Posted on 05/04/2019 7:41:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In a land flowing with milk and honey, what kinds of food made up the ancient Jewish diet? What did people eat and drink in Roman Palestine?
Susan Weingarten guides readers through a menu of the first millennium C.E. in her article "Biblical Archaeology 101: The Ancient Diet of Roman Palestine," published in the March/April 2019 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Although it is difficult to reconstruct the diet of the average person in Palestine during the Roman and Late Antique periods, Weingarten, as both a food historian and an archaeologist, is well equipped for the task. Using archaeological remains and ancient texts, such as the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmuds, she pieces together the ancient Jewish diet.
A passage of the Mishnah details the minimum diet for a woman, who is separated from her husband: "Not less than two qabs of wheat or four qabs of barley [a week] … He must also give her half a qab of pulse and half a log of oil and a qab of dried figs or a mina of fig-cake, and if he has none of these, he must give her other produce instead." This passage shows that the ancient Jewish diet included grains, pulses (e.g., beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils), oil, and figs...
From this passage, we also see that grains comprise the majority of the woman's food. In fact, scholars estimate that bread made up 50–75 percent of the average person's diet. It was the food staple of the ancient world.
(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalarchaeology.org ...
This mosaic inscription quotes a passage from the Talmud, which details plants that can and cannot be grown during the sabbatical year. These plants, including vegetables, fruits, and pulses, were part of the ancient Jewish diet. Found on the floor of a Late Antique synagogue at Rehov, this inscription is now on display at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem. Photo: Davidbena/CC-by-SA-4.0.
” the Talmud, which details plants that can and cannot be grown during the sabbatical year.”
I thought nothing could be grown during the sabbatical year as the land was to “rest” that year.
Isn’t there a scene in “Life of Brian” where you find out what they ate?
The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible | David Moster | April 21, 2019There are hundreds of passages in the Bible that describe food, drink and dining. Many Biblical stories are set within the context of a meal. While most of these are about regular meals, others refer to more bizarre, extreme or supernatural cases of eating and drinking...
- Gold Powder: When Moses sees the Israelites worshiping the golden calf he grinds the idol into a fine powder, mixes it with water and forces the people to drink. (Exodus 32:19–20)
- Scroll of Lamentations: God gives Ezekiel a two-sided scroll of Lamentations to eat. Ezekiel fills his stomach and finds the scroll to be "as sweet as honey." (Ezekiel 2:8–3:3)
- Bread and Excrement: God tells Ezekiel to eat bread baked upon human excrement but Ezekiel gets away with bread baked upon animal excrement. Unlike the scroll, we aren't told how it tastes. (Ezekiel 4:10-17)
- The Manna: The Israelites survive for forty years in the desert on daily provisions of manna (Exodus 16:35). The name manna reportedly comes from the question the Israelites asked, man hu?, "What is it?" (Exodus 16:15). Although some commentators prefer a naturalistic answer to this question, e.g., manna is the gum resin of desert shrubs, the Biblical text presents the manna as a miracle food. It falls six days a week but not on the Sabbath, disintegrates when it is stored and stops falling when the Israelites enter the land of Canaan. Manna is even called "the grain of heaven," "the bread of heaven" or "the bread of angels" in a number of Hebrew Bible, New Testament and apocryphal texts (Psalms 78:24, 105:40; John 6:31; 2 Esdras 1:19).
“the ancient Jewish diet included locusts”
Yum! Probably had lots of those during the periodic plagues of locusts.
Care to translate this for the monthly cooking thread ??? LOL
figs?
FIFY
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/seder-zeraim-agriculture/
https://www.jta.org/2014/09/09/israel/understanding-shmita-israels-agricultural-shabbat-1
https://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/bahar/fel.html
That’ll teach the ****ed locusts.
What did the Romans do for us?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7tvauOJMHo
In one episode in the first series of "Connections", James Burke explained that bread was called the Staff of Life because everything you ate then was a side dish to bread. It was only when times got better that meat became the main entree.
That episode came to mind every time I saw the WWII videos showing the German soldiers wolfing down huge slabs of black bread.
BCE, as in Before CHRISTIAN Era?
I always thought that ‘locusts’ referred to carob (?)
They’re referring to the ‘beginning’ as the same point in time as the Christian era; they just don’t want to call it ‘Christian’.
Always seemed kind of silly to me.
Good one. The change to “Common Era” was ridiculous.
I never stopped using B.C. and A.D., even when I was a nonbeliever.
Nope, BCE as in Before Common Era.
This *may* be that episode. His vids are old favorites, despite his leftie politics.
https://archive.org/details/james-burke-connections_s01e08
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