Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MEAT

Meat (Heb. bāśār) was not likely a regular part of the diet in biblical times and was probably consumed only occasionally with sacrifices (1 Sam. 2:13), at seasonal gatherings, or to welcome special guests (Gen. 18:7; Judg. 13:15; Luke 15:27). It was a desired foodstuff, however, and seems to indicate bounteous dining (Exod. 16:12; Amos 6:4; Dan. 10:3). Sheep and goats were the main animals prepared for consumption, though cattle and birds were eaten too. Meat was likely roasted (Isa. 44:16) or boiled (1 Sam. 2:3; Ezek. 24:10), and various restrictions applied, such as not eating the blood of an animal (Deut. 12:23) or the sinew of the thigh (Gen. 32:32[MT 33]), or “boiling a kid in its mother’s milk” (Exod. 23:19; Deut. 14:21). All animals deemed clean for sacrifice were permissible as food, and according to the levitical code they included ruminants and ungulates, birds (except for carrion), and fish with fins and scales (Lev. 11). The pig and any other unclean animals were avoided.

Bibliography. D. Brothwell and P. Brothwell, Food in Antiquity, rev. ed. (Baltimore, 1998); B. Rosen, “Subsistence Economy in Iron Age I,” in From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel, ed. I. Finkelstein and N. Naʾaman (Washington, 1994), 339-51.

Carey Walsh

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MEAT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)