Food in Biblical Times

What was the world of the Bible like? What did people eat? How did they travel? What did they wear?

My new series of blog posts are a humorous, somewhat accurate portrayal of that world. Much remains unknown about the lives of the people in the Old and New Testaments; we simply don’t know all the answers.

Here, we will focus on what we do know, and extrapolate on what we don’t. Join me as we explore one of the most fascinating periods of history.

Unless you were seriously wealthy, you would have found it a challenge to be overweight in Old Testament times. You couldn’t simply walk to Aldi’s or Trader Joe’s and buy a nice package of lettuce, already washed and cut up, or purchase deboned, skinless, and plucked chicken, conveniently ready for your recipe. You had to work hard for your food.

In the average household, women fetched the water, although there is evidence that men sometimes did this as well (Ruth 2:9). But it wasn’t common. Walking to the well could take a long time, depending on where your house was. Then you had to lug the water back, carried in a clay jar, either on top of your head, or held against your hip. This was no mean feat as the jar might grow quite heavy. Girls started doing this from a young age, which probably meant that by the time they turned twelve, they could whoop my sorry behind with one flick of their well-muscled arms.

Your run of the mill person in the biblical era didn’t consume much meat. Depending on where they lived, they might eat fish. But for the most part, unless you were wealthy, you ate beans, lentils, wheat, and barley. Women used herbs and spices such as salt not only to add flavor to the food, but also to preserve it in the absence of refrigeration. There is evidence that women grew their own gardens, augmenting their diet by their own crops. Mint, dill, rosemary, cucumbers (Isaiah 1:8), and gourds (2Kings 4:39) might be cultivated. Capers grew wild as did onions. Capers couldn’t be eaten raw, and had to be pickled. For rich and poor alike, olive oil served as an essential part of the diet. A noted omission is chocolate, which did not exist in the Middle East until well after the discovery of the Americas. This might explain the bad mood Jezebel was in most of her life.

Nuts such as almonds and pistachios are mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 43:11). Pomegranates, grapes, and apples (Song of Solomon 2:3) were among the fruits that were consumed fresh. In addition, dried fruits including figs, dates and raisins were popular, and honey was used as a sweetener as well as for medicinal purposes. In a world where making a fire was a big production, cooking took a long time. You had to grind the flour in hand mills, an undertaking not for your average wimp. If your family was large, you and your female companion could use a two-handed mill, which was bigger and more efficient. But if you were the only woman of the house, you better be good at prayer, or else have a second career as a sumo wrestler.

The rich had servants, as they are wont to do regardless of the century, and only felt inconvenienced at mealtimes due to the flies that had no respect for their victims’ status. All in all, I prefer our ease when it comes to food, even though it means I have to go on a diet once in a while. Someone hand me the chocolate, please.