This 11th-century mosaic, which shows the scene of Jesus’ crucifixion, comes from the Church of the Dormition in Daphne, Greece. Early Christians found parallels between the Adam and Eve story and Jesus and the Church. In the mosaic, blood and water flow from Jesus’ pierced side in the direction of his mother, Mary. Early Christians believed that just as Eve was birthed from the side of Adam, so the Church was birthed from the side of Jesus.

The creation of woman in the Bible has been the topic of much debate in Biblical Archaeology Review. In “Was Eve Made from Adam’s Rib—or His Baculum?” from the September/October 2015 issue, Ziony Zevit makes a shocking claim about the Adam and Eve story in the Bible.

The Biblical text says that Eve was created from Adam’s tsela‘. Although tsela‘ has traditionally been translated as “rib,” Zevit argues that it is better translated as Adam’s os baculum. This controversial conversation continues in Mary Joan Winn Leith’s article “Creating Woman,” published in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

In her article, Leith examines the creation of woman in the Bible. She looks at the etiological and euphemistic support for Zevit’s interpretation, and she considers how this would have fit into ancient views of biology. Then Leith focuses on an interesting part of the Adam and Eve story in the Bible: the “punishment poem” in Genesis 3:14–19.

This poem occurs after Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit. Because of their disobedience, God curses them. As Leith explains, this curse takes positive relationships, including childbirth, and turns them negative:

[T]he “punishment poem” in Genesis 3:14–19 reverses to negative effect all the positive relationships that prevailed before the humans disobeyed God. Humans and God, man and woman, humans and animals, humans and the earth now become alienated from each other where before all was harmonious. The most famous negative effect of the human disobedience is the woman’s pain in childbirth. At least theoretically then, before the punishment, childbirth in Eden should have been painless. If the father-as-child-bearer principle is hovering in the background of the creation of the woman, then the difficult childbirth promised to the woman in Genesis 3:16 reverses the painless “birth” in Genesis 2, where not only does a man—rather than a woman—give birth, but thanks to the anaesthetic “deep sleep” (tardemah), the man suffers no pain.

Thus, the creation of woman in the Bible from man—the first birth, according to Leith—is painless, but, as the “punishment poem” illustrates, all subsequent births are painful. Further, not only was the first birth painless, but it was a man—not a woman—who shockingly gives birth, setting it apart from all others.

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Leith then examines Christian symbolism related to the Adam and Eve story in the Bible. Early Christians believed that Eve was created from Adam’s rib or side, and they found parallels between Adam’s side and Jesus’ side that was pierced during his crucifixion. John 19:34 records, “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his (Jesus’) side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.” Early Christians believed that the blood represented the holy Eucharist, and the water represented baptism—two sacraments given by Jesus to the Church. Therefore, the Church was birthed from the side of Jesus, just as Eve was birthed from Adam’s side.

This interpretation is illustrated well in an 11th-century mosaic from the Church of the Dormition in Daphne, Greece. In this mosaic, blood and water flow from the pierced side of Jesus in the direction of his mother, Mary. Leith explains that Mary is often referred to as the “new Eve” and “considered to personify the Church.” The birth of the Church is visually depicted by the blood and water (sacraments) flowing toward Mary (the Church). Adam also makes an appearance in this scene. Jesus’ blood drips onto Adam’s skull at the foot of the cross. This symbolizes 1 Corinthians 15:21–22: “For since death came through a human being (Adam), the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being (Christ); for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”

To learn more about the creation of woman in the Bible, read the full article by Mary Joan Winn Leith—“Creating Woman”—in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Creating Woman” by Mary Joan Winn Leith in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on March 14, 2016.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

The Adam and Eve Story: Eve Came From Where?

Lilith in the Bible and Mythology

What Does the Bible Say About Infertility?

All Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Was Eve Made from Adam’s Rib—or His Baculum?

Creating Woman

Did Eve Fall or Was She Pushed?

Eve and Adam

How Did Adam & Eve Make a Living?

The post The Creation of Woman in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August September/October 2019

In the July/August/September/October 2019 issue of BAR, Dr. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott writes about Tell Halifa and its focus on the study of the daily lives of the ancient Israelites.  According to Dr. Shafer-Elliott, the unearthing of a grinding installation suggests that the primary purpose of the living space at one of the eighth-century four-room houses excavated– A8 House– was food production: grinding grain into flour.

In 2015 , Dr. Shafer-Elliott wrote for Bible History Daily about an experiment in building a tannur, a type of oven, and baking bread as the ancient Israelites might have done. Please enjoy revisiting Dr Shafer-Elliott’s previous article on connecting to the ancient Israelites through that experiment.

Current subscribers, read Dr. Shafer-Elliott’s article, Baking Bread in Ancient Judah,  in the July/August/September/October 2019 issue of BAR.

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In his book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, well-known food author Michael Pollan observes a curious paradox regarding cooking within American culture: “The less cooking we were doing in our own lives, it seemed, the more that food and its vicarious preparation transfixed us.”¹ In other words, the further away we get from our food—both in growing it and cooking it—the more of a central role it plays in our society. Pollan points to the massive popularity of TV shows devoted to food and celebrity chefs as proof of our fascination with food.

In the summer of 2015, a team from the Tell Halif archaeological excavation decided to make their own tannur (oven) and bake bread in it. Here, William Jessup University students Rose Kania and Jessica Rentz and Tell Halif supervisor Tim Frank make the clay mixture out of which the tannur will be made. Photo: Courtesy of Cynthia Shafer-Elliott.

This is an interesting observation that forces me to ponder my own fascination with food, which goes beyond watching Food Network, surfing Pinterest for new recipes, or serving a meal to my family or guests. Food, as a subject, boiled over (pun intended) into my academic research interests, too.

In general, I study the cultural context of ancient Israel both as it is found archaeologically and as it is reflected in the Hebrew Bible. More particularly, I am curious about the daily lives of the ancient Israelites. Some questions about daily life that interest me are: How did the ancient Israelites live? What did they eat? How did they cook it? In the early days of my research, I found that there was a lack of information on what the ancient Israelites ate and how they prepared it. Fortunately, interest in food is now a subject of research within both Biblical studies and the archaeology of the Southern Levant (which includes ancient Israel).

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William Jessup University students Rose Kania and Jessica Rentz, along with fellow volunteer Samara Wright and Tell Halif supervisor Tim Frank, making the first ring of the tannur. Photo: Courtesy of Cynthia Shafer-Elliott.

I study what the ancient Israelites ate and how they prepared it; but, like Pollan suggests, I am disconnected not only from the food that I eat, but also the food that I study. One possible remedy for this disconnection to ancient food is to conduct an archaeological experiment. In the summer of 2015, student volunteers on the Tell Halif archaeological excavation in Israel suggested that we try to make our own tannur (i.e., oven) and bake bread in it. My colleague and fellow Tell Halif supervisor Tim Frank has made a tannur before, so under his guidance, we built one behind the Halif archaeological lab at Kibbutz Lahav.²

First, a brief description of what we were trying to build. There are a few different types of traditional ovens that are still used today in the Middle East. One of the most common oven types is the tannur. A modern tannur is a beehive-shaped clay oven, usually close to one meter high, and will typically have two openings: one at the bottom and one at the top.

