So that we might be able to better understand how people lived during the Bible days, let’s look at some of the things they did so differently from us today.
When they cooked, weather permitting, it was usually outside. The fuel used was quite often dried dung or dried grass. Sometimes they used thorns as on thorny shrubs. When Simon Peter warmed himself as Jesus was put on trial, they used charcoal for the fire. Like what has been done in the early days of America, creating a flame was usually by striking stones or wood together to get a spark.
The roof of a home is much more valuable than today. It was quite often their bedroom, a place for storage, a party area or for public proclamations or even worship and prayer. By the time Jesus Mary and Joseph were visited by the wisemen they were living in a house that was probably on a platform 8 to 10 feet above the ground. The space below was used for cattle and sheep.
The food they ate was rarely meat and usually fish caught from the Sea of Galilee. They ate eggs, honey, fruit which would include figs grapes and dates and pomegranates. When Jesus said that he gave the sop to Judas as a sign that he was the one that was the betrayer, this was in alignment with a special honor of giving the best morsel or sop. It was probably Jesus’ demonstration of love and friendship to the one who was going to betray him.
The phrase cast out into outer darkness may come from a terrible consideration. The ancient banquets were usually well lit and whoever was excluded from a feast was in the darkness of the night. Orientals had a dread for the darkness of the night. This gives a new meaning when Jesus talked about a servant being bound and cast out into outer darkness.
Because a new wife would become a member of the bridegroom’s clan, the parents had an invested interest in her selection. As part of the selection, a man is chosen as a mediator between the two sets of parents and usually called, “the friend of the bridegroom.” John the Baptist made reference to this in John 3:29. The dowry was very important to be given to the parents of the bride because she had been previously working as a member of the family in a field. With her departure to the bridegroom, that left a space of work in the family.
The word betrothal as used is best compared to our engagement before the actual wedding which would be about a year away. When Jesus spoke of the ten virgins in his parable, he was talking about the bridegroom himself coming in a procession to the home of the bride to retrieve her for the wedding ceremony at his home followed by a grant procession of well-wishers. The reason it was important for the virgins to have a torch for lamp was because the procession was at night.
The book of Ruth contains a very interesting ritual not recorded anywhere else in the Bible that is important to the ancestry of Jesus. Ruth was from the foreign country of Moab. Her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law died. She chose to accompany her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel. When they returned, there was no immediate source of income or food. Therefore, Ruth collected grain in the fields that had fallen while the reapers were gathering up for their master owner named Boaz. As the book progressed, Boaz desired to marry Ruth but there was a problem. In those days when a woman was a widow, the next kinsmen called a kinsman redeemer had first rights to the marriage. Boaz had to go through a special ritual recorded in chapter 4. He gathered ten men of the city and before them the next in line man said he could not marry Ruth because it would harm his own inheritance. The custom was to remove one shoe in exchange with the other’s shoe according to the practice of ancient agreements. The ten men became a witness to the contract or agreement that Boaz successfully completed the negotiations for Ruth to be his wife.
The purpose of this blog is to encourage us not to stumble over customs that are thousands of years old that might confuse us. Ours is to take the message of the gospel whether it’s in the Old or the New Testament. To know this background is very helpful to relate to the coming of Christ symbolically and literally.
Christian Writer 