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Manners & Customs

Sheep Dogs

The use of dogs. Some shepherds make use of dogs. When dogs are possessed, they are of value in handling the flock. When traveling, the shepherd usually walks ahead, and the dogs are allowed to bring up the rear. They bark furiously at any intruder among them, and therefore warn of possible danger to the flock. When the sheep are in the fold, then ...

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Traveling with Food

Food taken by travelers. Travelers going a distance will carry food with them, which will include bread, parched grain, dried olives, dried figs, and dates. Most travelers in the East now, as in the days of JESUS, will not go any distance from home without taking barley bread or meal or parched grain sufficient to last for one or two days. When JES...

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Ship Travel Routes

Ship routes. It is important to remember that in Bible times, vessels that traveled in the Mediterranean Sea kept as close as possible to land. Thus the trade routes were along the coast or from one headland to another one. When the Apostle Paul was returning from one of his missionary journeys, he traveled by ship from Ephesus to Caesarea. His shi...

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Towers Were Part of the wall

TOWERS The Oriental city has had two types of towers located in it. First was the tower constructed as a part of the city wall. At this point the wall was built higher and served as a fortification. The approach of an enemy could be sighted from here, and weapons hurled down upon men who attempted to take the city. Almost every gate of any conseq...

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Place to Find Employment

Laborers in the market place. In the Eastern city men who want employment stand in groups in the market place, waiting for someone to hire them. It was here that the man in the parable of JESUS went to secure workmen for his vineyard. "And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market place, and said unto them; Go ye ...

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Bull Calves

Bull calves were often used in Bible times for meat. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]...

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Watering Camels

The process of watering the camels. Genesis tells how Rebekah watered the camels of Abraham's servant: "And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels" (Genesis 24:20). The Bedouin Arab of the desert do not water their camels at all in winter if their grazing is good. ...

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Camels and Burdens

The camel as a beast of burden. Through the centuries the camel has been used for carrying burdens. In the Bible, "forty camels' burden," is referred to in one passage (II Kings 8:9); and in another, bread was carried on "asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen" (I Chronicles 12:40). In still another, treasures were to be carried on the hum...

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Solomon and Horses

King Solomon's excessive use of horses. He disregarded the Law of Moses, and began to import great numbers of horses and chariots from the land of Egypt. "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt . . . and a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty" (I Kings 10:28, 29). He had...

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Modes of Travel

Methods of travel. Traveling is sometimes done on foot, but more often on the backs of horses, mules, or donkeys, and when traveling in the desert, camels are mostly used. In order to avoid the intense heat, and to escape detection by robber tribes, traveling is often done by night. The guide will get his direction from the stars. Summer is the usu...

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