Ethnoarchaeological studies show that after a fire fueled by kindling and animal dung is built on the floor of the tannur, the ashes are raked out of the bottom opening, before using the top opening to slap the dough onto the interior walls or even the floor to bake. Platters and cooking pots could also be placed on top of the upper opening and used for baking or cooking, respectively. Although most archaeological reports refer to ovens as a tabun, they are more like the tannur type of oven. The term tannur is found in the Hebrew Bible fifteen times, seven of which refer to an oven used to bake bread (Exodus 8:3; Leviticus 2:4, 7:9; 11:35; 26:26; Hosea 7:4, 6–7).

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Cynthia Shafer-Elliott with the complete tannur. Photo: Courtesy of Seung Ho Bang.

Our experiment began one morning as we excavated by collecting five buckets of sifted dirt (though only half of the last one was used). It is important that the soil contains clay, and the soil at Tell Halif was perfectly acceptable for this experiment. The next day, Tim went down to the kibbutz stables and collected one bucket of straw. We gathered the next afternoon behind the excavation lab and cleared a place to begin our construction of a tannur.

The ground where the oven was placed was moistened before one bucket of dirt was emptied onto it and the straw mixed in. Water was emptied into the middle of the dirt and straw and was used to knead the mixture together. More water and dirt was added and kneaded until the clay mixture had a medium-stiff consistency.

Portions of the clay mixture were laid out in a circle and shaped in such a way as to attach it to the ground. The lower rung was extended to a height of approximately 4 inches, slightly inclining inward, and was then smoothed over. Once the bottom rung was complete, the process was repeated over the following days as the oven slowly dried. Each successive layer, slightly inclining, was added, until the tannur was approximately 12.5–13 inches high with a 19.5 inch-wide mouth.

Some of the Tell Halif excavation team on baking night. Photo: Courtesy of Seung Ho Bang.

To complete the hardening process, a fire was lit using straw and pine cones inside and immediately surrounding the tannur’s walls on the outside. A few days later, dough was made using flour, water, yeast and a tiny bit of sugar (honey would have been more authentic, but none could be found. Salt could not be found, as well).

After the dough had risen and was kneaded, it was divided into small balls and left to rise further. A fire was lit inside the tannur using straw and pine cones. Once the tannur was hot enough, the balls of dough were flattened into small loaves and were slapped onto the inside walls. The loaves only needed a few minutes to bake, after which the bread was removed carefully and consumed by the group.

About the experiment, Rose, a student from William Jessup University, commented, “I couldn’t help but become more familiar with the [ancient] bread-baking process. Firsthand experience with the mud, bread and fire is far more didactic than any textbook, slideshow or lecture. Being part of this experiment was fascinating and eye-opening!” We were all pleasantly surprised at how well the tannur worked and how tasty the bread turned out.

Small loaves of pita bread baking on the inside of the tannur. Photo: Courtesy of Seung Ho Bang.

Small loaves of bread that were baked on the inside walls of the tannur. Photo: Courtesy of Seung Ho Bang.

Like many ancient societies, the Israelites were dependent upon cereals; so much so that the word for bread, “lechem,” is synonymous with food. The process of turning grain into flour, then into dough, and finally into bread, would have been time-consuming—not to mention the construction and maintenance of the tannur itself. Today, the immediate demand for food can be easily obtained; but, as a consequence, the connection to the food that we eat has weakened—and, to some extent, the connection to our own histories has weakened as well. Archaeology helps us physically connect to the past, and, in this instance, in some small way, it helped connect us to the food of the ancient Israelites.

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Cynthia Shafer-Elliott, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at William Jessup University in Rocklin, California. Dr. Shafer-Elliott has been part of several archaeological excavations in Israel and is currently serving on the staff of the Tell Halif excavations. She is interested in the daily lives of the average Israelite and Judahite household, including economics, food preparation and consumption, religion and the roles and relationships of the family. Her book Food in Ancient Judah: Domestic Cooking in the Time of the Hebrew Bible is published through Routledge, and she is currently editing a volume entitled The Five-Minute Archaeologist for Equinox.

Notes

1. Michael Pollan, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (New York: Penguin Books, 2013), p. 3.

2. A special thanks to Tim Frank for guiding us through this project. For more information on experimental archaeology and baking, please see University of Evansville Associate Professor of Archaeology Jennie Ebeling’s work.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on July 29, 2015.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Ancient Bread: 14,400-Year-Old Flatbreads Unearthed in Jordan

Fruit in the Bible

The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible

BAR Test Kitchen

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Test Kitchen: Roman “French” Toast

Gluttony and Drunkenness in Ancient Israel

Biblical Archaeology 101: Storage and Staples in Biblical Israel

What’s For Dinner? The Answer Is In the Pot

The post Biblical Bread: Baking Like the Ancient Israelites appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Yahweh Ṣebaot Inscription

Stone block bearing invocation of a curse by Yhwh, Lord of Hosts (BLMJ 4663). Photo: BLMJ Collection.

This limestone inscription from a burial cave in Judah c. 800–750 B.C.E. is written in Paleo-Hebrew script and reads “Cursed be Hagaf son of Hagab by Yahweh Ṣebaot.” The phrase Yahweh Ṣebaot, often translated as “Lord of Hosts,” appears over two hundred times in the Hebrew Bible, especially in prophetic books such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. The museum’s inscription is perhaps the earliest non-Biblical evidence for this name. The name Hagab, which means “grasshopper,” also appears in Ezra 2:46.

Learn more about the Paleo-Hebrew script in “How Ancient Taxes Were Collected Under King Manasseh” and “Precursor to Paleo-Hebrew Script Discovered in Jerusalem.”

The Larsa Tablet

Cuneiform tablet recording temple service from the fifteenth to the twenty-third day of the month of Shabatu (BLMJ 3127). Photo: Moshe Caine.

This Akkadian tablet, which contains over 630 lines, comes from the southern Mesopotamian city of Larsa during the second year of King Rim-Sîn’s reign, c. 1821 B.C.E. The tablet registers the rites performed in Larsa’s many temples from the fifteenth until the twenty-fourth day of the month of Shabaṭu, the month identical to the Biblical month of Shebat (Zechariah 1:7). This one-of-a-kind tablet sheds light on the practices of the region from where Abraham is said to have come. For example, on the sixteenth day of the month of Shabaṭu, a cloak, a bright linen and a male slave were given to Enki, the god of wisdom and the creator of humankind.

