Food and Cooking
HONEY -
GOD had promised Israel, "a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8; 13:5; Joshua 5:6; Jeremiah 11:5). The numerous references to honey or honeycomb in GOD's Word, are proof that Israel abounded with the product of the bees. Without doubt, the Jews took care of bees in order to produce honey.31
However, many of the Scriptural citati...
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Grapes and raisins. During the months of September and October, the fresh ripe grapes are eaten along with bread as one of the principal foods. Canaan must have been a land of very fine grapes, for two of the spies brought back a great cluster of grapes on a branch carried on a staff between them, and secured from the Valley of Eshcol (Numbers 13:2...
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Olives and olive oil. Some use is made of the pickled berry of the olive, but the bulk of the fruit is used to make oil. In the Orient, olive oil usually takes the place of butter, and is largely used in cooking meals. A survey of several Scriptures will indicate how important a food olive oil was considered to be. The widow who fed Elijah said to ...
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EGGS
Sometime between the days of Elijah and the time of CHRIST the domestic fowl and the everyday use of eggs was introduced into Israel.30
There would seem to be one early Old Testament reference to what might be the egg of a hen. It is Job 6:6: "Is there any taste in the white of an egg?" We know that the use of eggs, among the Galileans aroun...
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Pomegranates. There are several varieties of sweet and sour pomegranates in the land. The juice of the sour variety is used in the absence of lemons for the purposes of that fruit. The pomegranate was greatly esteemed as a fruit in early Bible times, for it was mentioned by Moses as one of the excellencies of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8:8). Th...
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Figs. This fruit was often used in Old Testament times, especially dried figs. Abigail took two hundred cakes of figs to David (I Samuel 25:18). A cake of figs was given the Egyptian to revive him (I Samuel 30:12), and cakes of figs were brought to David at Hebron, at a time of great rejoicing (I Chronicles 12:40). [Manners And Customs of Bible Lan...
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How meat was cooked and served. The method of preparing meat has thus been described:
Roasting on a spit was perhaps the oldest way of cooking flesh, but less common among the Israelites than boiling, roast flesh being used as a rule only by the rich and better classes, as is still the case in the East.28
The servants of Eli's sons said to those ...
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MEAT
When meat was eaten and what kinds. As a rule, Bible characters, like Orientals in modern times, have not eaten meat, except on special occasions. When a stranger or guest was entertained, or when a feast was made, then meat would be served.
Kings and other wealthy men had meat often. The daily provision of meat for King Solomon's court is gi...
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THE USE OF RAW GRAIN AND PARCHED GRAIN
The eating of raw grain is a modern custom in Israel that dates back to very ancient days. (See also "eating grain in the field." Chapter 19). The Arabs today often pluck the ears of grain and rubbing them in their hands, eat them. The Mosaic Law said: "Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ...
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Kinds of bread used. Two kinds of bread were in use in the days when Bible events were being enacted: wheat bread, and barley bread. Both of these are in use in Israel today. There is this distinction between them: barley bread is used by the poorer classes, whereas if a family is able to have wheat bread, it is considered to have arrived at a plac...
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