Digging Deeper Into the Bible

2 Women Grinding Grain

2009-06-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Matthew 24:41-42: Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Luke 6:1-5:
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.

Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

Preparing a Meal
I never had a suitable appreciation for the work needed to prepare a meal in antiquity. In order to make bread and any other grain-based food, such as oatmeal, grain needed to be ground for approximately four hours a day. This was no easy task, and according to rabbinic law the first task a woman could hand over to a slave was grinding grain.

Mills were made of stone, and of great variety. At its most basic, a large stone was placed on top of another. Kernels of grain were placed in between them, and women rotated the top stone until the hard coatings of the kernels were ground off.

This was often accomplished by two women sitting opposite each other, one pushing and pulling on the right and the other on the left, which gives added meaning to Jesus’ words regarding the Last Day, quoted above. "...one will be taken, and the other left." There was no task more integrated; when one woman disappeared, the other one couldn't finish without changing her pattern.

It also adds punch to the second passage quoted above; the disciples must've been starving to eat those kernels. "Rubbing them in their hands" would have required a lot of work to make them eatable, and a few kernels of grain isn't going to help you out much. Furthermore, it was hard work to remove the outer shell, and Jews took the Sabbath very seriously. For the disciples to break the Sabbath with the Pharisees nearby took a lot of hunger!

Their desperation explains the next analogy: David and his companions were more than 'hungry,' when they ate the consecrated bread, allocated to priests. They had to eat! And such must have been the state of the disciples.

Breakfast was often barley porridge, which required the steps mentioned above for wheat as well as soaking the kernels overnight, drying them and roasting them until the seed coatings were loose enough to pound out the grain.

Other Cooking
Olive oil required, after the men picked them from the tree, cleaning them in hot water, removing the pits, trampling them to remove the oil, crushing the remaining pulp to get out extra oil, and bottling it. The bitter part of the olive, amurca, was turned into a pesticide and furniture polish, among other things.

Wine – and most grapes were turned into wine or raisins - required similar work. While these were annual processes, it was common for something to need to be done. Homes in fishing villages would not have had space for much of this, and I would think that they probably had village groves and vineyards.

Vinegar was made, butter churned, and salt ground. Vegetables and herbs, though sold at the market, were mostly grown at home, which required planting the seeds, weeding the garden, picking the vegetables, etc. Fruit was often dried, frequently on the roof, or, presumably, turned into jam or preserves. Many families kept bees for honey, and the comb had to be removed and cleaned, and the honey processed.

Preserved fish, purchased in areas outside of the immediate vicinity of the Sea of Galilee or other body of water, had to be soaked in water, often two or three times, until enough salt was removed to eat them. The salt that soaked off was probably sifted out of the water and stored for future use; salt plates were used as fuel for the fire. The children’s fish, and there were always children around, had to be de-boned and quartered – no buying filets.

Fuel for the oven had to be cut and stored (wood, husks, grass, etc.) or, in the case of dung, gathered up and salted. Soot from the oven had to be cleaned off the walls. Even some of the items used for cooking were homemade: many things were stored in baskets, many of which were probably woven at home, and additional items such as sieves were made of basketry. Some serving items were probably carved at home from wood cut on the farm.

All that on top of watching the children, cleaning, laundry, and a variety of other tasks! I used to think busyness was a modern phenomenon, but it sounds unlikely.

Ovens were cheap and some families had two, one in the courtyard and one in the common room. Kitchens weren’t used much in the first century, and the common room served as a place for children to play, food to be cooked and eaten, construction work to be done, etc. Weather around the Sea of Galilee is fairly mild, and these things were probably done in the courtyard for most of the year. It was also very humid, and in a place and time with high humidity and no air conditioning, the out-of-doors must have been preferable for both cooking and other activities during the hot summer months. The families sometimes ate on the roofs, which were flat and suitable places to chat, study Torah and dry fruit.

Cooking: Salt for the Dunghill

2009-06-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Matthew 5:11-13: Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Luke 14:34-35:Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

Some alternate translations of Matthew 5:13a, italics mine:
ESV: You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
RSV: You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
The Amplified Bible: You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltiness be restored?

I think the RSV renders it the clearest via use of the semi-colon.

This is from Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, by Bruce J. Malina nad Richard L. Rohrbaugh, published in 2003 by Augsburg Fortress, page 41:

“The ‘earth’ is an outdoor, earthen oven (Job 28:5, Ps 12:6) found near the house. The ideal householder had a house fronted by a walled courtyard that contained (1) an earthen oven with (2) a double stove, (3) a millstone for grinding, (4) a dung heap, along with (5) chickens and (6) cattle. The earthen oven used the dung as fuel. The dung heap was salted, and salt plates were used as a catalyst to make the dung burn. Salt loses its saltiness when the exhausted plates no longer serve to facilitate burning. Unlike Matthew, Luke specifies that salt without saltiness is ‘fit neither for the earth nor the dunghill; men throw it away’ (Luke 14:34-35).”

A series of first-century houses in Capernaum. Each family had 1-2 rooms bordering a central courtyard used by multiple families, often relatives.

It’s certainly true the ovens were ‘earthen’ – they were made of clay. However, so were a great many things – plates, cups, stoves, jugs, probably toys, storage chests, tables, etc. It was cheap and widely used. Nobody would hear ‘earthen’ and associate it with an oven.

In regard to his quote in Luke, the NIV renders it this way: Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

I definitely don’t think the soil actually meant clay, which actually meant an oven. Furthermore, in that explanation the earth and the dunghill wind up being the same thing – the salted dunghill burning in the earthen oven – and Jesus specifies it as two different places – “the earth nor the dunghill.” Anyone who’s used a pooper-scooper might speculate that they salted dung to keep the flies away.

Beyond that, Matthew specifically relates its lack of saltiness to the taste, which wouldn’t fit in this slant. Perhaps they are two different analogies; Jesus taught in many places and he may have altered his sayings somewhat. As for Luke’s mention of the ‘earth’ – they salted soil to prevent crops from growing. You can see this in Jeremiah 48:9 - “Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste; her towns will become desolate, with no one to live in them.” My NIV Archaeological Study Bible note says, “Salt was scattered over the land to render the soil unproductive and barren.” You can see Wikipedia on ‘salting the earth’ for more on this, e.g. “The Assyrians are described in ancient records as salting the capitals of neighboring countries which repeatedly rebelled against paying them tribute—including Mitanni in c. 1290 BC, and centuries later, Elam in c. 640 BC.” Also, from the same source and for the same reason, “In Portugal, salt was poured onto the land owned by a convicted traitor.”

I also found a tip online about using salt to ward away ants; perhaps they used it as a pesticide as well.

The Salt of the Earth

2009-06-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Shepherds & A Baby Messiah

2009-06-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Luke 2:7b-15 - [Mary] wrapped [the newborn Jesus] in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

Shepherds? Yuck!
By Jesus' time shepherds were outcasts, particularly in crowded areas like Bethlehem. They stunk, for one, and for two they required land that others wanted. Because they lived in the fields sometimes, they were far from the religious education offered to many Jewish boys in Jesus’ time (or soon thereafter – this is debateable). Any girl not betrothed by 15 or so may have been resigned to the likes of a shepherd.

Town Shepherds v. Commercial Shepherds
Judea specialized in wool, among other things, while Galilee received enough rainwater to specialize in crops. This is a general statement - obviously crops were grown in Judea and there were sheep in Galilee.

Thus in Galilee in Jesus’ time, there were sometimes ‘town shepherds’ – i.e., each family paid a town shepherd to guard their one or two sheep and goats. It’s quite likely that Peter lived this way, since they needed sheep and goats for wool and milk, but didn’t have the land to graze them. At the end of the day the sheep would come home and sleep in the courtyard. The dung, which I always thought might be a floaty mess in the rain and mud, was piled in a dunghill, salted (presumably not to add flavor) and used for fuel. Efficiency is a lovely thing, but picking up a handful of goat poop and tossing it in the fire to cook the food sounds a little gross!

Call me picky.

This may well mean that their reputation was less sullied in Galilee; because they grazed the sheep on local land and returned them home at night, they probably smelled no worse than men who spent their days around fish or got sweaty harvesting the crops. They also would have had access to the schooling, Sabbath services and Scripture studies typical of the other villagers, rendering them less ignorant than their Judean counterparts.

The Scripture: David Slew Goliath
1 Samuel 17:17-19 - Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. [e] See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance [f] from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."

Shepherds Food
Seed stored after drying or parching saved better than undried kernels or kernels ground and baked into bread. David's father was telling him to take ten loaves of bread and roughly 5.5 gallons of dried kernels to his brothers.

The kernels, which preserved well because of their tight husks and the lack of moisture inside, would have been soaked and ground for several hours before they could be made into bread.

A Typical Village

2009-05-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

Mark 1:36-39: Simon and his companions went to look for [Jesus], and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"

Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Many villages specialized in an industry, such as sandal-making, household pottery, or millstones. Trade was organized around routes to the major towns and cities, and each city had 'daughter villages,' also known as satellite villages, surrounding it. For example, Shihin was a satellite village of Sepphoris, specializing in pottery, and the city residents got much of their pottery from Shihin.

There were probably peddlers coming through, often people that had been taxed off of their land entirely and traveled for a living. These people would have brought goods, news, and probably messages, from one hamlet to another. It is likely that these peddlers would eventually sink another level and become day laborers, the wandering homeless searching for seasonal work that would provide beds and food, or daily work that offered no protection.

Many towns were 'owned' by wealthy city residents, who had lent the peasants money to pay their exorbitant taxes and subsequently confiscated their houses for failing to pay the rent. The peasant was now a tenant on his ancestral land.

