Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ECONOMICS

Very little is known about the details of economic institutions and practices in the ancient Mediterranean world. From what is known about general conditions there, however, it is possible to infer a great deal about economic life in these times. Of primary importance is the fact that most people were very poor. As we know from our modern world, people who are very poor spend most of their incomes on food, and there is every reason to believe that such was the case in the biblical world. Consequently, the economies of the ancient Mediterranean were largely agricultural. This does not mean, however, that they were rural in the sense that farm folk lived in widely scattered locations on the plots of land they worked. Even today it is the practice in parts of that Mediterranean region for farmers to live in towns or villages and to go out to their fields to work each day.

Two other features of the ancient Mediterranean led to a high degree of self-sufficiency in agriculture rather than specialization and trade in agricultural products. The first was the high cost of land transport of bulky materials. According to the famous edict of the Roman emperor Diocletian issued ca. 300 c.e., which sought to control prices after a half century of currency debasement and inflation, the cost of delivering a wagonload of wheat would double with a journey of 480 km. (300 mi.). Water transport was much cheaper, however, and large quantities of wheat and other agricultural products were shipped by sea. High transport costs caused the prices of agricultural products to rise relatively rapidly with distance when they were shipped by land and reduced the likelihood that imported products would be cheaper than locally produced ones.

The other factor which inhibited specialization and trade in farm products is the similarity of climatic conditions in the Mediterranean basin. There are, to be sure, some dramatic special features of particular places. The annual flooding of the Nile renewed the fertility of farm land along its banks in Egypt. The Levant’s location on the lee shore of the Mediterranean produced a strong seasonal pattern of rainfall which strongly influenced the time of planting of grain crops. In general, however, rainfall and temperature are similar throughout the region, so that similar crops were grown. Especially important were barley and wheat, grapes and olives. Grapes were converted to raisins and wine; although olives were eaten, they were used principally to produce olive oil, which was used for cooking, bathing, and lighting.

OT Period

The principal difference between the time of Israel and Judah and earlier times was the use of steeled iron. Steel was produced by repeated heating of iron in a charcoal fire and plunging it into cold water. The technique of steeling iron was developed ca. 1400 b.c.e., probably in the Armenian mountains. Its introduction into the Levant is usually attributed to the Philistines. Steel was cheaper than bronze, the principal metal previously used, in part because iron ores were widely available while tin, which was mixed with copper to obtain bronze, was obtainable only in a few places. When used in plowshares, steel cut deeper. It was better adapted to tools such as axes, which were used for clearing forests. Steel thus contributed both to the settlement of the highlands of Israel and to shipbuilding by the Phoenicians.

Early Israel was subject to moderately high variability both in total rainfall and in its seasonal distribution. Because of this variability, it was desirable for farmers to grow a variety of crops as insurance against the failure of some rather than to specialize in a single crop. Farmers would thus plant both barley and wheat, whose harvests were about seven weeks apart, and also grow grapes, olives, and other fruit crops which were harvested in the fall. In addition, they found it desirable to keep sheep and goats, partly as insurance and also to manure orchards and fields currently left fallow. Such a variety of products demanded attention at different times, so the farmer’s labor would have been more evenly utilized throughout the year than if the whole of his effort were to be devoted to a single crop. These factors, in addition to high land transport costs and climatic similarity, tended to produce self-sufficiency in agriculture and to work against specialization and trade in farm products in ancient Israel.

Despite the production of a variety of outputs as insurance against crop failure due to weather, the variability of rainfall probably resulted in occasional losses to farmers. These losses, in turn, would have been followed by borrowing and sometimes by further losses. Some farmers probably lost their land and/or were enslaved for debts. Increasing concentration in the ownership of land and a growing population of domestic slaves might have had serious consequences for social stability. It was perhaps for this reason that institutions such as the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee Year evolved to ameliorate the effects of losses resulting from variability of rainfall.

Two aspects of agricultural production doubtless contributed to the formation of extended family and larger social groups such as clans and of small settlements. One is the intensive effort required at certain times, especially planting and harvesting. Extended family groups would have helped supply labor beyond that of a single farmer for such periods. By staggering the planting times — and thus also the harvest times — of several farmers, each and their families could assist the others at planting and harvesting. Likewise, equipment such as plows and oxen could be more fully utilized through sharing by more than one family. Other pieces of capital equipment such as threshing floors and olive and wine presses, which no individual family would have been able to utilize fully, might have been shared by still larger groups. Thus we might expect that settlements would have developed.

Although agriculture was by far the dominant economic activity in the ancient Mediterranean, trade has probably existed almost as long. There were two major land routes in Palestine, the Way of the Sea and the King’s Highway. The former ran northeastward from Egypt along the Mediterranean coast and over the Carmel ridge to Megiddo. From that point, routes went to Phoenicia, northern Syria and Damascus. The King’s Highway ran northward from the Gulf of Aqaba through the hills E of the Jordan River to Rabbah and on to Damascus. Most commodities coming by sea would likely have come through the Gulf of Aqaba or through one of the Phoenician ports. Because of the high cost of transporting bulky commodities by land, one would anticipate that commodities shipped would have been relatively valuable for their weight — luxury goods, precious metals, or strategic raw materials such as tin. Our fuller knowledge of trade in NT and medieval times and the commodities noted in 1 Kgs. 10:2, 22, 25 seem to support this presumption.

