It’s evening. The sun begins to set in the western sky, but a crowd of people are out in the Galilean countryside. It’s more than a crowd. Experts believe the total number of people could be over 10,000. They are there to see the one called Jesus who has been teaching and working miracles. His disciples exhort Him to send the crowd away to buy food since the area is so remote. Instead, he asks what food is on hand. “5 loaves and 2 fish” they answered. He instructs everyone to sit down and asks for the food. Giving thanks to God, he breaks the loaves and tells his disciples to pass them out to the people. Having complete faith in Jesus, the men begin to pass out the food...and it never runs out. Everyone...men, women and children...all have their fill and 12 baskets are leftover. Only then does Jesus send the crowd away.
Hello again and welcome to the next episode of Bible Backdrop. Today, I’m going to start a series that looks at some aspects of daily life of people in the Bible. Today’s episode is going to be all about the food. What did people eat in Bible days? While this may not seem like a big deal, it’s usually the little things that help us understand some of the bigger stories.
First, we’re going to start not with food, but with drink. There was a limit to the types of drinks available to people. The most common were water, wine and milk. Water could come from either a well or a spring. Spring water was preferred as it was always fresher than well water due to the constant movement. Wine was very important to Jewish culture. In Numbers 15:5, it was even used as part of the offering: “With each lamb for the burnt offering, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine for a drink offering.” From our Bible Math episode, remember that a hin was between 1-1.5 gallons, so a quarter hin was about a quart. Since wine was considered sacred, it must be kosher, touched by Jewish hands only. It was always red...there was no white wine at this time. It had a deep red or purple color and looked like blood. Like today, the quality could vary greatly and it was consumed from either a metal or earthenware mug. Finally, milk was also used but not as often. Cows milk was rare so most people drank milk from a ewe lamb or a goat. Since it spoiled so quickly from the hot, dry climate most milk was used to make cheese, yogurt or lard.
Now we come to the meat of this podcast...and I mean that literally. Meat was rarely eaten because it was so expensive. When it was eaten, it was either lamb or goats. Cows were usually only eaten during celebrations. Sheep usually weren’t eaten because they were worth more alive for their wool. The rich ate meat more often while the poor only ate meat at a family feast or a festival. It could be roasted or boiled and all the blood had to be drained. No medium rare for ancient Israelites. Wild game such as deer or gazelle were highly prized meats and were delicacies for the rich.
As we see in the Gospels, fishing is a very important industry in the Bible. Fish provide a cheap and readily available source of protein. It could be sold at the market or salted and cured in the sun. The fish in the feeding of the 5000 was likely salted fish as fresh fish would have spoiled. When cooked, it could be roasted on a charcoal fire, using a wooden or iron spit. In John 21:9, we see the resurrected Jesus cooking fish directly on the charcoals. Fish had to have fins and scales; shellfish was prohibited in the Jewish diet.
Fowl was also a part of the Jewish diet. Partridge, pigeon, quails and doves were all eaten. In Numbers 11, we see the Israelites complaining about the lack of meat, so God divinely provides more quail then they could ever eat. Chicken and eggs aren’t mentioned very often especially in the Old Testament. However, Jesus does mention an egg in Luke 11. I’m not sure if this is a chicken egg, but they may have become more common after the return from exile. There must have been some around as a rooster crows after Peter denies Jesus three times.
The heart of the Jewish diet during Bible times was in fruits, vegetables and nuts. Ancient Israel was an extremely fertile land and they grew a lot of different things. A few examples are apples, almonds, figs, dates, grapes and pomegranates. Figs and raisins were formed into “cakes.” These were for portable eating and also for storage to use in winter months when fresh food may not be available. In addition to these foods, beans, cucumbers and lentils were all very common. In Genesis, the stew that Esau sold his birthright for was probably a lentil stew. Onions were also a popular vegetable.
One of the most important items in the fruit and vegetable category is the olive. Olives were plentiful and the oil was used for cooking and as a source of fuel for lamps. It was so plentiful that some it was exported. Reading through the books of Leviticus and Numbers, olive oil was used in many of the offerings before the Lord.
Now we come to grains and cereals. The main ones grown in Israel were wheat and barley. Before taking possession of the Promised Land, God decrees that when harvesting that a person should not glean to the edge of their fields; nor should they go through their fields a second time to get what they missed the first time. This was to allow provision for the poor to be able to have food also. In the book of Ruth, Boaz not only allows Ruth to glean from the edges, but allows her to follow his gatherers to pick up what they have missed. He commands his workers to not harm her and then sends her home with extra food. In the Gospels, Jesus and his disciples are going through a field and become hungry. They pick the grain and rub it in their hands to remove the kernels. The Pharisees were upset because they deemed this to technically be work and was happening on the Sabbath.
Of course, we can’t talk about grains without talking about bread. It was considered to be an essential, basic food. Bread was the center of every meal in ancient Israel. It was such a part of the culture that to “break bread” became synonymous with sharing a meal. Bread was treated with the utmost respect. So much so that crumbs over the size of an olive were saved and not discarded. It was always broken with hands and never cut. Bread loaves were round and toasted on stones that had been in a fire. Sometimes, fruit was added to the bread to make a treat. In Bible times, the rich ate wheat bread while the poor usually ate barley loaves. Looking again at the feeding of the 5000, the bread used there was most likely barley loaves.
When reading the Bible, we become familiar with the terms leavened and unleavened bread. Leavened bread used dough from a previous fermented batch of dough. This was kept overnight and the bacteria would grow and affect the dough causing it to rise. This is what Paul means when he says in Corinthians: “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?”
Unleavened bread did not go through this process and was flatter. It could be made very quickly and was the “bread of haste” recorded in Exodus and used at Passover. It was so central that Passover was often called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
To wrap up this episode, I’ll talk about a few other foods that aren’t really covered in the other categories. The first is honey. This was a common sweetener as bees were kept domestically but it was often found in the wild. In the story of Samson, he finds a honeycomb in a lion carcass he killed and used it to try and trick the Philistines with a riddle. In 1 Samuel 14, Saul makes a foolish vow to kill anyone who tastes food before his enemies are beaten. His son, Jonathan, finds some wild honey and eats it since he did not hear of his father’s command.
Next, spices were often used in cooking. Some were common and readily available while others were expensive because they had to be imported. In his rebuke of the Pharisees, Jesus talks about them tithing their mint, dill and cumin while neglecting justice and mercy. The main spice that was readily available was salt. With it’s location near the Dead Sea, salt could easily be extracted and used as a spice or preserving. When Jesus talks about salt losing it’s saltiness and being trampled by men, this may seem like a strange example to us but people in Israel at that time understood what he was talking about. When salt couldn’t be used as a spice or a preservative, it was used on the ground around the Temple during the rainy season. The stonework would get very slippery so they used salt on the ground to prevent people from falling.
Finally, we come to a food source that may make some people cringe: locusts. John the Baptist was known for eating locusts and wild honey and apparently this was not a terribly uncommon food. One ancient Jewish document identifies over 800 different types of locusts. The head, legs and wings were removed and it was often cooked in salt water. They had a shrimp like texture and color. The could also be fried in hot oil.
And on that note, that wraps up another episode of Bible Backdrop. Thank you again for listening and I hope you enjoyed talking about food in the Bible. As always, if you would like to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Word of mouth is still the best way for this show to reach new listeners, so tell a friend and have them subscribe. You can get it on Apple podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. Also, Bible Backdrop is now available on GoodPods if you have that app. If you haven’t already, please leave a 5-star rating and review as this will help greatly with moving the show up the ranks. Have a wonderful week!