Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FOOD

References to “food” and related themes appear in every book in the Bible, starting with Gen. 1 and ending in Rev. 22. Indeed, some of the best-known stories are those dealing with food and food getting. OT examples include Eve’s temptation of Adam; Joseph saving the people of Egypt and his own family from famine; the children of Israel eating manna in the desert; Ruth gleaning wheat in Boaz’ fields; David, the brave little shepherd boy; Elisha who kept the widow’s oil flowing; the young Hebrew boys who would not eat the king’s unclean food.

NT examples are numerous as well. They include stories about Jesus turning water into wine; helping the disciples to catch fish; feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two small fishes; his last supper. Jesus also told parables which often dealt with food-related themes, e.g., the parable of the sower; the weeds; the mustard seed and the yeast; the lost sheep; the workers in the vineyard; and the wedding banquet. To these examples many others can be added from the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, Peter, and John.

There are several reasons for the importance of food in the Bible. In antiquity most people were food producers — farmers, shepherds, and fishermen. In other words, the daily lives of almost every man, woman, and child were caught up in such activities as caring for barnyard and pasture animals, clearing and plowing, planting and tending crops, harvesting and processing crops, transporting and storing foodstuffs, preparing and consuming food, and concern about having enough left over to survive until the next harvest.

Food is also a central theme throughout the Bible because of the web of interactions it evokes — interactions between people and the land, between people as social actors, and between people and the Divine. In other words, how food was produced, distributed, prepared, and eaten had consequences which went far beyond the supply of nourishment to people’s bodies. Food served in Bible times, as today, is a powerful instrument for communicating social meaning — for expressing hospitality (Abraham and his angelic visitors); commemorating evidences of Divine intervention in human affairs (the annual festivals), and sealing compacts between peoples and individuals (the Last Supper).

By far the most important ingredients in people’s diets were wheat (Triticum durum, Triticum vulgare, Triticum spelta) and barley (Hordeum vulgare). In Egypt, where rainfall is practically nonexistent, wheat was grown along the banks of the Nile by means of floodwater irrigation. A similar system was used by the ancient Mesopotamians who produced their wheat in fields irrigated by an extensive network of canals linked to the Euphrates River.

In the southern Levant landscape and climatic conditions are quite different; hence different methods were used to grow grain. In this landscape of coastal plains, inland hills and valleys, mountains, and deserts — where summers are hot and dry and winters are mild and wet — a wide range of strategies was relied upon to produce cereals. Along the coastal plains and in the Jordan Valley waters from springs, rivers, and streams were diverted into aqueducts and channels to supply water to irrigated cereal fields. Along the slopes of the highland areas villagers maintained wadi diversion dams and hillside terraces to preserve moisture and retain soil for their grain crops. Others relied on transhumance — movement of people and pasture animals, especially sheep and goats — between winter grain growing areas and summer pasture lands. Still others — namely the desert Bedouin — grew little or no wheat themselves, but relied on various partnership arrangements with villagers for their wheat supply.

While wheat and barley were core to the diets of all these different groups throughout all of biblical times, other cereals (millet, rice), legumes (lentils, beans, chick peas, vetch), vegetables (onions, garlic, cucumbers), fruits (olives, grapes, pomegranates, melons, figs, dates, apples), poultry (doves, chickens), meat (sheep, goat, cattle, swine), milk, wild roots, fish, and game were also consumed, but by no means to the same degree in all times and places. What determined which and how much of these other items were included in the diet were where and when people lived, their mode of livelihood (village farming, transhumance, pastoralism), their economic situation (rich or poor), access to markets, and religious beliefs.

Given these contingencies, it follows that the meals most commonly eaten by the patriarchs, whom the Bible indicates were transhumants, differed somewhat from those of their descendants who settled permanently in villages in the highlands of Canaan. While wheat and barley were predominant in both diets, meat from male herd animals and cheese, curds, and milk produced by female animals made up the bulk of the remaining ingredients (Gen. 18:6-8). It should be noted, however, that the meat of slaughtered herd animals was not eaten every day, but rather on special occasions. Wild game, honey, dates, and spices obtained through hunting and gathering were also important to the patriarchal diet (Gen. 27:3-4).

By contrast, the diets consumed by village households in Canaan were much more varied in terms of items produced locally. For example, a typical village community would grow wheat and barley in the flatter areas, and graze sheep and goats on the stubble; it would grow olives, grapes, and other fruit trees on the lower hills, with patches of irrigated vegetables and spices around the village (Isa. 5:1-3). This traditional pattern assured that the typical village diet in Canaan included not only grains and animal by-products, but also vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

The foods consumed by the elites of larger towns and cities such as Jerusalem and Caesarea were even more varied due to the wide range of foodstuffs imported from distant places and the greater wealth with which to buy exotic foods. A rich person’s diet might therefore include exotic meats and fish, vegetables, fruits, and spices imported from as far away as Southeast Asia, North Africa, or Europe. There were also many landless poor people living in and around these cities, many of whom subsisted by begging and scavenging.

Given the geographical diversity of the land of Canaan, and given the changes over time in political conditions of the region throughout biblical times, the economic conditions of various indigenous groups, including the different Israelite tribes, varied considerably over time and space. Therefore, so did their diets. Thus the foods eaten by the Benjaminites around Jerusalem at the time of David and Solomon, e.g., were not exactly the same as those eaten by the Reubenites in Transjordan. Furthermore, a millennium later, in the time of Christ, many new food items were available due to vastly increased intercontinental trade, so that diets, especially in urban areas, included items which were unheard of a thousand years earlier (e.g., garum and chicken).

Despite such regional and temporal discontinuities, cultic rules of purity served to set the Israelite diet apart wherever Jews lived. In addition to restricting animal matter to that from mammals which part the hoof and chew the cud (Lev. 11:1-8; Deut. 14:6-8) and various “clean” birds, fish, and insects (Lev. 11:9-47; Deut. 14:9-21), the regulations prohibited any food which had been contaminated by contact (through cooking or otherwise) with water defiled by an unclean carcass (Lev. 11:32-38); other legislation governed modes of preparation and combinations of foodstuffs (e.g., Exod. 23:19 par.).

Øystein S. LaBianca

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FOOD

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)