The Quadrilingual Darius I Jar

Jar with quadrilingual inscription of Darius 1 (BLMJ 1979). Photo: BLMJ Collection.

Darius I of Persia, also known as “Darius the Great,” is mentioned in the Biblical books of Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel. The museum has a Persian calcite jar with four inscriptions that praise Darius in four different languages, one more language than the Rosetta Stone. The Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian inscriptions read “Darius, great king” and the Egyptian hieroglyphs read “King of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the two lands, Darius, living eternally, year 36.” Coincidentally, the 36th year of Darius’s reign (486 B.C.E.) was also his last.

The Lion and Calf Bowl

Bowl decorated with recumbent lions and calves before the symbol of the god An (BLMJ 4564). Photo: David Harris.

According to Isaiah’s prophecy of peace, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the lion and the fatling [will dwell] together” (11:6). On the museum’s unique serpentinite bowl from southern Mesopotamia c. 3300–2900 B.C.E., lions and calves are depicted lying down peacefully one after the other. The animals are crouched before a bundle of stylized reeds (not shown), much like the reeds carved into a door at the base of the Ziggurat of Anu, one of the oldest and most important Sumerian gods.

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Relief of Ark-like Image

Orthostat showing two tribute bearers carrying a container on a pole and buckets in their hands (BLMJ 1111). Photo: David Moster.

According to Exodus 25:10–16, the Ark of the Covenant was a rectangular box carried on poles. The museum has a Basalt Relief from Arslan Tash (Northern Syria, ancient Hadatu) from c. 800–750 B.C.E. which depicts two men carrying a rectangular box on poles. Notice the buckets, which are found in a number of Assyrian ritualistic reliefs and suggest that the men might be priests. Two key differences between this image and the Biblical description is that the Bible’s ark had its poles at its base, not its top, and that the Bible’s ark had two poles, not one.

The Jonah Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus lid depicting the Jonah cycle (BLMJ 4296). Photo: David Harris

The sarcophagus of a 4th-century C.E. Christian from Rome named Glycon depicts three scenes from the Biblical book of Jonah. On the left Jonah is cast overboard into the mouth of a terrifying fish (Jonah 1:1– 2:1). On the right Jonah is cast ashore (Jonah 2:10), where God provides him with a plant in order to teach him compassion (Jonah 4:4–11). According to Matthew 12:40, Jonah is analogous to the resurrection: “For as Jonah remained in the belly of the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of God be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”

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The Ivory Cherub

Inlay depicting a cherub (BLMJ 3428). Photo: Moshe Caine.

According to the Bible, cherubs were placed in both the Tabernacle and the Temple (Exodus 37:7–9; 1 Kings 6:23–30). While the descriptions about these creatures are vague, the museum has an ivory Phoenician-style cherub from Arslan Tash (Northern Syria, ancient Hadatu) from c. 850–800 B.C.E. This cherub, which was probably called a kuribu in Akkadian (similar to Hebrew kerub [כרוב]), was most likely used to decorate a chair, perhaps the throne of the Hazael, king of Damascus, who is mentioned in the books of Kings, Chronicles and Amos.

The Christogram Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus of Julia Latronilla (BLMJ 1057). Photo: David Harris.

This large Roman sarcophagus belonged to a Christian woman named Julia Latronilla, who died in approximately 330 C.E.—shortly after Constantine’s Edict of Toleration, which allowed Christians to worship freely. The sarcophagus depicts a number of Hebrew Bible and New Testament scenes, e.g., Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22), the miracle at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1-11), and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (e.g., Matthew 21:1–11). The circle in the center is one of the earliest known depictions of the christogram, a symbol that combines the first two letters of the Greek name for Christ, chi (X) and rho (P).

Learn about the earliest image of Jesus on the cross—the staurogram—in Bible History Daily.

The Rab-Shaqeh Stela

Stela of a Rab-Shaqeh, a cupbearer-In-chief (BLMJ 1066). Photo: M. Amar and M. Greyevsky.

In 2 Kings 18:18–37, which recounts the events of 701 B.C.E., an Assyrian official called the Rab-Shaqeh (“Chief Cupbearer”) besieges and taunts the people of Jerusalem. The museum has a stele commissioned by a Rab-Shaqeh who served a century and a half before the Bible’s Rab-Shaqeh, approximately 859–825 B.C.E., during the reign of Shalmeneser III. The inscription commemorates this Rab-Shaqeh’s deeds within his province. The image is that of a seated god with a horned helmet and a sun disk.

The Nile Boat

Model boat (BLMJ 2089). Photo: David Harris.

The Nile plays a prominent role in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the Exodus story. The Pharaoh of Joseph dreams of cows at the river (Genesis 41:1–3), baby Moses is placed in a basket at the riverbank (Exodus 2:3) and the first Egyptian plague occurs when the river turns to blood (Exodus 7:15–24). The museum has a model Nile boat made of wood, plaster and linen that comes from the early Middle Kingdom, c. 2000–1900 B.C.E. The boat has a pilot standing on the prow, a steersmen sitting on the stern and eighteen rowers in between. The boat is currently equipped for sailing downstream (north) but would have also had sails to travel upstream (south). Boats such as these were often placed in tombs for the journey of the afterlife.

A very special thank you to Olla Vengerovsky and the staff of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem for their help with this article.

David Z. Moster, PhD, is a Research Fellow in Hebrew Bible at Brooklyn College and a Lecturer in Rabbinics at Nyack College. He is the author of the upcoming book Etrog: How a Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). His websites are www.929chapters.com and brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/DavidMoster.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on January 28, 2015.

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More by David Moster in Bible History Daily

Fruit in the Bible

The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible

Related reading in Bible History Daily

The Tel Dan Inscription: The First Historical Evidence of King David from the Bible

Puzzling Finds from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud

Bible Artifacts Found Outside the Trench: The Moabite Stone

The Siloam Pool: Where Jesus Healed the Blind Man

The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity

The post 10 Great Biblical Artifacts at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Here are 10 of the most notable examples (in no specific order):

• 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).

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• Animal Fodder for a King
  In accordance with Daniel’s prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon lives in the wilderness for seven years eating grass like an ox (Dan 4:33). A similar story appears in 2 Esdras (9:23-27, 12:51) where Ezra sustains himself on a diet of flowers for seven days. Interestingly, a number of scholars suggest that the story of Nebuchadnezzar is actually based on Nabonidus, the king of Babylon who spent a decade of his life at an oasis in the Arabian wilderness.
• 40-Day Superfoods
  An angel gives Elijah a cake and some water and it is enough to sustain him for a forty-day journey from Beersheba to Mount Horeb/Sinai, where he encounters God in a cave (1 Kings 19:3–9).

