than today. >>
that’s a super understatement for sure.
beans and lentils came first on the list. >>
didn’t esau give up his inheritance over a big bowl of lentils??? that would have been me, I love them.
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