Loyal to Their Land
I Kings 21:2-3 demonstrates a peasants loyalty to his land during King Ahab’s reign of Israel in the ninth century B.C. While cultures change substantially in nine centuries, both were agrarian societies based on the Old Testament and it’s worth a look:

Ahab said to Naboth: “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.”

But Naboth replied: “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

My Zondervan NIV Study Bible note on 21:3 says this: “Naboth’s refusal to dispose of his land was based on the conviction that the land was the Lord’s, that he had granted a perpetual lease to each Israelite family and that this lease was to be jealously preserved as the family’s permanent inheritance in the promised land.”

Very few Galilean contemporaries of Jesus would have lived directly on land quite that ancestral, but a culture valuing traditional ways and land over money and status was prevalent.

Clearly they didn’t have TV commercials enticing them to escape February weather for the blue waters of the Caribbean.

Peter's House

2009-05-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

Mark 1:29-34: As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

I saw the ruins of Peter and Andrew's alleged house today, in Capernaum, but its early conversion to a church renders it impossible to picture it two thousand years ago. It was larger than most of the houses pictured directly below, but had the same basic structure - one or more courtyards surrounded by individual rooms. Whether it was actually Peter’s house is highly debatable.

All of the houses in Capernaum were built of the depressing black basalt in the picture (bleached grey by the sun, apparently). Most families in Capernaum lived in one room, which bordered a courtyard used by multiple families. Just behind the wall is the Sea of Galilee, and the stumpy hills in the background are on the far side of it.

This octagonal structure is the remnants of Peter's house, from the fifth century. It was converted to a house church hundreds of years earlier, then remodeled. The structure blocking it is a modern-day Franciscan church forbidden to tourists.

The house dubbed 'Peter's' had two courtyards, lucky for them. There were several 1-2 room houses opening onto it, one of which was probably used by him, his wife and any children they had (all in one bed, most likely). Another room would have been for Andrew and his family, and perhaps the others for extended family. There was a large common room joining the two courtyards.

There was a common kitchen, family room and storage room, used by all of the families, along the wall dividing the two courtyards. In the family room, picture a loom, a whole lot of baskets, pottery jars for storage, maybe some small storage sheds for larger items, fishing nets, some construction tools, a clay stove to keep you warm, etc. Then add in babies screaming, children fighting, ?straw? dollies with clothes woven on Mommy's loom, galloping across the dirt floor atop ?straw? donkeys, etc. The room was massive, 21' x 20', which far extends the family room of anyone I know. Maybe the closest you can get is imagining those old log cabins and prairie homes, with one main room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a yard.

In the kitchen was a table with benches, a clay stove and oven, a lot of baskets, cheap pottery jars for olive oil, wine, water, etc. Bedrooms had little more than the basics - maybe a closet, dresser, bed and table. Most clothes were homemade with wool shorn from the family sheep, which were not very plentiful in Galilee. There were probably a lot of hand-me-downs and mended patches.

It's hard to get a good photograph, since the Franciscans had some odd compulsion to build a church in the air over the venerated site. This floor gives an idea of the woman searching for her lost coin - a bit more difficult than hardwood or carpeting. The walls probably had oil lamps propped on a ledge.

The Courtyards
The side courtyard was where animals were kept - chickens, a goat or two for milk, a couple sheep for wool, etc. A couple rooms were off of this courtyard.

The main courtyard is where everything else happened. Children played tag, the garden was there, perhaps some trees/vines, an oven and a stove, maybe some herb plants if the family was fortunate, etc. Fig trees may have been popular, since they bore fruit about ten months a year. Cisterns in the ground held the year's grain, olive oil, etc. Note that this courtyard was substantially bigger than most in Capernaum, and others wouldn't have been so fortunate.

Was Peter Poor?

2009-05-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

A lot of scholars disagree with the popular idea that Peter was poor, but of course no one really knows. Some have postulated that they were 'middle class,' but that's unlikely, since 90% of the population was a peasant, and 10% were either elite or served the elite (bureaucrats, etc.) Merchants, often wealthy, and despised by peasants and aristocrats alike, were as close as you came to a middle class.

Keep in mind that: a) Peter and Andrew had a fishing business, instead of working for somebody else's business (but note there is no indication anyone worked for them), and b) their house was of a substantial size.

You may want to keep in mind that: a) John had some sort of connections with the upper priesthood, because he was allowed into the courtyard at Christ's trial; b) James and John were 'sons of Zebedee,' which would not be stated if 'Zebedee' weren't somewhat important; and c) Peter and Andrew were partners with James and John.

I'm skeptical of the idea that Peter was well-off. First, if you had much more money than the average person you were considered to be taking other peoples money, because (they thought) there was only so much money to be had in the world.

Second, being 'sons of Zebedee' indicated honor of some sort, which very possibly didn't go along with money. Ancient Jews based honor on family lineage, priestly associations, any work as a benefactor, etc. Money helped, but it was hardly the major factor it is today. Since John had connections with the high priest, and Capernaum wasn't a wealthy town, it makes sense to me that their family honor was derived from their priestly association somehow, not money.

Since only one room had something akin to a second room attached to it, the families didn't appear to have much money. Maybe it was just bigger because more families lived there. Maybe they had a chicken-raising business that demanded more space. Who knows.

To me, the biggest factor is that he was a partner in a business, v. being a hired laborer. Still, whereas 'partner' today indicates some status, 'partner' back then may have just been the fishing cooperative you were in. Hired laborers were just above slaves, so being above that wasn't exactly a measure of high status.

Plus, this may well not have been Peter's house. While evidence that it had Christian connotations from early centuries is substantial, evidence that it was Peter's house is limited to some graffiti markings that may be interpreted as 'Peter.' However, time has worn them down, and it's possible that wasn't the intention at all.

I'm also skeptical of the idea that Peter was particularly poor. Fishermen had more job stability than farmers - their income was never lost to a drought, excessive rain, or crop disease. Prices would rise, and ten fish would barter less wheat, but you wouldn't be left with no income and a sudden pile of debt.

Like I said, 90% of agrarian societies are peasants. Peasants are poor, yes. Often taxes and debt run very high, and little more than subsistence living is possible. But, was Peter poorer than the average peasant? Maybe, but I don't see any reason to think so.

The biggest argument would probably be that he was away from home so much, following Jesus, and had no chance to earn money. However, in a kinship environment like first-century Palestine, it's quite possible that lots of other people chipped in. It's also possible to make precisely the reverse argument out of that - he must have had a fair amount of money if he could be away from home so much, which renders the argument fairly powerless.

I feel like we exaggerate the idea that all the disciples were poor in order to emphasize that Christ can use anybody. Sure God can use anybody. You can grow up in Harlem, and God can use you in great ways. That doesn't mean that God needs you to be poor! Joanna, Mary Magdalene, Susannah and the 'other Mary' weren't. Matthew, as a tax collector, may not have been. Paul, moving forward a few years, probably wasn't. Nor were several of the prophets, moving back a few (hundred) years. God uses the poor, but he uses the wealthy too.

Last Updated: August 22, 2008

Post Resurrection Breakfast: Cooking

2009-05-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

John 21:7-13: Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught."

Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.

Sometime after Jesus was resurrected, perhaps a month or so, a bunch of disheartened disciples went fishing. Suddenly poof! John spotted Jesus on shore, barbequing up a fish breakfast.

The rest of the time cooking was done at home, logically enough. Ovens were cheap and some families had two, one in the courtyard and one in the common room. Kitchens weren’t used much in the first century, and the common room served as a place for children to play, food to be cooked and eaten, construction work to be done, etc. Weather around the Sea of Galilee is fairly mild, and these things were probably done in the courtyard for most of the year. It was also very humid, and in a place and time with high humidity and no air conditioning, the out-of-doors must have been preferable for both cooking and other activities during the hot summer months. The families sometimes ate on the roofs, which were flat and suitable places to chat, study Torah and dry fruit.

I never had a suitable appreciation for the work needed to prepare a meal in antiquity. In order to make bread and any other grain-based food, such as oatmeal, grain needed to be ground for approximately four hours a day. This was no easy task, and according to rabbinic law the first task a woman could hand over to a slave was grinding grain.

Mills were made of stone, and of great variety. At its most basic, a large stone was placed on top of another. Kernels of grain were placed in between them, and women rotated the top stone until the hard coatings of the kernels were ground off. This was often accomplished by two women sitting opposite each other, one pushing and pulling on the right and the other on the left, which gives added meaning to Jesus’ words regarding the Last Day: Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matthew 24:41-42)

Olive oil required, after the men picked them from the tree, cleaning them in hot water, removing the pits, trampling them to remove the oil, crushing the remaining pulp to get out extra oil, and bottling it. The bitter part of the olive, amurca, was turned into a pesticide and furniture polish, among other things. Wine – and most grapes were turned into wine or raisins - required similar work. While these were annual processes, it was common for something to need to be done. Homes in fishing villages would not have had space for much of this, and I would think that they probably had village groves and vineyards.

Vinegar was made, butter churned, and salt ground. Vegetables and herbs, though sold at the market, were mostly grown at home, which required planting the seeds, weeding the garden, picking the vegetables, etc. Fruit was often dried, frequently on the roof, or, presumably, turned into jam or preserves. Many families kept bees for honey, and the comb had to be removed and cleaned, and the honey processed.

Preserved fish, purchased in areas outside of the immediate vicinity of the Sea of Galilee or other body of water, had to be soaked in water, often two or three times, until enough salt was removed to eat them. The salt that soaked off was probably sifted out of the water and stored for future use; salt plates were used as fuel for the fire. The children’s fish, and there were always children around, had to be de-boned and quartered – no buying filets.