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• The Fantastic Fruits of Eden
  There were two supernatural trees in the Garden of Eden, each with its own fruit. The tree of knowledge bestowed a divine knowledge of good and bad, making one like the gods. The tree of life granted immortality (Genesis 3:22).
• Food from Nowhere
  A number of Biblical figures are saved from thirst and starvation in the barrenness of the desert. For example, Hagar and Ishmael are shown a hidden well by God (Genesis 21:14–19), Moses finds water in a desert rock (Numbers 20:11), and Elijah is given bread and meat twice a day by ravens in the desert (1 Kings 17:1–6).
• Human Flesh
  Cannibalism on account of hunger is perhaps the most extreme punishment in the Hebrew Bible. It is at times described in vivid detail, e.g., in the threat of Deuteronomy 28 that fathers and mothers will eat their own children in secrecy so that they do not have to share the meat (Deuteronomy 28:53–57).
• Free Refills
  There are a number of stories about the miracles performed by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. According to the Book of Kings, a hungry woman’s jar of flour and jug of oil refilled themselves until a famine subsided (1 Kings 17:10-16), a poor woman’s single jug of oil was able to fill the many vessels of her neighbors (2 Kings 4:1–7), and a man’s twenty loaves of bread were miraculously able to feed one hundred hungry men with some left over (2 Kings 4:42–44). A similar story appears in John 6, where Jesus feeds five thousand men with five barley loaves and two small fish. Again, there is still food left over.

This Bible History Daily article, “The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible,” was originally published on May 6, 2014.

David Z. Moster, PhD, is a Research Fellow in Hebrew Bible at Brooklyn College and a Lecturer in Rabbinics at Nyack College. He is the author of the upcoming book Etrog: How a Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). He wrote The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible in 2014.  His websites are www.929chapters.com and brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/DavidMoster.

More by David Moster in Bible History Daily

Fruit in the Bible

You Are What You Eat: The Israelite Diet and Archaeology

10 Great Biblical Artifacts at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem

More on food and dining in the biblical world in Bible History Daily

Biblical Bread: Baking Like the Ancient Israelites

What Did People Eat and Drink in Roman Palestine?

Ancient Bread: 14,400-Year-Old Flatbreads Unearthed in Jordan

BAR Test Kitchen

Making Sense of Kosher Laws

A Feast for the Senses … and the Soul

Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?

A Biblical Spice Rack

Feeding the Pyramid Builders

The post The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The Bible never gives a specific word for spices, the aromatic vegetable products derived from the bark, root or fruit of perennial plants. In the Bible spices are used primarily for religious purposes—especially as incense. “Spiced wine,” literally wine of a mixture (of spices), in Song of Songs 8:2 is the only Biblical mention of spices used as a flavoring.

In ancient times, herbs—the edible leaves, blossoms and soft stems of annuals and perennials—were used primarily as medicine. According to the apocryphal Book of Jubilees,¹ angels revealed to Noah all the illnesses of the world and their remedies so that he could “heal by means of the herbs of the earth” (Jubilees 10:12). Noah diligently recorded the cures in a book. Below, I, like Noah, record the herbs and spices of the Near East throughout history.

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Capers (Capparis spinosa L.)

“The almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry shall fail; because man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets”
(Ecclesiastes 12:5)

Displaying a prism of colors on stringlike petals, the flowering caper plant grows on the mountains, rocks and walls of Israel, including the Temple Mount’s Western Wall. As soon as this rare beauty blossoms, however, its seeds are scattered and the flower dies, which is why it symbolizes the shortness of human life in Ecclesiastes.

Capers. Photo: ASAP/Douglas Guthrie.

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.)

“Now the house of Israel called its name manna; it was like the coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey”
(Exodus 16:31)

The Bible likens manna, which some scholars have identified as the honeydew secretion produced by scale insects that feed on the sap of the desert-growing tamarisk tree, to gad, usually translated as “coriander.” However, coriander’s brown grains do not resemble the white drops produced by these insects. This has led some scholars to suggest different identifications for gad, while the medieval Bible commentator, Rashi, suggested that the comparison was not in color but in their mutual roundness.

Coriander Seeds. Photo: David Darom.

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.), Dill (Anethum graveolens L.), and Mint (Mentha longifolia L.)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others”
(Matthew 23:23)

Mosaic law required the tithing of the produce of the land (Leviticus 27:30; Deuteronomy 14:22–23). Jesus condemns the Pharisees for carefully observing this requirement—by extending it to the smallest of plants—while neglecting far more vital laws.

Little is known about the early uses of dill, although a papyrus dating to 1536 B.C.E. describes it as a cure for headaches. A member of the carrot family, dill has been grown in the Holy Land since ancient times, but it appears only once in the Bible, as a tithe.
Both spearmint and peppermint are indigenous to Israel.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.), Onion (Allium cepa L.), and Leek (Allium porrum L.)

“We [the Israelites] remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumber, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at”
(Numbers 11:5–6)

Although actually a vegetable, garlic is primarily used as a spice, as referred to in Numbers and in talmudic literature. Green garlic (Allium tuberosum), a variation of the common garlic plant, adorns numerous flower gardens throughout Israel, even though many people have no idea that the stems beneath the delicate round head of purple flowers growing in their yard are edible.

The common garden onion, a bulbiferous herb, and the leek, a widely cultivated member of the lily family for which the Israelites longed, are depicted in drawings on the pyramids and other ancient Egyptian monuments.

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Syrian Hyssop (Origanum syriacum L.)

“Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt…He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall”
(1 Kings 4:30–33)

During the plague of the firstborn, hyssop branches were used to sprinkle blood on the doorposts of the houses of the children of Israel in their sojourn in Egypt (Exodus 12:21–22). Hyssop was also used in many purification rites in the Temple, though there is no convincing explanation as to why it was selected. A modest gray shrub, it grows wild in the hills of Israel. When Jesus complained from the cross that he was thirsty, “A bowl full of vinegar stood there: so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth” (John 19:28–29).

Syrian Hyssop. Photo: David Darom.

Ladanum (Cistus incanus L.)

“Take some of the choice fruits from the land, and carry them down as a present to the man—a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds”
(Genesis 43:11)

The balm mentioned in Genesis is thought to be ladanum, a sturdy shrub that adorns the hills beside the Mediterranean. Popularly known as Rock Rose, the plant’s papery white or pink flowers belie the strength of its balm, a yellowish resin that exudes a strong scent of ambergris. It was believed to have medicinal properties and is still used in perfume manufacture and as incense in churches of the eastern rite.

Laurel (Laurus nobilis L.)

“[The carpenter] plants an oren [laurel] and the rain nourishes it…Half of it he burns in the fire;…The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol”
(Isaiah 44:14–17)

Although today the Hebrew term oren is translated as “pine” or “cedar,” in Biblical times oren referred to the laurel tree. The laurel (also known as the bay tree) is not indigenous to Israel, but now grows in the hilly forests of the country and is planted as an ornamental tree in many Israeli gardens.

Mallow (Malva nicaeenis All.)

“Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? Does mallow juice have any flavor? My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me”
(Job 6:6–7)

Job describes the bland juice extracted from the leaves of the mallow, which graces every garden, trash heap (where it benefits from high levels of nitrogen) and roadside in Israel. The herb even sprouts from tiny crevices in stone walls and fences—wherever dust and earth have collected. During the 1948 siege of Jerusalem in the War of Independence, starving Israelis ate the mallow leaves in salads, fritters and soups.

Mandrake

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum L.)

“Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, ‘Give me, I pray, some of your son’s mandrakes.’ But she said to her, ‘Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?’”
(Genesis 30:14–15)

In Genesis, soon after the barren Rachel obtained mandrakes from Reuben, her sister Leah’s first son, “God opened [Rachel’s] womb” and “she conceived and bore a son” (Genesis 30:22–23). Apparently, the humanlike form of mandrakes was thought to be beneficial in the conception of humans. Throughout history, imaginative drawings of the plant have emphasized this anthropomorphic quality by depicting the roots as legs.

At the beginning of winter, the plant produces a rosette of dark green leaves and purple flowers, but in this season the scent is not pleasant. In the spring, however, when the fruits ripen and become yellow, the intoxicating scent attracts both man, as an aphrodisiac, and animal.

The Song of Songs 7:13 recalls this pleasant odor: “The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and over our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.”

Black Mustard (Brassica nigra [L.] Koch)

“And he said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade’”
(Mark 4:30–32)

There are two species of mustard in the region—the “common mustard” (Sinapis alba) and the black mustard; the mustard mentioned in the New Testament was probably the latter.

The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the potency of this diminutive mustard seed, which measures only 1 to 1.5 mm but develops into plants measuring as tall as 6 feet: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place,’ and it will move; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20).

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Garden Rocket (Eruca sativa L.)

Garden Rocket. Photo: David Darom.

“When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was famine in the land. As the company of prophets was sitting before him, he said to his servant, ‘Put the large pot on, and make some stew for the company of prophets.’ One of them went out into the field to gather oroth and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds and came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, not knowing what they were. And they poured out for the men to eat”
(2 Kings 4:38–40)

Botanists have identified the Biblical oroth (gargir in the Talmud) with rocket based on the similarity of its Talmudic name to the Arabic name for rocket (jargir). An annual in the mustard family, rocket still grows wild, especially in the hilly areas of Israel. The mustard-flavored buds and flowers are both decorative and delicious, and the leaves are used in salads.

Rocket belongs to the Cruciferae (or Brassicaceas) family, whose four-petalled flower appears to form a cross. In Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna with the Flower (the Benois Madonna), the babe holds a garden rocket blossom as a symbol of his fate.

Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativus L.)

“Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard with saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices”
(Song of Songs 4:13–14)

Saffron, which grows wild in Israel, may be the most expensive spice in the world. It takes 225,000 of the brilliant yellow stigmas—saffron’s delicate flavoring agent—to make a single dry pound. Ancient kings were anointed with oils perfumed with saffron, and today meals flavored with saffron are considered fit for kings.

“A Biblical Spice Rack” by Devorah Emmet Wigoder originally appeared in Bible Review, October 1997.

Devorah Emmet Wigoder authored the book The Garden of Eden Cookbook: Recipes in the Biblical Tradition (Nightingale Resources, 1988).

Notes:

1. Composed in about 160 to 150 B.C.E., Jubilees recounts Biblical history from the Creation to the arrival of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. The author quotes heavily from the Biblical text but also omits portions and adds his own interpretations of the texts. See James VanderKam, “Jubilees—How It Rewrote the Bible,” Bible Review, December 1992.

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The post A Biblical Spice Rack appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Primeval Murder. The Bible recounts that Cain murdered his brother Abel. Gustave Doré’s illustration shows the moment after this deed has been committed. In antiquity, some believed that this was the first sin in the Bible—and how sin and death entered the world. The Wisdom of Solomon is one text that expresses this view.

What is the origin of sin and death in the Bible? Who was the first sinner?

To answer the latter question, today people would probably debate whether Adam or Eve sinned first, but in antiquity, it was a different argument altogether. They debated whether Adam or Cain committed the first sin.

John Byron of Ashland Theological Seminary explores ancient interpretations of the origin of sin and death in the Bible in his Biblical Views column “Who Sinned First—Adam or Cain?” published in the July/August 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

So, Who Sinned First in the Bible?

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were the first humans. Cain was their first son, and Abel their second. The majority of Biblical interpreters—throughout the ages—have considered Adam and Eve’s disobedient act of eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6) as the first sin in the Bible—the moment sin and death entered the world. However, in antiquity, some believed that Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8) was the first sin; certainly, this was the first human death in the Bible. The apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon is one text that expresses this view.

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Original Sin? This scene by Adolf Hult depicts Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Most would consider Adam and Eve’s disobedient act of eating the forbidden fruit as the first sin in the Bible—the moment sin and death came into the world.

The Wisdom of Solomon credits Cain’s unrighteousness as ushering in death—and the Biblical flood:

“Wisdom protected the first-formed father [Adam] of the world, when he alone had been created; she delivered him from his transgression and gave him strength to rule all things. But when an unrighteous man [Cain] departed from her [Wisdom] in his anger, he perished because in rage he killed his brother [Abel]. When the earth was flooded because of him, Wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man [Noah] by a paltry piece of wood.” (Wisdom of Solomon 10:1–4)

John Byron explains that in the Wisdom of Solomon’s interpretation of Genesis, “neither mortality nor bad consequences resulted from Adam’s sin. Rather, Wisdom saved Adam, and his sin is glossed over.” It is Cain who rejects Wisdom, sins and ushers in death.

To learn more about the ancient interpretation of Cain as the first sinner in the Bible, read John Byron’s Biblical Views column “Who Sinned First—Adam or Cain?” in the July/August 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

BAS Library Members: Read the full Biblical Views column “Who Sinned First—Adam or Cain?” by John Byron in the July/August 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Cain and Abel in the Bible

The Adam and Eve Story: Eve Came From Where?

What Happened to Cain in the Bible?

Who Was the Wife of Cain?

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Biblical Views: Who Sinned First—Adam or Cain?

The Harrowing of Hell

How Did Jesus Die for Our Sins?

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Herod’s Horrid Death

A version of this post first appeared in Bible History Daily in July, 2017

The post The Origin of Sin and Death in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

C.S. Lewis’s character Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia, in his The Chronicles of Narnia novels is said to have descended from Lilith, Adam’s first wife. Pictured here is Tilda Swinton as Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia, in the film adaptation The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).

C.S. Lewis, one of the most beloved authors of the 20th century, created a magical, fictional world called Narnia. The primary villain of the first book of this series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is Jadis, the White Witch. Below is the character Edmund’s description of the White Witch when he first meets her:

A great lady, taller than any woman that Edmund had ever seen. She also was covered in white fur up to her throat and held a long straight golden wand in her right hand and wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was white—not merely pale, but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red mouth. It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern.
(The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

Jadis, the White Witch, is beautiful—and terrifying. Although she looks like a human, she is not. According to the character Mr. Beaver, the White Witch was descended from Lilith, Adam’s first wife, on one side and from giants on the other.

