Almost every morning for breakfast we were served sliced cucumbers, olives, cold beets, pickles, various melons, bread and occasionally hard-boiled eggs. Such fare was what I recall from my trips to Turkey and throughout the Middle East. By the end of our trips I would have paid $50 for a double stack of American buttermilk pancakes covered with maple syrup! Am I making fun? No. I'm just pointing out the differences in culture. Actually the food they served was very healthful and I do eat all of the items I listed---but just a little later in the day.
So, what must it have been like in Bible times when someone said, "Let's do lunch." What did the people of Jesus' day eat? It depends on who you were and where you lived. Actually it was a lot like today. The lifestyles of the city folk were very different from the farmers and herdsmen. Also, the lifestyles of most of the Jews were very different from their Roman conquerors. The Jews who lived by the rules for clean and unclean of Leviticus 11, did not eat pork or animals that generally were considered scavengers.
About the daily diet of the Jewish common man we read, "The mainstay of the diet was coarse barley bread, generally baked at home each day. This was one of the housewife's most important and time-consuming chores. Along with bread, vegetables constituted the major portion of the Israelite's diet. Meat was a special treat, reserved for holidays, weddings, and other important occasions. Their animals were too valuable as sources of wool and milk---and of such labor as plowing and carrying---to be slaughtered for their meat."
"Stews with beans, lentils, and peas were probably the most common family meal, flavored with onions, leeks, garlic, or some aromatic seasoning. Lettuce, beets, and cucumbers might also be found on the menu. The family's evening meal was likely to end with one of a number of fruits---usually figs, melons, dates, or pomegranates. Fresh figs, in an era that did not know sugar, were especially prized for sweetness. . . "
"[The scarcity of water] encouraged the use of milk, mainly from goats, as an everyday beverage, as well as for making butter and a variety of cheeses. . . . In addition, the consumption of wine was a universal pleasure in Bible lands---enough so to warrant frequent warnings in the Old Testament about excessive drinking. Though most commonly made of grapes, wine was also produced from pomegranates and possibly from dates."
"The most important fruit harvests were those of olives and grapes. The grapes were sometimes eaten in their natural state or dried into raisins, but were more often used to make wine. Similarly, olives were harvested and pressed for oil, which was one of the most valuable commodities in the ancient world used by every household for cooking and as fuel for lamps." All of the quotes above came from Harper's Encyclopedia of Bible Life, pages 44-48, by Madeleine S. and J. Lane Miller, Harper and Row Publishers, 1978.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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Blessings!
Marvin Hunt

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