Breakfast was often barley porridge, which required the steps mentioned above for wheat as well as soaking the kernels overnight, drying them and roasting them until the seed coatings were loose enough to pound out the grain.

Fuel for the oven had to be cut and stored (wood, husks, grass, etc.) or, in the case of dung, gathered up and salted. Soot from the oven had to be cleaned off the walls. Even some of the items used for cooking were homemade: many things were stored in baskets, many of which were probably woven at home, and additional items such as sieves were made of basketry. Some serving items were probably carved at home from wood cut on the farm.

All that on top of watching the children, cleaning, laundry, and a variety of other tasks! I used to think busyness was a modern phenomenon, but it sounds unlikely.

Mary Magdalene: An Aristocrat

2009-05-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Luke 8:1-3: After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Mark 15:40: Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Luke 19:16-17: “Well done, my good servant!” his master replied. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.”

Mary of Magdala From Tiberias?
Mary Magdalene translates as Mary from Magdala, which is notable in two ways. First, women were usually identified by their male guardian – e.g., Mary the wife of Clopas, Joanna the wife of Cuza, Mary the mother of James and Joses, or probably ‘Mary the daughter of’ or ‘Mary the sister of’ if neither of the others applied.

Second, aristocrats didn’t live in Magdala or any other town; they lived in Tiberias, Galilee’s capital, and visited their various estates around Palestine for vacation, recuperation, cooler weather, a change of pace, etc.

Luke 19:16-17: “Well done, my good servant!” his master replied. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.” Jesus probably wasn’t talking about the eternal equivalent of Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and presidential candidate, when he said this. Aristocrats, as explained above, confiscated the land of peasants unable to pay their taxes and charged them rent on land they had previously owned.

Eventually, entire towns sometimes paid rent to these 'town owners.' They also owned companies that bordered on entire industries, and many towns specialized in a single industry. Magdala specialized in salting fish for long-distance preservation, and probably had no competition on the Jewish border of the Sea of Galilee.

My theory is that Mary from Magdala’s male guardian owned part or all of the large town of Magdala and/or its prominent and widespread fish salting industry. This would explain her wealth, why she was titled as ‘from’ Magdala instead of Tiberias, and her identification by place instead of her guardians name. It's also possible that her guardian was a wealthy fish salting merchant unable to afford life in Tiberias, but identifying a woman as such would probably have been insulting in a society where merchants were shunned and honor was paramount.

So What?
Magdala was several miles south of Capernaum, where Peter and the other fishermen lived. Fish go bad astoundingly quickly, and it was imperative to get the fish to Magdala as soon as possible. Given that land transport was 7-8 times more expensive than riverine transport and on the order of thirty times as expensive as maritime transport (the Galilee is a freshwater lake called a sea with currents from the river entering and exiting it, so take your pick), they may well have sailed them directly to Magdala. Alternatively, they returned them home to Capernaum and immediately loaded them onto a boat for Magdala. Here they counted them for taxes.

The harbors had loading docks, and they may well have had a similar situation to this, either in Capernaum or Magdala: sail in, unload their fish on to a loading dock, where they were counted and taxed, anchor the boat and go home. The wooden boat is supposed to be an enlarged replica of a standard fishing boat used then.

Nobody seems to be quite sure how the system worked, but somehow the nobles forced, bribed or had a governmental right to hire the tax collectors, who bought their licenses from the government. Perhaps the nobles actually bought them and sold them to the tax collectors; I don’t know. At any rate, both the nobles and the tax collectors ripped off the peasants. This would not have made for good relations between the family owning the saltery and the fishermen catching the fish to be salted – Magdalenes probably increased the tax on the fish they brought in, and profited from their misery. Peter and the other fishermen may well been oppressed by Mary Magdalene’s family.

Now Mary Magdalene is one of the primary people following Jesus. Peasants don’t like aristocrats because they oppress them. Peasants directly affected by them (quite possibly Peter, Andrew, James and John) really grit their teeth at them, narrow their eyes, and turn in the other direction. Tax collectors (Matthew) and aristocrats can’t stand each other. Zealots (Simon) probably were bandits that killed aristocrats. It wasn’t with ease that the disciples traveled with those women and learned Jesus’ words in Luke 6:27-31: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Peter, the favorite apostle of many Christians, including yours truly, didn’t get to his leadership position and respect for free. But if he had to master something that tough, so can I.

And at the end of my life, if I follow Christ closely on this earth, I get amazing rewards from a God that loves to give and give and give.

The Scripture
Luke 8:1-3: After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Mark 15:40: Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Luke 19:16-17: “Well done, my good servant!” his master replied. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.”

Tiberias, Home of the Aristocrats

2009-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Tiberias was the capital of the region of Galilee, which was split into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee. The Sea of Galilee, on which Tiberias was located, was part of Lower Galilee. It was an economically split city inhabited by Galilee’s wealthy, their slaves and small shopowners or artisans such as woolmakers, basketmakers and candlemakers. The average Galilean would go nowhere near Tiberias, which King Herod Antipas had built on a graveyard, unclean ground by Jewish law, just 10-15 years before Jesus’ ministry. Outside of the city walls slept the very poor, often homeless or selling indecent wares.

The aristocratic residents of Tiberias ‘owned’ much of the region of Galilee. They taxed peasants to a high degree, and some peasants had to sell their land to those aristocrats as a result. They often allowed the peasants to stay on their land and pay rent, with their house as collateral. At this point, it was often just a matter of time before they lost their land. Droughts and disaster came every 2-4 years, and while they might survive a few cycles of disaster by selling things, taking on additional work and/or selling family members into slavery, some wound up at the mercy of an unyielding landlord and lost everything.

These same aristocrats needed laborers to harvest their expansive estates, and eventually, if the tenant ran out of money completely and had no family able to take them in, the aristocrat confiscated their land and the peasant became a day laborer looking anywhere for seasonal or daily work. Often seasonal work could be found during the harvest or sowing months, and they could live in shoddy housing, perhaps on one of the estates owned by the very man that had taxed them off of their ancestral land. When the season ended, the aristocrats set them on the road again.

Any females on the road day laboring with them probably risked 'night work' in addition to their 'day job' of spinning, weaving, etc. Alternatively, they might become prostitutes, working in a brothel or ‘inn’ for travelers, such as the inn the Good Samaritan was deposited in. Slaves were expensive, and as a so-called ‘commodity’ worth money, they had ‘health insurance’ – i.e., if they got sick, they were cared for so the aristocrat didn’t have to buy a new slave. Thus, the fathers that sold their daughters into slavery and managed to stay on their land often were making the best out of a terrible situation.

The modern harbor, viewed from the Caesar Tiberias hotel in northern Tiberias, probably the site of a mansion back then. Presumably some aristocrats profited from the Jordan River trading ships docking here. Tiberias had the largest harbor on the Galilee, and many aristocrats would have seen the harbor outside their sitting rooms.

Isn’t it sad what money and power can do to us humans? I mean, who’s to say that you or I would have treated them any better, if we grew up in that environment? It’s kind of sick.

The Scripture
Luke 8:1-3: After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Mark 15:40: Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

Luke 19:16-17: “Well done, my good servant!” his master replied. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.”

Nazareth

2009-05-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

We often think of Jesus' childhood village as Hicksville, Israel, but this was not an isolated prairie town. Galilee was a small area, and Nazareth was probably an integrated part of the regional system. It was roughly an hour outside of Sepphoris, the capital during Jesus’ childhood, and probably a satellite village of it. Sepphoris was rebuilt by King Herod Antipas in 19/20 A.D., and it's logical that Nazareth’s villagers played a key role in this rebuilding, and that Jesus worked on its carpentry - not necessarily by choice.

The suffix used for the word translated 'carpenter' in the Bible usually means woodwork but can also refer to masonry, and Nazareth may well have specialized in carpentry and stonework, using wood and limestone native to the area. If so their role in rebuilding Sepphoris may have contributed to the external framework of the major buildings as well as their internal woodwork.

It's possible that an aristocrat owned part or all of Nazareth - even that Nazareth had become part of his estate. While there was certainly strong animosity from the peasants toward the aristocracy, who taxed them brutally, this would have increased the resentment dramatically.

The Nazareth ridge, looking south across the Jezreel Valley to Judea.

Nazareth sat on a ridge overlooking the broad Jezreel Valley, which was a main trade route and a fertile area long occupied by the rich and royal. Jesus would have seen the caravans of Greece, Arabia and Egypt coming through the valley, and peddlers would have brought news. It's not by accident that the entire country and its neighboring friends and enemies knew about Jesus; people talked and news spread.

Away from the foreign ways of the pagan territory Capernaum bordered, things were probably more conservative and narrow-minded. Most likely people in Nazareth were engrained in their ancestral ways - probably the same as the ways of the people in the villages surrounding them. However, their location in Lower Galilee, close to the capital, probably made them more open-minded than the remote villages of mountainous Upper Galilee. The Sea of Galilee offered a more culturally exposed area than most of Galilee, and this may have something to do with why he chose it as his hometown during his ministry.

Matthew 4:13-16: Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles - the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."

The Jews believed that tombs had to be outside of the town limits, and one scholar used the various groupings of tombs around ancient Nazareth to estimate the maximum population that could have lived inside it - approximately 400. Compare this to the size of your church!