Who is Lilith? Is there any warrant for calling Lilith Adam’s first wife, or is this just the baseless chatter of woodland creatures? Are there appearances of Lilith in the Bible?

Dan Ben-Amos, Professor of Folklore and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the figure of Lilith in the Bible and mythology in his article “From Eden to Ednah—Lilith in the Garden” in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. His analysis shows that Lilith is an intriguing figure who has taken on many shapes over the millennia. From this, we see that Jadis, the White Witch, shares more than just lineage with her supposed ancestor.

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Who is Lilith: Beauty or horror? English painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith (1866–68; altered 1872–73) depicts Lilith, Adam’s first wife, as a beautiful woman. Who is Lilith? According to Rossetti’s interpretation, she was a beauty. Photo: Delaware Art Museum

Lilith is first mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts as a class of winged female demons that attacks pregnant women and infants. From Babylonia, the legend of “the lilith” spread to ancient Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Egypt and Greece. In this guise—as a wilderness demoness—she appears in Isaiah 34:14 among a list of nocturnal creatures who will haunt the destroyed Kingdom of Edom. This is her only mention in the Bible, but her legend continued to grow in ancient Judaism.

During the Middle Ages, Jewish sources began to claim her as Adam’s first—and terrifying—wife. How did Lilith evolve from being a wilderness demoness to Adam’s first wife?

Interestingly enough, this story begins at the beginning—in Genesis 1.

The creation of humans is described in Genesis 1 and in Genesis 2. The first account is fairly straightforward: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). The second account describes how God formed man out of the dust of the ground and then creates woman from the man: “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. … So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:7, 21–22).

In the post-Biblical period, some ancient Jewish scholars took the stance that Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:21–22 must describe two separate events, since it appears that woman is created differently in these accounts. In her Bible Review article “Lilith” in the October 2001 issue, Professor Janet Howe Gaines explains this reasoning: “Considering every word of the Bible to be accurate and sacred, commentators needed a midrash or story to explain the disparity in the creation narratives of Genesis 1 and 2. God creates woman twice—once with man, once from man’s rib—so there must have been two women. The Bible names the second woman Eve; Lilith was identified as the first in order to complete the story.” Accordingly, Genesis 1:27 describes the creation of Adam and an unnamed woman (Lilith); Genesis 2:7 gives more details of Adam’s creation; and Genesis 2:21–22 describes the creation of Eve from Adam.

Who is Lilith: Beauty or horror? This Aramaic incantation bowl depicts Lilith as a demoness. A text that mentions Lilith and other evil spirits is written on the inside of the bowl in spiral concentric circles. Incantation bowls were meant to both capture and repel evil spirits. Who is Lilith? According to this representation, which is more consistent with the appearance of “the lilith” in the Bible, she was a horror. Photo: Courtesy V. Klagsbald, Jerusalem

Lilith’s creation is recounted in The Tales of Ben Sira, an apocryphal work from the tenth century C.E. Dan Ben-Amos explains that although this is the first extant text that records the legend of Lilith, her story probably existed earlier:

[Lilith’s] story seems to hover at the edges of literacy with sporadic references. … [I]n the post-Biblical period, the sages identify the lilith several times, not by name, but as “the First Eve,” indicating that her full story was well known in oral tradition, yet barred from the canonized Biblical text. Finally, in the tenth century C.E. in Babylon, an anonymous writer, who was not bound by normative traditional principles and who included in his book some other sexually explicit tales, spelled out the lilith’s adventures in paradise.

The Tales of Ben Sira relates that God created Lilith from the earth, just as he had created Adam. They immediately began fighting because neither would submit to the other. Recognizing that Adam would not listen to her, Lilith “pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air” (The Tales of Ben Sira). The angels Snvi, Snsvi and Smnglof were sent to pursue Lilith, but when they reached her, she refused to return with them to the Garden of Eden. “‘Leave me!’ she said. ‘I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days’” (The Tales of Ben Sira). As a compromise, she promised that whenever she saw the angels’ names or forms on amulets, she would leave the child alone. She also agreed that 100 of her children—demons—would die every day.

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Lilith sins by impudently uttering the sacred syllables, thereby demonstrating to a medieval audience her unworthiness to reside in Paradise. So Lilith flies away, having gained power to do so by pronouncing God’s avowed name. Though made of the earth, she is not earthbound. Her dramatic departure reestablishes for a new generation Lilith’s supernatural character as a winged devil.

Gaines also explains Lilith’s hatred for human babies: “Ben Sira’s story suggests that Lilith is driven to kill babies in retaliation for Adam’s mistreatment and God’s insistence on slaying 100 of her progeny daily.”

To learn more about Biblical women with slighted traditions, take a look at the Bible History Daily feature Scandalous Women in the Bible, which includes articles on Lilith, Mary Magdalene and Jezebel.

The Lilith legend continued to grow and change over the following centuries, which is reflected in various artistic depictions of her. While some portrayed Lilith as a beautiful woman, others showed her in a more sinister light. Some even depicted her as the serpent in the Garden of Eden who convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

Jadis, the White Witch of Narnia, shares similarities with Lilith. Not only are both of them strong, terrifying women, but they also seem bent on destroying human life. Both wield dark magic and are immortal beings. As revealed in C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, Jadis gains immortality by eating a silver apple inside a walled garden in Narnia. This episode has some obvious connections to the account of the Garden of Eden in the Bible. Additionally, both pronounce an ineffable word and suffer dire consequences as a result. The Magician’s Nephew tells how Jadis—before she became the White Witch—pronounced the Deplorable Word, which killed every living thing in her world, Charn, except for herself. So great was her desire for power and her refusal to submit, she spoke the Deplorable Word—knowing full well that it would kill every living person and thing in her world—rather than surrender her claim to the throne of Charn. These examples demonstrate that the character Jadis bears both the blood and the character of her foremother Lilith.

From demoness to Adam’s first wife, Lilith is a terrifying force. To learn more about Lilith in the Bible and mythology, read Dan Ben-Amos’s full article—“From Eden to Ednah—Lilith in the Garden”—in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

BAS Library Members: Read the full article “From Eden to Ednah—Lilith in the Garden” by Dan Ben-Amos in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on May 2, 2016.

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The post Lilith in the Bible and Mythology appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The famous Lebanese cedar tree was widely used in the construction of ancient temples, palaces and seagoing vessels, including Solomon’s Temple and the so-called “Jesus Boat.” But what exactly made its timbers so important for ancient woodworking?