There is little evidence of manufacturing beyond local handicrafts for either the OT or the NT periods. The principal evidence for the earlier of these periods is the discovery of more than 100 olive oil installations at Tel Miqne-Ekron, each of which was of relatively small scale. While olive oil was doubtless produced at many locations for local consumption, so large a number of installations suggests production at Ekron was for export, probably by water. These installations appear to have existed under the Assyrians during the 7th century but to have died out after Assyria was defeated by the Babylonians. One can only speculate as to why this may have been the case. There is no particular reason, moreover, for believing that the Ekron installations are indicative of steady and sustained industrialization and economic development during the OT period.

Like the Late Bronze Age city-states of Canaan, the economic features of governmental institutions seem to have been feudal-like or even primitive during the Iron Age. Military units appear often to have been small bands of mercenary soldiers, and these were probably supported by grants of land from the chief or king. Kings received some of their income from royal estates, and taxes were levied in kind or in the form of conscript labor. Money took the form of metals weighted to appropriate amounts instead of coins of predetermined weight and fineness.

NT Period

The Persian conquests beginning in the mid-6th century ushered in a new era of more sophisticated government that lasted well beyond the NT period. Armies were larger; e.g., Cyrus the Great’s army consisted of ca. 30 thousand. They contained slingers, archers, and cavalry in addition to infantry and no longer used chariots in open country. In siege warfare blockade, siege mounds, and mines under walls were employed. The Persians and Romans established provincial governments. Taxes were received and soldiers paid in money; however, rulers continued to receive incomes from royal estates. Both the Persians and the Romans built roads, which were used for moving troops and for mail among other purposes. Perhaps the greatest difference between the OT and NT periods was the use of coinage, pieces of valuable metals of prescribed weight and fineness. Coins were first employed in Lydia ca. 600 b.c.e. and were widely used in Greek city-states from Ionia to Sicily and in Persia. While Herod the Great issued coins, the most widely used coins in NT times were the Roman silver denarius, a day’s pay for a laborer or a Roman legionnaire, and the bronze sesterce, equal in value to one fourth of a denarius.

Agricultural conditions were largely the same in the NT as in the OT period. They differed largely in that there were more large land holdings or estates and hired labor was more commonly employed in agriculture. In contrast to Italy and other parts of the western Roman Empire, there was little reliance on slave labor in agriculture in Asia Minor and the Levant. Industry, too, was little different from that of OT times. Most production took the form of handicrafts for the local market. Items were produced in widely scattered locations in towns and even on the large estates. There were a few noteworthy exceptions to this pattern, however. Laodicea, Tarsus, and Alexandria, e.g., were important centers for the production of linen cloth. Production tended to be concentrated near flax-growing areas because of the weight loss inherent in the conversion of flax to linen. One of the most important examples of specialization and exchange in the Roman world was the production and export of tableware from Aretrium, modern Arezzo SE of Florence.

Like agriculture and industry, trade too was largely local during NT times. There were two interesting exceptions, however. One was water-borne commerce in agricultural commodities in the Mediterranean region. There were large-scale exports of wheat from Egypt, Sicily, and North Africa to Rome, and wheat was probably exported to some larger cities in the eastern Mediterranean. Wine was exported from Italy to Gaul in the 1st century b.c.e. and from Gaul to Italy by the late 1st century c.e. Likewise, from the late 1st century c.e. there were large-scale exports of olive oil from North Africa to Rome. In the eastern Mediterranean, Italian oil was displaced by oil from the coasts of Asia Minor and Syria.

By NT times long-distance trade in commodities of high value in relation to their weight was noteworthy. The commodities involved in this trade were principally silks, precious stones, and “spices.” The last included not only seasonings such as pepper but also medicinals, dye-stuffs, and cosmetics. These commodities originated in the Far East and were exchanged especially for precious metals. They were apparently transported in stages by water to the Persian Gulf or Red Sea and by land over the famous Silk Road through central Asia. From the Persian Gulf commodities moved by land across the desert through Palmyra in Syria or Petra in what is now Jordan. Commodities also moved to the west from the southeastern Black Sea and from Alexandria, following transshipment from the Red Sea.

Bibliography. D. C. Hopkins, The Highlands of Canaan (Sheffield, 1985); J. D. Muhly, “How Iron Technology Changed the Ancient World — and Gave the Philistines a Military Edge,” BARev 8/6 (1982): 40-54; R. F. Muth, “Economic Influences on Early Israel,” JSOT 75 (1997): 77-92.

Richard F. Muth

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ECONOMICS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)