Last Updated May 27, 2009

Matthew: A Tax Collector

2009-05-27T14:40:00.001-07:00

This town was where the apostle Matthew was a despised tax collector, perhaps sitting at one of those harbors, collecting tolls from merchant ships. The Sea of Galilee is in fact a misleading name, because it is really a large lake with no access to the Mediterranean, or any other sea. So, most of these boats Matthew collected tolls from were probably Jordan River trading boats, carrying goods from the southern tip of the Dead Sea, to the rivers origin at Mt. Hermon. He probably collected harbor dues and fishing leases from the common fishermen of Capernaum as well - those hundreds of smelly, white-sailed fishing boats didn’t get onto the water for free. K.C. Hanson writes:

“The fishers received capitalization along with fishing rights and were therefore indebted to the brokers [tax collectors]. The location of Matthew’s (or Levi’s ) toll office in Capernaum – an important fishing locale – probbably identifies him as just such a contractor of royal fishing rights.” (Palestine in the Time of Jesus, 106)

He may also have collected tolls from merchant caravans waiting for ships to come in before loading up their camels and donkeys for the the international trade route running through Capernaum, or smaller roads into the Galilee's interior. I imagine townspeople bartered some of their goods when ships came in as well, although some general store must have arranged for a lot of it. I mean, you can only barter so much raw fish – it goes bad in a day!

For more on those creatures of the water, see my entry on The Temple Tax Fish.

Calming the Storm

2009-05-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Fishing on the Sea of Galilee could be risky business, particularly during winter evenings, when the rough winds from Mount Hermon would hurtle through the mountain passes of the Golan Heights, swirling the little sea into a heaving mass. It was probably one of these sudden storms, called a sharkia, that Jesus and the disciples encountered in Mark 4:35-38:

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?"

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Notice that this story, as well as the one below, emphasizes the wind and the waves; nowhere is rain mentioned. This makes sense for high-pressure mountain winds hitting low-pressure air typical of the Sea of Galilee, which sits 700 feet below sea level. While I can’t 100% verify that the sharkia has minimal rain, everything I’ve read about it has mentioned only wind, and I would venture to guess that rain is not the major issue in these storms. This would add up perfectly with the wording of both Jesus calming the storm, and Jesus walking on water. The following is an excerpt, from Matthew 14:23-25, 32-33.

…[Jesus] went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake…And when [Peter and Jesus] climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying "Truly you are the Son of God.”

These sharkia storms were often sudden, and generally took place early in the winter evening. Summer storms of westerly winds also were a danger.

Peter: A Fisherman

2009-05-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

The coasts of the Sea of Galilee were smattered with fishing villages Jesus reached out to during his ministry. On this water Peter spent many of his working hours as a typical fishermen, struggling with the nets, storms and harbors on the sea described below. The sea where Jesus calmed the storm, created a miraculous catch of fish, and barbequed after his resurrection.

The Sea of Galilee

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him.

When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him."

A picture of the type of fishing boat Peter and the others would have used. Albeit unlikely, for all we know Jesus sailed in this particular boat. It is dated from between the first century B.C. to the first century A.D.

Fishing back then was not sitting in your boat, fastening some bait on your line and casting it overboard. Three of the four main types of fishing required teamwork, and it’s no surprise that Zebedee owned the business, that James, John, Simon (i.e. Peter) and Andrew were partners, and that Zebedee had hired men.

Boats, though possibly owned by one person, were operated by crews, which often expanded during the high seasons to include day laborers, wandering workers that had no land. Zebedee’s extra men may have been hired for the autumn musht season, for example. At the end of the season these workers, who had likely been reduced to such work by being taxed off of their ancestral land, would move on to the next seasonal business, perhaps sowing crops. If they wished, they would return for the busy sardine season.

The Sea of Galilee, from the archway of the Greek Orthodox Church in Capernaum. The remains of the old boardwalk, with its tackle shops, and restaurants catering to the merchant clientele, are to my right, and I can still see the stone piers Peter and the others used, curving out into the water. In my imagination, there are nets, cleaned before dawn, hanging along the wooden posts lining the quay.

Fishermen often worked at night, when the fish couldn’t see the linen nets entrapping them. For example, the following Scripture has Simon washing his nets after a long night fishing.

[Jesus] saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. …When [Jesus] had finished preaching, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

Simon answered, "Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

You might also be interested in my post on Peter's House.

Harbor Life
These violent storms endangered boats, and the Galilee has no sizeable natural harbors – only a few inlets. Until the Hellenistic period, which began with Alexander the Great’s conquest in 333 B.C., most fishermen probably dragged their boats to shore. Sometime after that they began building anchorages, defined by breakwaters made of piled rocks, to protect their boats. One or more piers probably extended from the breakwater, in order to load and unload both passengers and cargo.

These man-made harbors probably became the hub of the town, with boat repair shops, storage facilities, holding tanks for live fish and a general store of goods fishermen could barter their catch for, such as wheat, located on a nearby promenade.

Trading ships would have docked at many of the harbors, since overland travel was expensive, and the locals probably had stores for merchants to purchase local and regional goods they would trade on their way up and down the Jordan River.

Nearby, perhaps at the end of the promenade, would have been the boat repair yard, strewn with salvaged wood from defunct boats, tools, ropes and the like. The Jesus Boat, for example, was patched with at least eleven different kinds of wood.

After the winter storm season was over, there was likely a community effort to repair the breakwaters, perhaps by refilling spaces left by smaller stones stuffed between the rocks that had floated out to sea, or by plucking out trapped and rotting sea creatures. Smaller maintenance was probably required as well, on a continual basis.

These storms caused much emotional and financial fear in the hearts of fishermen and their families. In a society where subsistence living was the norm, there wouldn’t have been much extra lying around for boat repair, and women whose male guardians died were vulnerable to prostitution for an income.

You might also be interested in my post on Daily Life in Capernaum.

God & Fish: Scripture and the Sabbath

2009-05-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Leviticus 11:12: “Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.”

Some fish with commercial potential, such as catfish, had to be tossed back in the water, because they didn't have both fins and scales. (The poor catfish! I’m glad I’m not detestable!)

My Leviticus 11:2 NIV Bible study note has this to say, for all of you who are baffled by clean and unclean:

“The main reason for the laws concerning clean and unclean food is the same as for other laws concerning the clean and unclean – to preserve the sanctity of Israel as God’s holy people…Some hold that certain animal life was considered unclean for health considerations, but it is difficult to substantiate this idea. Uncleanness typified sin and defilement.”

I’ve often heard that clean and unclean is a poor translation, simply because there is no corresponding English word. ‘Pure’ and ‘impure’ would be closer, according to the opinions of many.

Is it possible Jesus ordered Peter to catch a fish forbidden by Jewish law? Perhaps, but it seems unlikely given his general concurrence with Jewish law.

The Temple Tax Fish: A Sabbath Food?
Two kinds of barbels (the trout-like Long Headed Barbel and the stout Scaly Barbel) were often Sabbath food, and I find the idea that Jesus picked a symbol of something holy to pay the Temple tax interesting. The great Temple in Jerusalem was considered the most sacred place on earth, the dwelling place of God Himself, but it was also a cause of much oppression. In an agrarian society, where subsistence living and brutal taxation was the norm, the religious taxes would have put some people over the edge.

The Temple’s actions didn’t contribute to its holiness either; the high priesthood, ordained by God to stay in the Zadok family line throughout history, was bought and sold among the four families representing the highest echelons of wealth. Jesus freaked out over its financial methods a couple of times, overturning tables and raging at the moneychangers in its courts. Yet, by this idea, he paid the Temple tax with something representing holiness.

The Sabbath, frequently ignored by Christians today, was a big deal in first-century Galilee, a weekly holiday and celebration designed to honor God. A woman couldn’t sew two stitches, a man couldn’t tie knots, you could only walk a short distance, you couldn’t light the fire, etc. Even in modern Judaism restrictions are very tight: you can’t press an elevator button, so they have special Sabbath elevators that stop at every floor, regardless of whether anybody’s there. (It’s very frustrating if your room is on the eighth floor!)

The Hafafi Barbel, which was neither delectable Sabbath fare nor regular dinner fare, sounds quite unappetizing by its consumption alone: decaying matter found in mud! Gross. It is yellow, which sounds gross too, small-scaled and soft-bellied. While it’s possible Jesus used this fish, it’s unlikely; coins resemble snails a lot more than they resemble decaying matter!

The Temple Tax Fish

2009-05-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

"...go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."

The Right Fish
St. Peter’s fish, a creature called musht that is widely marketed as the fish holding the Temple tax coin, in fact can't be caught with a line at all.

There were only three creatures fished commercially in the Galilee back then: musht, barbels, and sardines. In all likelihood the fish Peter caught to pay the Temple tax was a barbel, a big silvery carp with barbs at the mouth. It was the only fish with a mouth large enough to hold a coin, and it was caught with a line. Barbels generally fed off of sardines, which Peter likely baited it with, and creatures living near the bottom of the sea, such as snails. Quite plausibly, some unhappy ship merchant lost a four-drachma coin to the bottom of the sea, and the barbel Peter caught picked it up in its mouth.

It's really disconcerting to eat something that's looking at you. I finally yanked off some fin or something, I don't know what it was, and plopped it over its head.

Is it possible it was a fish without commercial potential? I suppose - I'm taking my information from a book by Mendel Nun, who puts the qualifier 'commercial' on it. However, I don't see why another clean fish wouldn't have been fished for commercial reasons, perhaps in smaller quantities. Furthermore, he is one of the foremost authorities on the Sea of Galilee, and I doubt he would exclude that possibility if it were relevant.

The Wrong Fish: Love That Money!
The alleged St. Peter's Fish is the flavorless piece of junk pictured above, which Peter wouldn't have caught when Jesus ordered him to 'throw out a line,' because tilapia (musht) aren't attracted by bait - they feed on plankton, and are caught with a net.

Its flat shape made it popular with frying pans, and the easily detachable backbone and few other bones made it popular with diners, at least according to the scholarly expertise of Mendel Nun – see below for my opinion.

