Armed with swords, spears and shields, the men pound on the simple wooden door of the house. A woman throws it open and the men push her aside. They tell her to give up the men that had come to her house earlier since they were spies of the Israelites. The stories of their victories in the desert have made their way to Jericho and the city is on edge. The woman, Rahab, tells them that the men were there but she didn’t know they were spies and they left before the gate closed for the night. They leave immediately in pursuit, hoping to catch them. Rahab waits...then goes up to her roof. Like most houses, it’s flat and contains food and other supplies. She moves several bundles of flax that were being stored there and reveals the two Israelite spies. After swearing an oath that she and her family will be protected when they seize the city, they leave by climbing down a rope from her window onto the ground below.
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Bible Backdrop. Continuing our series on daily life, this episode is going to be about houses during Bible times. What did they look like and how do they compare to modern houses?
To start, we actually have to go back...way back to the Patriarchs. The ancestors of the Israelite nation, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, lived in tents and were a nomadic people moving from place to place. The tents, made of goatshair, were large and divided into 2 sections. The front section was where the men stayed and conducted business. They ate their meals there and it could be left open in warmer weather. The back part of the tent was where the women and children lived. The only male allowed in this area was the husband. Entry by a male stranger was punishable by death. In Judges 4:17-21, we see the story of Sisera and Jael. Sisera was a captain of the king of Canaan and had been oppressing the Israelites. God raised Barak as a judge and defeated Sisera’s army. While running away, he came to the tent of Heber the Kenite and asked his wife to hide him. Sisera forfeited his life by entering the women’s area of the tent and Jael made him pay by driving a tent peg through his head while he slept. Jael probably had lots of practice doing this as women were responsible for putting up the tents and taking them down. They were also responsible for their upkeep: weaving the fabric, stitching it together and repairing them as necessary. The women also selected the site where the tents would be set up.
As they moved from place to place, the tents could be informally grouped to accommodate extended family. During the times of the wandering in the desert, Numbers chapter 2 had a strict system for the Israelites to set up their tents by tribe. The clan leaders had a sign to mark their tent. In 1 Samuel 26:7, a spear with it’s head in the ground marked the tent of Saul when he was pursuing David.
Since polygamy was allowed during this time (listen to the episode on Weddings and Marriage for that subject), there could be a potential for conflict between the women. To prevent this, if a man had multiple wives, then each had their own tent with her children and servants. The husband could go to the tent and it helped avoid rivalries and animosity between the women.
After the conquest of the Promised Land, tents were replaced with villages of permanent houses. Homes were made with mud brick or stone. Foundations were almost always made of stone for stability. Initially, the layout followed the tent model with a large room in the front and another room in the back. As time went on and families grew, the model changed to accommodate the additional people. Houses started including a central courtyard with rooms opening off of it. The size of the room was limited by the size of the beams. A room could only be as wide as the beam that supported the roof. The inner walls were made of clay or plaster that were then smoothed. They could then be decorated with frescoes; simple ones for the poor and more elaborate for the rich. Inside the rooms, benches made of mud or brick could be used for sitting, sleeping or storage and were built into the walls. Stairs or a wooden ladder would lead to the roof which had more functions than the roofs on modern houses do today. I’ll get into that a little later. Since the interior rooms were small and dark, most of the work of the home was done on the roof or in the courtyard.
With that being said, let’s look into the courtyard and what was happening there. The daily life of the family revolved around the courtyard and had several features. First, there was the mikveh. This was a pol of clean rainwater used for ritual cleansing by both men and women. Next was a stone based cooking area with a fire, cooking utensils and sometimes an oven. Next, there were implements to grind up small amounts of grain and they could be made from stone or clay. Then there was a covered area for people to work and talk and another covered area for animals such as sheep or goats.
Furnishings in a home could be pretty sparse. Most people only had cushions or mats to sit on the floor while eating. They slept on a padded mat filled with stuffing. Tables, couches and chairs were only seen in in the houses of the rich.
Now we can go up to the roof. Unlike houses today, the roof of a house in Bible times was an extension of the living area. They were flat and sloped to let rainwater flow into a cistern since water was so scarce. They were usually built by laying brushwood across rough sycamore beams and binding them with mud. As a result, they leaked and were green in color from seeds that would sprout. A heavy roller was kept on the roof to compact the material after a rain.
The roof acted as a storeroom for additional food and supplies. As we saw in the story at the beginning of this episode, Rahab protected the spies by hiding them in the stalks of flax stored on her roof. It was also used to dry crops and other food.
The roof could be a gathering place for people to talk; especially in the evening. The Bible also mentions it as a place of prayer in Zephenaiah 1:5 and Acts 10:9. In the heat of summer, people even slept on the roof. Since many generations lived in the same house, it may have been the only private spot. So great was the use of the roof that Deutoronomy 22:8 commands that roofs should have a parapet, a low protective wall, so that nobody could fall off.
In some places the roof would be made into an upper room. Elijah lived in one provided by a widow in 1Kings 17:19; Peter raised Dorcas from the dead in her upper room in Acts 9:37; and, of course, Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover meal before his crucifixion in an upper room.
The last details we’re going to look at is lighting, heating and windows. Lighting was limited which is why most work was done outside during the day. Oil lamps provided some light in the evenings. To provide the greatest amount of light, a lamp was put as high as possible. It was either connected to a projection in the wall, hung from a ceiling or placed on a lampstand.
Heating wasn’t as necessary due to the climate. If necessary, it came from a a small charcoal brazier. Some home did have a chimney as noted in Hosea 13:3, but most homes did not.
Windows in a house were narrow on the outside but wider on the inside. This was to prevent intruders from breaking in. They were set high in the wall for the same reason.
As I said earlier, most houses were made of mud bricks. Later in Israelite history, stone houses became more common. Most of the country used white limestone with 2 exceptions. In Galilee, they used a black basalt while on the coast they used a yellow sandstone.
To wrap up this episode, I’m going to answer the question that’s probably been nagging you since the beginning: Where did people go to the bathroom? Archaeological dighs have found several latrines and often would be shared by several homes. They were in private, discreet locations away from the houses. In Deutoronomy, God instructed that the Israelites designate a place outside the camp as a latrine, dig a hole and cover up the aftermath. This was carried over into the Promised Land and kept things sanitary.
On that note, we are done with another episode of Bible Backdrop. Thank you again for listening and I hope you enjoyed learning about houses. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5 star rating and review. Word of mouth is still the best way for the podcast to get around, so tell a friend to subscribe. If you want to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Have a wonderful week!