In the biblical world, Lebanese cedar (Cedrus libani) trees were highly sought after as an excellent source of timber for ancient woodworking. The wood’s high quality, pleasant scent and resistance to both rot and insects made it a popular building material for temples, palaces and seagoing vessels, from Solomon’s famed Temple to the so-called “Jesus Boat” of the first century C.E. Today, Lebanese cedar trees grow mostly in Lebanon and southern Turkey, with a few found in Cyprus and Syria. As the Bible makes clear, the valuable wood had to be imported into ancient Israel.

The Phoenician king Hiram of Tyre sent Lebanese cedar, carpenters and masons to Jerusalem to build a palace for King David (2 Samuel 5:11). Likewise, Hiram provided cedars and artisans to King Solomon for the construction of his own palace as well as the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 2:3,7; 1 Kings 5:20). The Bible also informs us that Lebanese cedar timbers were commonly transported by sea. The Book of Ezra reports that timbers were hauled to the Phoenician coast and then sailed to Jaffa for transport to Jerusalem (Ezra 3:7).

When Al-Aqsa Mosque was reconstructed in the 1930s and 1940s, massive Cedar of Lebanon and cypress beams were reused or removed. Some are much older than the mosque itself. Were they once part of Herod’s Temple Mount architecture? Learn more in Bible History Daily.

Though not used by Jesus himself, the so-called “Jesus Boat,” dating to the first century C.E., is very similar to the boats Jesus and his disciples would have used to cross and fish the Sea of Galilee. Analysis showed that at least some of the boat’s reused timbers were made from Lebanese cedar.

Lebanese cedar wood was also popular for ancient woodworking and ship construction because it is easily worked and shaped, it seasons with minimal shrinkage or distortion and it resists decay in salt water better than most types of wood. In the ancient shipwreck off the Uluburun promontory of Turkey, nearly all of the boards of the hull were made of Lebanese cedar. This famous late-14th-century B.C.E. wreck contained a cargo of precious metals, jewelry, ivory, ebony and other valuable materials, suggesting that it was probably a royal shipment.

One of Israel’s best-known shipwrecks also bears evidence of ancient woodworking with cedar timbers. The so-called “Jesus Boat,” dated to the first century and recovered from the Sea of Galilee, was built mostly of reused timbers, some of which were made from Lebanese cedar. While the “Jesus Boat” cannot be linked to the life of Jesus, scholars believe it was the type of boat that was used by Jesus and his disciples in their many travels upon the Sea of Galilee.

To learn more about the many ways Lebanese cedar trees were used in ancient woodworking, read Nili Liphschitz, “Cedars of Lebanon: Exploring the Roots,” in the May/June 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

BAS Library Members: read the full article “Wooden Beams from Herod’s Temple Mount: Do They Still Exist?” by Peretz Reuven as it appears in the May/June 2013 issue of BAR.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in May 2013.

The post Lebanese Cedar—The Prized Tree of Ancient Woodworking appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Mosaic of the Journey to Bethlehem from the Chora Church in Istanbul.

A visit to YouTube will yield an assortment of lovely performances, including a version discovered in Appalachia. While the Cherry Tree Carol blooms in cyberspace, however, its roots go deep and wide: from medieval England back to the 12th-century Crusader kingdoms and ultimately to early Christian communities of the Middle East who worshipped in Syriac, a liturgical (religious) form of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Adherents of Syriac Christianity include a range of different denominations, but they have lived in the Middle East for 2,000 years.

Today, facing the twin threats of ISIS and the Syrian civil war, the future of these ancient communities is in doubt. The beleaguered Syrian city of Aleppo in particular (see the Google city map) is home to many churches, from Syriac-speaking to Evangelical, whose congregations may never recover. Syriac Christianity, in particular, has generally flown under the radar of mainstream scholarship, although this is beginning to change. It now appears that the Cherry Tree Carol’s distinctive take on Joseph’s outspokenness at Mary’s pregnancy can be traced back to a unique feature of Syriac liturgy, one still operative in churches (if they survive) today, the dialogue hymn.

Churches in Aleppo, Syria

Like many carols, the “original” version of the Cherry Tree Carol comes from the Middle Ages. It appears in a set of Bible-based “Mystery Plays,” known today as the “N-Town Plays,” that were performed in the English Midlands around 1500. The Middle Ages may be the quintessential Christmas setting (yule logs, holly and ivy, wassailing!), but the inspiration for the magical fruit tree and Joseph’s bitterness is even older. Scholars generally identify the carol’s prototype in a ninth-century bestseller, the “Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew,” in which a date palm bows to Mary. This story, however, is set after Jesus is born, during the Flight to Egypt, and it is the infant Jesus who commands the tree to “bend thy branches and refresh my mother with thy fruit” when Mary grows faint. Variations on the miraculous fruit tree motif appear in a wide variety of sources, from Greek mythology to the Qur’an’s account of Mary and the birth of Jesus in Sura 19.22–25. On the other hand, nowhere in “Pseudo-Matthew” does Joseph utter a harsh word to Mary, not even when he finds Mary pregnant; Mary’s virgin companions, not Mary, face Joseph’s interrogation until the angel shows up to calm him down.

The most striking aspect of the Cherry Tree Carol is that Joseph is so disrespectful to the Virgin Mary. In the N-Town “Nativity” play, Joseph is quick to apologize, and the play passes on to its main subject, the birth of Jesus. Joseph’s bad attitude, however, is the sole topic of another N-Town play, “Joseph’s Doubt,” that was performed right after the “Annunciation” and before the “Nativity.” The play seems to have been popular; the two other leading medieval mystery play cycles, the York Mystery plays and the Wakefield Plays, also include versions. “Joseph’s Doubt” devotes 135 astonishing lines to back-and-forth between a distressed and angry Joseph and his increasingly anguished wife. Joseph’s scorn is unrelenting: “God’s child? You lie! God never played thus with a maiden! … All men will despise me and say, ‘Old cuckold,’ thy bow is bent.” Hearing of the angel’s visit to Mary, Joseph scoffs, “An angel? Alas for shame. You sin by blaming it on an angel … it was some boy began this game.” Helpless, Mary prays to God and the angel appears to set Joseph straight, at which point he apologizes abjectly, “I realize now I have acted amiss; I know I was never worthy to be your husband. I shall amend my ways and follow your example from now on, and serve you hand and foot.”

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In the Bible, faced with Mary’s interesting condition, “Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly” (Matthew 1:19). No histrionics here. Joseph is rather more upset in the second-century apocryphal “Infancy Gospel of James”: “[H]e smote his face, and cast himself down upon the ground on sackcloth and wept bitterly,” demanding of Mary, “‘Why have you done this? … Why have you humbled your soul?’ But she wept bitterly, saying, ‘I am pure and I know not a man.’” Around the fifth century, however, this story line expanded into a full-fledged drama in the form of a Syriac Christian dialogue hymn sung in church by twin choirs—one singing the part of Joseph; the other, Mary—as part of the Christmas liturgy. One published version runs to well over 100 lines of dialogue. Joseph’s words often recall the later medieval “Joseph’s Doubt” plays, but in this Syriac drama, Mary holds her own and does not falter. She even proves herself an adept Biblical scholar: “You have gone astray, Joseph; take and read for yourself in Isaiah it is written all about me, how a virgin shall bear fruit.”¹

A recently restored mosaic of an angel at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Photo: Nasser Nasser, Associated Press.