There was a plentiful supply of musht in the Galilee, which decreased the price and increased the profit margin. Combined, these things made it popular with both restaurant owners and their clientele – so why not up the sales, and term it St. Peter’s fish? Even I couldn’t leave the Sea of Galilee without eating “St. Peter’s fish,” and I knew all of the above at the time!

If you think I’m being cynical, consider that virtually everyone along the Galilee at the time would have known perfectly well that a tilapia couldn’t pick up a coin, and that it’s been in travelogues as such for at least 1700 years.

The Temple Tax

2009-05-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

A bit of background here: All of the religious festivals were centered around the Temple in Jerusalem, three of which were mandated by Scripture for every adult male. The Jewish (v. Roman) ruling body convened on the Temple grounds, the tangible glory of all Israel was centered in the gleaming gold and limestone of its walls; indeed, even the top of the Temple had gold posts spaced around the top to prevent bird doo from sullying its holiness.

There were several parts to the Temple and its grounds: The Court of the Gentiles, where anyone was permitted, regardless of religion; the Court of the Women, where every Jewish person was permitted; the Court of the Israelites, where only Jewish men were permitted, primarily to watch their sacrifices slaughtered and burnt; the Court of the Priests, which was restricted to priests; the Holy Place which was reserved for select priests; and the Most Holy Place, which was the dwelling place of God’s Presence and permitted only to the high priest, and once a year at that.

The old Temple probably stood where the Dome of the Rock, a Moslem shrine, stands today. The grounds were probably flat and empty then, except for the Temple building. Pilgrims would have thronged these courts back then, bringing their sacrifices to the Temple and milling about for the festivities.

Maintaining such a large space cost money, and the annual half-shekel tax was a major contribution to maintaining the many courts, purchasing the the wood, incense, salt and other items affecting the sacrifices, paying Temple workers, etc. There were additional costs associated with the festivals; for example, just before Passover all of the graves were whitewashed so pilgrims didn't become 'unclean' by stepping on them.

This was the tax being collected when Jesus ordered Peter to throw out a fishing line; the first fish caught would have a coin in its mouth.

Where Do You Put 5,000 Men?

2009-05-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

How on earth was a hillside big enough to feed 5,000 men lying empty? Didn’t some farmers squash crop get ruined, and he came storming out the next day pointing his finger at Jesus and screaming?

Apparently not, given John 6:10b - There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down.

There were three main crops in a crowded Galilee – olives, grapes and grain. 5,000 people can’t sit on a hill full of grapevines or olive trees, regardless of how much grass there is. The idea that nobody owned it is not one I'm buying, as per the below illustration.

Some people think this was a field owned by nobody, which would make it a tangled heap of green stuff gone wild, laden with bugs and impossible to sit in.

Many hillsides were terraced, meaning that the farmer had hacked away the middle of the hillside until he had multiple layers of flat dirt to plant barley, vegetables or anything else on. I’ve often thought it must have been a little tiresome to grind your feet into the dirt for hours while you listened to Jesus speak, particularly if you had little ones you’re afraid will stumble, and this would have provided nice seating arrangements in a field lying fallow.

However, fields only laid fallow every other year, so I doubt it would be labeled as having 'plenty of grass' in an off-year. So, if that assumption's correct - and it may not be - my best guess is a hillside full of sheep. Shepherds were hired by multiple families to graze and care for the few sheep and goats each might own, but the animals went home during off hours. Trampled grass presumably is edible to a hungry goat, and nobody’s property would have been damaged.

Maybe it used to be terraced farmland, so the seating was at least a little comfy. :)

Lilies of the Field

2009-05-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Lilies of the Field: The Scripture
Matthew 6:28-34: "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Lilies of the Field?
This excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount has several comments relating to the land around it.

First, what was a lily of the field? So many new species have been introduced in recent centuries, and the Bible offers so few clues, that identifying biblical plants and fruits can be a challenge at best. (The infamous apple in the Garden of Eden may have actually been a peach - the only apples around were crabapples.)

"The lily of the valley has been equated to chamomile, crowfoot, various species of lily, narcissus, sea daffodil and lotus." So says my NIV Archaeological Study Bible, in the article 'The Flowers of Ancient Israel,' on page 1037. While the lily of the valley may be quite different from a lily of the field - frankly, I have no idea - it gives you an idea of how clueless modern scholars about biblical plants.

The greatest consensus for lilies of the field surround anemones, which would have been prolific on the fields of Galilee during the late spring, when this Sermon appears to have been given. (See the section on Solomon for a description.)

It's hard to see what's so special about them here, but you get an idea of what they look like.

Lilies of the Field: "Do not worry about tomorrow...
"...for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

My rather unsophisticated journal has relevance here: "Well, I gotta say, lilies wilt pretty fast when detached from their source of life!" Meaning, I picked one in the field and took it in the taxi - the taxi driver gave me a really strange look - but by the time we got ten minutes down the road it was a limp and lifeless disaster sitting in my lap. I left it in the taxi by mistake - just as well, I suppose. We can't separate from our source of life - God - and not wilt.

First century Galilee was an agrarian society with subsistence living. More coloquially, many peasants could hardly eat. Some had been taxed off of their ancestral land entirely, and were the wandering homeless looking for a day's work in Jesus' parable of the day laborers. (5 - 15% in most agrarian societies, depending on droughts, crop disease, etc.) Many others were in debt, and were tenants on the land their families had owned for centuries. Even those peasants that owned their ancestral land lived in day-to-day circumstances.

There's a good chance that this was some farmers ancestral land. Money was tight, the crops were bad that year, and a landlord confiscated his land because he couldn't pay the taxes. Now he's a tenant on the very land that had been in his family for generations.

These weren't the days of bi-weekly paychecks and investing in higher education for future financial rewards. There was often very little you could do to protect yourself against tomorrow's worries; fishermen fished up fish for dinner that evening, and much of the farmers meal came from the crop currently in his field.

Even in situations with larger time spans, they were frequently powerless; for example, crop disease, locusts and tomorrow's rain were all out of their control, as were many medical problems: death in childbirth, infant mortality, malaria and the common fever were all a danger.

So quit fretting about tomorrow, Jesus says. There isn't a thing in the world you can do about it, and tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has plenty of troubles all its own. (Amen!)

Lilies of the Field: "...for not even Solomon is dressed like one of these."
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry...

They are long-stemmed flowers with a bright red hue and a green and black center. Their five petals have an iridescent sheen to them, and, as I wrote in my journal, "they shine extra-pretty." A childs crayon could replicate the color of a daisy, but there's an unearthly beauty to these fragile anemones.

Solomon was a tenth-century B.C. king renowned for his wisdom and wealth, and Jesus made essentially the same statement I just did when he said "Not even Solomon in all his splendor is dressed like one of these."

In other words, if Solomon's money couldn't buy it, nobody's could. But God can provide it for free.

Fish, Bread and 5,000 Men

2009-05-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

The Fish: Two Shrunken Sardines
Galileans fished only three finned creatures out of the Sea of Galilee on a commercial scale: sardines, Galilean tilapia and carp (barbels). Salted sardines probably constituted our little boy’s “two small fish;” sardines were plentiful in the Sea of Galilee, a staple of the Galilean diet, cheap, packed well when preserved, and the smallest of the three species.

If this little boy was local, it’s quite likely that his father caught the sardines and his mother salted them; however, 5,000 men were not all local, and probability says he was from the interior. In this case his fish were probably caught by a fishermen along the western Galilee, shipped several miles to Magdala, home of Mary Magdalene, for salting and loaded onto a Jordan River trading ship or a merchant caravan bound for the interior. There they were bartered for goods such as grapes or textiles, put in a basket and saved for dinner.

St. Peter's fish, otherwise known as musht. See my blog on the Temple Tax Fish for more on that.

Preserving fish removed a lot of liquid and added substantial quantities of salt to compensate for the lack of refrigeration, yielding a shrunken fish with coarse texture and bumpy skin. To get an idea of what these dried out, salt-infested fish tasted like, grab some canned sardines off your grocery store shelf. (I tried salted sardines at a hotel restaurant in Israel, despite the waiter’s tip that Americans don’t usually like them. Ugh! Let’s just say he got a good laugh out of the expression on my face, and I received a fresh biblical revelation explaining why the little boy really gave his fish away!)

The Bread: Five Loaves of Barley Fodder
5 loaves of bread is a substantial exaggeration here – we’re not talking 5 loaves of sliced Arnold seven-grain purchased at your local Wegman’s. Nor are we talking bread baked at the village bakery, because anyone with the money to purchase bread wouldn’t have been eating barley bread.

The stone Jesus allegedly broke the bread on is at the back of the picture, fronted by a mosaic representing the two fish and five loaves of bread Jesus multiplied.

Barley was usually animal fodder, only eaten in bread form by extremely poor people or average peasants caught in a year of severe crop disease, drought or other cause of famine. Barley cost half as much as wheat in antiquity, but it wasn’t just your taste buds that suffered – barley is more difficult to digest and has far less nutritional value than wheat.

When I doggy-sat recently, I was too grossed out to put the spoon I’d used to scoop out the dog food – that moist stinky refrigerated stuff –in the sink, so I used a separate one every day and left a pile of fourteen dirty disgusting doggy-food-contaminated spoons in the mudroom for the family to clean up! But an American family so poor they bought a bag of Kibble for their dinners had no parallel in first-century Galilee, where animals generally ate the lowest grade of people food. Kind of like feeding Spot spam, in modern terms. Jesus wasn’t using unrealistic hyperbole in the parable of the prodigal son longing to fill his stomach with pig food; pigpen guarders, among others, really fell into an abyss of poverty that deep.