How did a Syriac drama find its way to the medieval English Midlands? The likely answer is with Crusaders returning from the Holy Land in the 12th and 13th centuries. During the Crusades, relations between Western (“Latin”) Christians and Middle Eastern Christians began badly. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the Crusaders (the “Latins”) considered the indigenous Christians (Syriac and Orthodox) to be citizens of secondary status—no better in their eyes than Muslims or Jews. This view evolved as the Latins came to know the various indigenous Christian groups, particularly those from northern Syria whose leaders took care to make their interests known to the new rulers. Much productive interaction occurred between Latin, Orthodox (“Greek”) and Syriac Christians (with Muslims, too, but that is another story). Art historian Lucy-Ann Hunt has described the Crusaders’ growing “concern with language, rites, and customs” of the indigenous Christians and “sympathetic reception and transmission of eastern works of art.”²

How appropriate, since this is a Christmas blog, that some of the best evidence for cooperation between Crusaders and local Christians comes from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem! The Church was famously founded in the fourth century by Constantine and his mother Helena, but the existing wall mosaics and some of the barely visible column frescoes date to the 12th century. This is when the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenos forged an alliance with King Amalric of Jerusalem and sponsored a new decorative program in the Church of the Nativity.

Interestingly, trilingual (Latin, Greek, Syriac) inscriptions in the church attest to both Byzantine-trained and local Christian artists. Furthermore, as Hunt notes, “While the Orthodox and Latin were the predominant communities, the ‘Monophysites’ [i.e., local Christians] were also represented at the Church of the Nativity.”³ These days, Crusaders have a deservedly clouded reputation, but perhaps for one brief shining moment at Christmas in the Church of the Nativity they acquitted themselves as one would wish with open ears and hearts. I like to imagine “Latin” Crusaders hearing the Syriac Joseph and Mary dialogue performed at Christmas in the Church of the Nativity. Captivated by the hymn, they adopted and adapted it to become part of the developing English Mystery play tradition, a tradition we can thank for the Cherry Tree Carol.

Interested in learning about the birth of Jesus? Learn more about the history of Christmas and the date of Jesus’ birth in the free eBook The First Christmas: The Story of Jesus’ Birth in History and Tradition.

Mary Joan Winn Leith is chair of the department of religious studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. At Stonehill, she teaches courses on the Bible and the religion, history and culture of the Ancient Near East and Greece. In addition, she offers a popular course on the Virgin Mary. Leith is a regular Biblical Views columnist for Biblical Archaeology Review.

Notes

1. Sebastian Brock, “A Dialogue Between Joseph and Mary From the Christian Orient,” Logos: Cylchgrawn Diwinyddol Cymru (The Welsh Theological Review) 1.3 (1992), pp. 4–11.

2. Lucy-Ann Hunt, “Art and Colonialism: The Mosaics of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (1169) and the Problem of ‘Crusader Art,’” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 45 (1991), p. 72.
3. Hunt, “Art and Colonialism,” p. 77.

Further reading

Protevangelion of James (Nativity Gospel of James)

Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew

N-Town Plays

Joseph’s Doubt

Nativity: Lines 24–52 contain the Cherry Tree episode.

Qur’an

Sura 19, “Maryam”: Lines 22–34 include the palm tree episode.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on October 11, 2016.13

The post The Origins of “The Cherry Tree Carol” appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

It has been established that wherever pig bones are excavated in the land of Israel, they indicate a non-Israelite population. Pork was just not part of the Israelite diet, so the thinking went. Recent studies, however, prove this assumption problematic. Photo: Joe Ferraro, Baylor University, Courtesy of Deirdre Fulton.

Jews don’t eat pork. Every kid knows that.

Much fewer people know that the abstinence from swine’s flesh is rooted in the Biblical prohibition in Leviticus 11:7 and Deuteronomy 14:8, which means that for the ancient Israelites, pork was also off the menu.

Only specialists, however, are aware of the fact that the Biblical ban on pork consumption from the Israelite diet can be interpreted from the archaeological or (more specifically) zooarchaeological record. In short: If people didn’t eat pork, they likely didn’t raise pigs—hence the expected absence in archaeologically excavated contexts of pig bones.

Indeed, modern excavations in the southern Levant (today’s Israel, Jordan and Palestine) show remarkable scarcity or total absence of pig bones at Iron Age (1130–586 B.C.E.) sites. The only apparent exception to this pattern is the sites occupied by the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples who migrated to the southwestern Levant sometime at the dawn of the Iron Age.

This archaeological observation—supported by the Biblical prohibition—eventually led in modern scholarship to the establishment of the presence or absence of pig bones as an ethnic marker, one that would distinguish between ancient Israelites and Philistines.
Sounds reasonable, right?

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Did the Israelite diet come to include pork? Pig frequency in the archaeological record is not reliable proof of ethnic or religious identity, says BAR author Lidar Sapir-Hen. Photo: Joe Ferraro, Baylor University, Courtesy of Deirdre Fulton.

You may have heard of other clues that help ancient historians and archaeologists tell ethnic or religious groups apart. Early Christians—to name just one group—can be identified in archaeology by the type and orientation of their burials, absence of burial goods in graves, iconography employing Christian symbols or by personal names (where written records survive). To add one example from the lands of Israel, the four-room houses are typically associated with proto-Israelites.

These simple indicators prove very helpful in the absence of other, more explicit historical sources. To a degree.

Just like with the clues listed here for early Christians, there has been a growing suspicion toward the equation between pig remains and the Philistines—or, looking on the flip side, between no pigs and Israelites. As so often in scholarship, more recent research calls the long-established “truths” into question, adding to the mix new factors, such as rural vs. urban, Israel vs. Judah, nomadic vs. sedentary or even survival strategies of immigrant societies. Correlation between religious restrictions and the archaeological evidence during the Iron Age I and II appears to be far more complex an issue than we originally thought.

You can learn more about the Israelite diet, the archaeological record and ethnic diagnosis in ancient Israel by reading the full article “Pigs as an Ethnic Marker? You Are What You Eat” by Lidar Sapir-Hen in the November/December 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Craft centers in Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and ancient practices—from dining to makeup—through the Mediterranean world.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Making Sense of Kosher Laws

Biblical Bread: Baking Like the Ancient Israelites by Cynthia Shafer-Elliott

Fruit in the Bible by David Moster

The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible by David Moster

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on November 14, 2016.

The post You Are What You Eat: The Israelite Diet and Archaeology appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.