When our little boy finally received two fish back he probably ripped off a piece, slapped it on a piece of pita-shaped bread, smeared some fish sauce on it, stuffed a bite in his mouth and – some things never change – wiped the whole salty crumbly mess on his tunic.

A Standard Peasants Meal

2009-05-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Presumably peasants had homegrown vegetables sautéed in the olive oil so prevalent, oatmeal from the wheat kernels they ground, scrambled eggs from the chicken coop, milk, cheese, yogurt and butter from the family sheep and goat, and said “yuummm” when they bit into a summertime piece of fresh fruit such as pears or peaches.

“For I am bringing you into a good land - a land of streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with milk and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread is not scarce and you will lack nothing, a land where rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.” (Deut 8:6-9)

They dried fruit on their roofs, and probably stored it in a cistern. Grapes, often converted to wine, joined wheat and olives as a top-three crop in Galilee, and fig trees were probably popular since they produced ten months of the year. Most families had both an oven and a stove, both of which were cheap and made of clay. Fish sauces, based on various types and parts of fish, were popular, inexpensive and used on innumerable dishes including fish, eggs and bread. Coastal areas such as the one pictured above probably had tilapia fried in pomegranate wine or quite possibly carp baked in a lemon garlic sauce, although I’m not sure they grew lemons.

Sound too modern? Tilapia Galilea, called musht, were plentiful in the Sea of Galilee, pomegranates were a popular crop and olive oil was one of the three staples of Galilee. Carp were fished there extensively, they grew both garlic and onions as well as squash and a variety of other vegetables, and while they probably couldn’t afford to have jars of twenty different spices in their cupboard it’s likely that they had some herbs growing in their courtyard. “You tithe a tenth of your dill, mint and cummin…”

Chickens birthed the all-important eggs for the average fisherman, but Galilee was an agricultural society and chicken meat may have been popular on farms. Fish, presumably enormously popular in the coastal regions where it could be consumed fresh – or fresher, at least – were also preserved and packed off for the interior.

Pasta would have been too much work to make – as it was the women spent up to four hours a day smushing wheat kernels into flour and turning out the daily bread. (I gained a new appreciation for Wegman’s when I read that, in the Nazareth Village book.) Any kind of beef was beyond a peasants means on an average day, and the Sabbath meal – the weekly special treat – was generally a kind of fish called carp, and thus presumably not daily fare. Salted sardines, on the other hand, were common food.

For the most part, peasants had barely enough money to eat and frequently lived in debt, so they ate whatever was cheapest at that time of year. (I have yet to run across mention of blueberries, which is very distressing. The poor people! What kind of life is life without blueberries?)

A Sabbath Service Reconstruction

2009-05-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is a possible reconstruction of a 1st century Sabbath service. A lot of information is unknown to researchers.

Several hundred families, dressed in their best tunics and their prettiest, most vibrant coverings, are sitting on the stone benches lining both sides of the synagogue. All of the women have their hair covered in bright cloths; some wear the cloth straight down behind the back, some swept under their neck and over their shoulder. Every fold has been carefully fussed with, but several babies have wrought there mothers designs into severe disarray. The men have tassels hanging from the corners of ?shin-length? mantles that cover their tunics, knotted down their entire length.

The foundations of the first century Capernaum building, likely the synagogue Jesus taught in.

The Pharisees/town elders sit with perfect posture, lining the front of the synagogue, in chairs facing the congregation. Families are sitting together on stone benches, or on homemade mats on the floor, woven into pretty patterns. Where the bleachers are behind the columns, there are distinct empty spaces. The women are very quiet as they sit, for proper women should always be quiet in public. Children are on their best behavior.

A Pharisee walks to the podium, and reads a passage from the Genesis scroll, on Abraham serving food to the angels. Another Pharisee reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah - condemnation will come to those that are not righteous. A third one delivers the sermon, expounding on the importance of serving Adonai. Minutes pass as eighteen prayers and blessings are recited from memory. The service closes with acapello hymns from the scroll of the Psalms.

One of the Pharisees puts the scrolls back into the cabinet, and families make their way out to the garden near the synagogue. The women talk quietly amongst themselves, and keep their children in order. Before long everyone departs for home, to eat the Sabbath meal that has been waiting for them since yesterday.

Note: Little is known of the actual order of things. Music was a key part of the Temple service in Jerusalem, and it seems logical there would have been singing here as well, but I don't know that. For more information, see Lee I. Levine's 800-page book, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, published by Yale University Press in 2005.

My information for this blog came from Lee I. Levine's 800-page book, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, published by Yale University Press in 2005.

Why the Sea of Galilee?

2009-05-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

The Jordan River empties into the Sea of Galilee, dividing the creeds of its peoples. On the west Capernaum began the Jewish territory, ruled by Herod Antipas. On its eastern flank Bethsaida started off the Diaspora, meaning all Jews living in the pagan lands outside of the Land of Israel, ruled by Antipas’ half-brother Philip.

Access by land from one side to the other wasn’t convenient – in those days, bridges weren’t quite so easy to build, and people from pagan lands may have been hesitant to enter Jewish territory. The best route was by boat, which Jesus and the disciples often took advantage of.

(‘Sailing to the Diaspora is temporarily in both this and Jesus footsteps.) By preaching in Bethsaida, on the eastern side of the Jordan River’s mouth, Jesus drew from pagan areas including the Decapolis, the tribes of the eastern desert and lands further north. Preaching in Capernaum reached the Jewish population, and people came from the southern desert, the northern mountains and the gentler hills of central and coastal Israel/Samaria to be healed of their ailments and hear this man speak.

Jesus also crossed the Sea of Galilee’s religious divide easily when he exorcised the possessed man in the tombs of the Gadarenes/Gerasenes, and sent two thousand demon-filled swine into the depths of the Galilee. This man, you might recall, wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to go and tell how much Jesus had changed him. What’s unstated is that for him ‘to go and tell,’ meant to spread the Word of God to the Gentiles - pagans.

A quarter of the twelve disciples, though raised Jewish in at least Peter and Andrew’s case and quite possibly Philip’s, called this Gentile place named Bethsaida home. Jesus stated that more miracles had been done in Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida than anywhere else, making a third of his top-priority towns part of the Diaspora. These two factors make a strong statement regarding his, and God’s, desire to call all peoples into the arms of His heavenly Father.

The ability to reach both pagan and Jewish lands may have been part of why Jesus chose the Sea of Galilee for his ministry. In addition, people living in lands closer to other religions and races are often more tolerant than those living in isolated areas.

Mark 3:8-9:
When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.

Judea and Jerusalem were both part of Israel. Idumea was not. Northern TransJordan was pagan; central Transjordan was Jewish to an arguable degree, southern TransJordan was pagan, Tyre was pagan and Sidon was pagan. All this in addition to Galilee, where Jesus preached. (Keep in mind that many or all of them presumably had Jewish populations as well, and vice versa.)

A Bit of Prophesy
Isaiah 9:1-2:
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan - The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

The tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were in Galilee, which was largely pagan in Isaiah’s time. “By the way of the sea [of Galilee], along the Jordan [River] – The people [i.e., pagans] walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death [i.e., Galileans surrounded by pagan nations] a light has dawned.”

Galilee, I should point out, appears to have been quite Jewish in Jesus’ time; however, it was a great location from which to spread the word to the surrounding pagan areas.

Kibbutz Nof Ginosar, where the brothers found the boat and where it is displayed. The rocks in the lower left are part of the pier I'm standing on, which may have been here since Jesus' time. (Many of the harbors on the Galilee date from that time.) Piled rocks such as these formed many of the harbors Jesus sailed in and out of, including those in his hometown of Capernaum.

So What?
Since paganism isn't too rampant in modern America, I relate it to all of the people that don't really care much about God. And God cares so much about them. They reject him and reject him and reject him, yet still He shows them His majesty every day. Our sin doesn't blind us to the beauty of this world He created; He shows us Himself, His glory, His creation no matter how much we reject Him.

I mean, think of it! How many times Jesus preached to Capernaum, that he made his home there and taught and healed again and again, even though they rejected him?

I wonder what my world would look like if I had that much love inside of me? What if the people that have screwed me over the most, I just turned around and gave and gave and gave to, no matter what they did?

I don't know, because I can't do it. I'm not even close. But it sure inspires humility. Who am I, that I should be so lucky to walk on holy shores, shores the Son of God tread?

More Information
For more information on the fish in the Galilee, see my entry on the The Temple Tax Fish, which held a coin in its mouth for Peter to pay the annual half-shekel Temple tax for him and Jesus. (I'd love to have a photo of the expression on the tax collectors face!) For more information on the piers and harbors this boat would have used, see my entry on the post-Resurrection breakfast.

Violence in Gethsemane

2008-02-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

Luke 22:48-51 - Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"

When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" And [Peter] struck [Malchus], the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him.

How many times have you heard that Peter must have had terrible aim the night Jesus was arrested, when he chopped off the right ear of the servant of the high priest? Or that Malchus must have been quick-witted, and ducked just in time to avoid his sword?

Olive trees in Gethsemane. The area is small, and all the curbed walks cross through it like a grid. This is where Peter slashed off Malchus' ear, and Jesus healed it.

But there may have been more to Peter's de-earing than poor aim and quick wits. According to Leviticus 21:16-21, nobody with a ‘defect’ could serve in the Temple:

"None of [the priests] who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God [at the altar in the Temple]...no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed...he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy."

A century before Peter a man, apparently quite desperate for the throne, used that Scripture to his advantage:

"Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus' ears with his own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he might never be able, upon any mutation of affairs, to take the high priesthood again; for the high priests that officiated were to be complete, and without blemish." (Josephus, War, 1:270)

The Dome of the Rock, a seventh century Islamic shrine standing where the Temple was in Jesus' time, and where the high priest would have officiated. The building is different, but the grandeur and the expansive space parallel the Temple.

Peter would not have disqualified Caiaphas from the office of high priest when he wounded his chief servant, but in this context the act would have been laden with spite and directed at him, somewhat akin to the Ammonites slashing the clothes of David's delegation or the tenants beating the servants of the landowner in the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-41).

2 Samuel 10:4 - David thought, "I will show kindness to [the Ammonite king] Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.

When David's men came to the land of the Ammonites, the Ammonite nobles said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think David is honoring your father by sending men to you to express sympathy? Hasn't David sent them to you to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?" So Hanun seized David's men, shaved off half of each man's beard, cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away.

David declared war on the Ammonites. Jesus declared “No more of this!” and healed Malchus' ear, removing the insult and symbolically saying “I will not insult those who deride, chain and crucify me.”

It’s impossible to say what Peter’s motive was, but when you’re faced with an armed guard, and only one other person on your side has a sword, it’s a great deal more practical to slice off an ear than it is to slice off a head.

Study Questions
1. Think of who you have poor relations with. Are you disabling them, perhaps via hurt or slander, declaring war on them, e.g. revenge, or answering derision with love?

2. Would it take more or less humility to love this person, despite their sinful actions toward you, than it cost Jesus to heal the ear of someone arresting him for crucifixion?

3. If Jesus is powerful enough to do that, is He powerful enough to grant you the lesser humility needed to love your enemy? If so, why haven't you done it?

Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Sources
Bromiley, Geoffrey, ed., 1995, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p 229, 1995, Eerdmans Publishing

Moseley, Ron, 1996, Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church, p 25-26, Messianic Jewish Publishers

Whiston, William, trans., 1998, Josephus: The Complete Works, The Wars of the Jews 1:270, Nelson Publishing

Scripture
Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane – Luke 22:47-53. Luke 22:38 indicates they had two swords with them

The Pharisees: Who Were They?

2008-02-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

Who were the Pharisees?

In some sense they were a small party of approximately six thousand men, women and slaves that had chosen to restrict themselves to a level of purity that Scripture demanded only of priests, and as a result they would not dine at the home of a non-Pharisee. The purpose of this was not ostracism, because they could have a 'common person' over for dinner, as Simon the Pharisee had Jesus over. They were simply abiding by a decision they had made to not consume food that the ordinary person had, in perfect accordance with Scripture, no problem with.

This creature of the water would have been considered 'clean' because it had fins and scales.

Along this same line, they were rigid about tithing the first (10%) and second (an additional 10%) tithes in a time when people had very little money; to this end, they tithed what they ate, what they bought and what they sold. This was partially to prevent themselves from breaking a Scripture that could be taken in different ways; if you interpreted it strictly enough, there was no chance you were breaking it.

In a second, and larger, sense they were a set of men who were highly educated in Scripture and had taken it upon themselves to instruct the rest of the population, rather successfully it seems. Jesus says,

"The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach but do not practice." (Matthew 23:2-3)

(The 'Moses seat' was a prominent chair at the front of the synagogue. Italics mine.)

David Flusser quotes an Essene document found in the Dead Sea Scrolls: "The Pharisees were described as 'slippery exegetes', their actions were hypocrisy, and by means of their 'deceitful doctrine, lying tongues and false lips,' they were able to lead almost the whole people astray."* (Italics mine.)

Clearly they had the power to instruct the people, as the first century historian Josephus confirms, and they interpreted Scripture correctly enough that Jesus commanded the people to obey them. Also according to Josephus, they had great respect for their elders, were enthusiastic about making converts, and believed in angels, demons and heaven.**

In a third sense, they were a party powerful enough that even the high priest had to follow their way of doing things on the Day of Atonement, although he believed differently. They were present in the Sanhedrin, the ruling council, although we don't know to what extent. They seem to have played a minimal role in Jesus' trial, but joined the chief priests in requesting Pilate to secure the tomb (Matthew 27:62) after Jesus' death. Later, in the First Jewish Revolt of 66-70 AD, they played a leading role.***

An Islamic shrine now occupies the site of the Temple, where the high priest would have carried out the Day of Atonement ceremony.

So what were they? A political party, a sect, the set of beliefs most people followed? What category can we stuff them in? None, it seems, like we can’t stuff the word ‘Democrat,’ into one hole. Democrats (and Republicans) are national leaders and average Americans. To say “I’m a Democrat,” doesn’t mean I’m registered as one, nor does it mean that I believe everything they believe. It’s just a general dividing line. Those who work for the party, presumably, have a firmer alignment with them.

In the same way, being one of the six thousand registered Pharisees may have made you a Pharisee, and being a member of the public that roughly aligned yourself with Pharisaic beliefs may have made you a Pharisee. Those who were registered as one presumably had a firmer alignment with them. To this end, we have a sect of Pharisees and a general set of beliefs most people, as Pharisees, followed.

As for the Pharisees as a political party themselves – it wasn’t like that back then. Today we are Presbyterian and Democrats (or whatever). Back then things were just more mixed, and we can’t project today’s societal structure onto the first century.

Sources
Bivin, David, 2005, New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus: Insights from His Jewish Context, En-Gedi Resource Center

Flusser, David, and Notley, Steven, 2007, The Sage of Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus' Genius, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Neale, David, 1991, None But the Sinners, Sheffield Academic Press

Scott Jr., J. Julius, 1995, Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament, Baker Book House

Saldarini, Anthony J., 2001, Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees in Palestinian Society, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Scripture
Fish - Leviticus 11:12: Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.

Footnotes
*Flusser, 46
**Scott, 205-206
***Scott, 204

Synagogue Life in Jesus' Time

2008-02-11T15:07:00.001-08:00

The synagogue back in Jesus’ time was more analogous to the pilgrims’ town hall than it is to a modern-day American church. There was no decorative equivalent to a steeple or a cross, such as religious carvings, because it wasn’t designed to be a religious building.

The main room in the Capernaum synagogue. The tourists are sitting where worshippers would have sat for the Sabbath service. It must have been a bit difficult to see around the columns.

Education for both children and adults was a primary function, as were legal proceedings and punishments, banking, town meetings, civic duties,any form of a library that the town or village might have and communal meals. Jesus warned the disciples that they would be flogged in the synagogues (Mark 13:9), and records of slaves being manumitted there still exist.

Education for both children and adults was considered paramount. Boys between five and 10-12 were probably schooled for five hours a day, six days a week, although it is difficult to know how much of this originated later in the century with the high priesthood of Joshua ben Gamla. ‘Adult ed’ was also popular.

The Capernaum synagogue annex room, from approximately the 4th century. Perhaps adult ed and town meetings were held here.

The Synagogue Building
The average synagogue had a large room lined with stone benches styled like bleachers, and there is no evidence that men and women sat separately. Columns lined the remaining floor, and the elders probably sat at the front, facing the congregation.

Many synagogues had inscriptions on them honoring rulers or patrons in accordance with the patron/client culture. A patron was someone who helped the client out in either a personal or business sense, and town-wide favors that could never be paid back often had inscriptions dedicated to their patrons. For example, the town of Capernaum (client) may have dedicated an inscription to the centurion that built their synagogue (patron, Luke 7:5), as a gesture of appreciation to someone they could never repay on an equal basis.

The ‘Moses seat’ was a prominent chair at the front, which brings light to Matthew 23:2-3: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

The Moses seat at the Chorazin Synagogue. Photo courtesy of bibleplaces.com.

Synagogue Leaders
The Sabbath service appears to have included, at least, a reading from both Torah, (the Christian Pentateuch, which Jews considered God’s instructions on living a holy life, the Prophets, and a sermon. The common language was Aramaic, and a translator from the Hebrew Scriptures sometimes whispered into the speakers ear. This gives possible background to Jesus’ command in Matthew 10:27: What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.)

There is a good chance that the leaders of the synagogue service, the leaders of the other synagogue functions, and the town elders were all the same people (Scott, 142). Throughout the sources and regions two positions (mostly) predominate: the priest and the archisynagogos (say it fast!) I’ll leave the priest as self-explanatory; the archisynagogos was a leader of the community, possibly wealthy, that probably oversaw the non-religious aspects of the institution (Levine, p.137-38). Some of the synagogue positions appear to have been hereditary, though not all.

Sources
DeSilva, David A., 2000, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture, InterVarsity Press

Levine, Lee I., 2005, The Ancient Synagogue, Yale University.

Scott Jr., J. Julius, 1995, Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament, Baker Books

Extreme Pharisees: Paul and an Apostle

2008-02-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

Paul refers to himself as in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. (Phil 3:5-6)

Scripture saying Simon the Zealot was an apostle

The ruins of a Herodion street bordering the Temple, with old kiosks on the left. The stones on the right are probably where the Romans left them when they torched the walls in 70 A.D.

The photograph above is a good illustration of Jesus' radical acceptance of all people. The outlaw Pharisee and apostle Simon the Zealot couldn't come here before his Jesus days; the authorities would have killed him. The legalistic Pharisee Paul would have been anxious to be seen in locations close to the Temple, and it's highly likely he walked this street many times. The tax collector and apostle Matthew was probably ostracized and unwelcome here before his Jesus days.

Simon the Zealot v. Matthew the Tax Collector
The Zealots were an extreme outgrowth of the Pharisee movement, who robbed and murdered those oppressing the peasants. This classification would make particular sense for Paul since he went to such lengths to persecute Christians, yet we never hear of him referring to himself as so extreme in regards to oppression; only religious beliefs.

Simon, one of the twelve apostles, is referred to as ‘Simon the Zealot.’ (This is not Simon Peter, the leader of the group.) Zealots killed in the name of God, rather like terrorists today, and Simon was probably more astonished than anyone that a rabbi would accept Matthew, a tax collector, as an apostle.

Tax collectors, as oppressors of the peasants, were one of the groups Zealots persecuted, and when they first started following Jesus Simon may well have wished to kill Matthew. The fact that the two of them made it through three years of ministry under Jesus is testament to the power of Christ's love.

Paul the Pharisee
There was a great variation between common Pharisees, who were teachers in the synagogues and represented the majority of Jews, and registered Pharisees. Most Jews probably identified themselves as Pharisees in terms of the general teachings, but not to the extreme degree of the Pharisees Jesus targeted. (A little like most Americans identify themselves as Democrat or Republican, but don't cling too closely to what the party believes.)

Pharisaic registration came in four degrees; the highest one required you to tithe what you ate, bought AND sold, not eat at the house of one who followed looser rules, wash your hands before you ate and before touching ritually clean food, and endure a probation period that lasted from 30 days to 1 year.

In Jesus time these arches, still visible in the stonework, were the main entrance to the Temple grounds in Jerusalem. You can picture Pharisees such as Paul striding through this gate frequently, with long tassels hanging from the corners of his mantle and leather straps holding tiny boxes with Scripture wrapped around his arms and forehead, in order to be deemed pious.

The legalistic Hasidim of today can be easily distinguished from the average Jew by their haircut, hat and walk, and I wouldn't be surprised if the concept were the same and the means different in the first century.

All Jews wore tunics, covered by a large piece of rectangular cloth called a mantle. Tassels hung from the corners of the every males mantle, but Jesus says the Pharisees tassels were extra long.

All Jewish males tied small leather 'boxes' containing Scripture verses on their arms and forehead in literal obedience to Deut 6:6-8. These commandments I give to you today... tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. It's reasonable to suppose that the legalistic Pharisees wore them more frequently than most - perhaps during work hours, when most Jews removeed them.

If the Pharises looked like the Hasidim of today, generally known in Israel as following an abundance of rules, the men strode down the street with a quick gait, ramrod posture and remarkable purpose.

Becoming one of six thousand members in all of Israel required strong beliefs, and certainly attaining the fourth degree could deem one ‘faultless’ in ‘legalistic righteousness.’ Yet there is no record of these Pharisees persecuting Christians. Perhaps that aspect of Pharisaism changed when a new religion, Christianity, threatened them.

Travel Blog
See the blog of my Temple adventure.

Sources
Bivin, David, 2005, New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus: Insights from His Jewish Context, En-Gedi Resource Center, Israel

Horsley, Richard A. and Hanson, John S., 1985, Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the Time of Jesus, Winston Press (later published by HarperCollins Publishers)

Moseley, Ron, 1996, Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church, Messianic Jewish Publishers

Scott Jr., J. Julius, 1995, Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament, Baker Book House

Scripture References
Paragraph 2:
Tassels – Matthew 23:5

Tax Collectors, Prostitutes and Aristocrats

2008-01-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

We know the tax collectors were scum, bleeding their own people dry and handing the profit to their Roman oppressors - except, of course, for the profit they kept for themselves. Prostitutes have pretty scummy labels in any society. And the puzzling designation ‘sinners,’ doesn’t exactly bode well for someone’s character (including mine, unfortunately).

But what about a woman too far UP the ladder to be respectable? Luke 8:1-3 indicates that Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of King Herod’s household, was one of the women following Jesus full-time, and supported his ministry out of her own pocket. Ah, we think, the wealthy. And we move on.

Since Herod lived in Tiberias, Joanna would have also. She probably woke up to a view somewhat like this. The Tiberias harbor is in the foreground.

The Greek word designating Cuza ‘the manager of Herod’s household’ refers to a prestigious position paralleling a minister of finance, and in Rome the holder of that position was referred to as part of the king’s family, symbolically speaking. Joanna’s husband Cuza was more than a manager of slaves – he was pretty tight with Herod Antipas.

Like most kings of agrarian societies, Antipas taxed his people brutally, and the peasants paid roughly – and I do mean roughly – 40% of their income in taxes, including religious taxes. This did not make him or the ruling aristocracy popular, and the wife of the finance minister would not have fared well in her travels with prostitutes and tax-collectors – or with Simon the Zealot.

Joanna must have had a tough time switching from servants to camping out. The region of the Galilee, which is most of northern Israel, was pretty crowded in Jesus' time. Since fields lay fallow every other year, it seems like a reasonable guess that the large band of disciples would have slept in those fields at times. Joanna was probably uncomfortable, freezing, and not always smelling great, although I'm sure that at times they had people to stay with.

A typical Galilean field on a typical March day. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Matthew 8:19-20)

Joanna is one of several women listed as following Jesus full-time and Simon the Zealot was an apostle, which would have thrown them together with some frequency. An awkward situation, to say the least, as the Zealots were known for their violent attacks on aristocrats, merchants and tax collectors - anyone allied with Rome.

Thus, Matthew the tax-collector would have once been Simon’s target for annihilation, and Joanna would have fared similarly. They both would have considered Simon the Zealot their enemy and, furthermore, had little respect for each other. It’s a wonder that the three of them made it to the cross alive!

I can’t help wondering, honestly, what happened to Joanna along the way. Was she raped, perhaps multiple times? Teased, insulted? It seems likely. Must be some powerful gospel to drag a woman used to easy living through all that…

Sources
Bauckham, Richard, 2002, Gospel Women, Eerdmans Publishing

Hanson, K.C., and Oakman, Douglas, 1998, Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts, Fortress Press

Safrai, Ze'ev, 1994, The Economy of Roman Palestine, Routledge

Were women worthless?

2008-01-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

Let me guess – you think that women were worthless in New Testament times, having absolutely no rights and no money of their own. It’s a common conception – a common misconception, as a matter of fact. While it’s true that women were subordinate to their fathers and husbands in virtually every respect, the law did take some pains to protect them.

For example, every woman received a ketubbah and a dowry upon her marriage, both of which were hers to keep in the event of their divorce or his death. The ketubbah was paid by the groom to the brides father, and was controlled by her father. The dowry was the fathers gift to his daughter upon her marriage, and controlled by her husband, which could be given in the form of money or tangible goods such as furniture. She could also choose to renounce her ketubbah and dowry upon their divorce or his death, and be maintained by payments from her husbands estate. Because a husbands property was owed to his wife should he die, he could not sell any of it without her legal signature.

But of course women didn’t inherit – or did they? The ketubbah and the dowry were in fact considered the daughters portion of the inheritance, and the Bible established that a daughter could inherit if there were no sons alive. The rabbis, however, may have insisted that deceased sons with living offspring take precedence over the daughter. Whether the wife of a childless man could inherit upon his death is possible, but not proven. A woman was, however, able to receive gifts during her marriage that were hers to dispose of as she wished at any time, which entirely circumvented the inheritance issue.

Women were also permitted to work, but they only kept the money for themselves if they were divorced or widowed; married women or daughters under their fathers control earned contributions to the family income. I have to say, this doesn’t seem entirely unfair, since that’s what the man’s income went to as well. Women’s work could include selling goods such as bread and textiles, or performing services that included hairdressing, midwifery or professional mourning. This may explain how the disciples’ wives obtained money while their husbands followed Jesus around the countryside.

All of this contributes substantially toward understanding Luke 8:1b-3: The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and disease: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”

Sources
Bauckham, Richard, Gospel Women, pages 121-135
Ilan, Tal, Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine, pages 89-94

Note: You may also be interested in my Amazon.com list of books relating to women in the Gospels.

Mary, Mary, Mary

2008-01-02T17:30:00.001-08:00

Ever wonder why so many people in the Gospels seem to be named Mary? Indeed, it's all the more puzzling on closer inspection. Out of twelve disciples, two were named Simon, two were named Judas, and two were named James. As for the Marys, we have Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, 'the other Mary,' Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary the mother of James and Joses, although some of those may overlap. I've often thought that the Jews back then really weren't very creative in naming their children, but it does clarify why so many of the disciples seemed to have nicknames and specifications - Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot, James the Less, James and John the Sons of Thunder, etc. You've got to distinguish them somehow!

Back to my Mary theme. An old priest living in the Judean foothills, Mattathias of the Hasmon family, initiated a revolt against the Seleucids in the second century B.C. He died soon after but several of his sons, including Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan (Hebrew Jonah) and Simon, became kings and high priests - and Israelite heroes worth naming your children after. Salome and Alexandra were very popular, derived from the female Hasmonean ruler Salome Alexandra. Mary was extraordinarily popular because the Herodians came to power as a 'partnership' of sorts, by marrying Mariamme the Hasmonean to Herod the Great. When King Herod executed her, the last Hasmonean influence, Mariamme/Mary/Miriam became extremely popular names.

As for the Mary v. Mariamme v. Miriam variation - many Jews gave their children both Greek names and Jewish names. Thus, the Hebrew version of Jesus' name is Joshua or Yeshua, the latter of which you will often read in historical fiction. The angel, however, instructed both Mary (Luke 1:31) and Joseph (Matthew 1:21) to name their baby "Jesus," which means ‘the Lord saves’ in Greek, the language of the Gentiles. I can't help wondering how many people had issues with accepting a Messiah named 'the Lord Saves,' in Greek, and perhaps refused to call him that.

As an aside - Simon (Peter), Andrew and Philip, all of whom hailed from the partially Gentile Diaspora town of Bethsaida, had very Greek names and were far more likely than the other apostles to know Greek well. This goes a long way toward explaining why the Greek men that wanted to talk to Jesus at Passover sought out Philip, who sought out Andrew (John 12:22).