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Manners & Customs

Ancient Merchants

MERCHANTS T he merchant's place of business. In the Oriental city or village, the market place is an important place for the doing of business. It is not always located in the same place. It may be near the city gates, or it may be in the open streets of the town. The market is not always in operation in some districts, but is open for business wh...

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Tax Collection Under Turkish Rule

Tax collection under the Turkish government. In the days when the Turkish government controlled Israel, a system of farming out import and export duties, excise taxes, and government produce tithes, was in force. A company would guarantee the government a certain sum for a tax, and then, having the monopoly of this, would charge the public enough t...

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Ostraca

In ancient times when parchment was so expensive to possess, peasants would use fragments of pottery on which to scratch memoranda of business transactions. Many of these have been uncovered by archaeologists, and have proven to be of great value in revealing past history. They are called "ostraca." [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]...

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Hunters Used Spears, Slings, Arrows, and Traps

When the pitfall or net was not used, then the hunter made use of one of the following methods: the arrows, slingstones, the spear or the dart. All of these are referred to in the LORD's message to the patriarch Job: "The arrow cannot make him flee: the slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the ...

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Night Fishing

Fishing at night. Galilee fishermen often have fished at night. They light their way with a blazing torch, and sighting fish they let fly their fishing spear, or fling their net into the sea. But sometimes they fish all night with no results, as was the case with Simon Peter and his comrades. "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken no...

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Coppersmiths

Coppersmiths. Moses described the land of Canaan as being "a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass [copper]" (Deuteronomy 8:9). Deposits of copper and iron have been discovered along the length of Wadi Araba which leads to the Gulf of Akaba. An excavation at Tel el Kheleifeh, which is the site of ancient Ezion-geb...

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Buying and Selling

Oriental buying and selling. This is quite different from purchasing in the West. No fixed price is put upon whatever is to be sold. Ordinarily the buyer must expect to spend from a few minutes to an hour or so to complete a purchase. The merchant begins by asking a high price and the buyer by offering a low price. Then the bargaining continues in ...

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Tax Collectors for Rome

Tax collection under the Roman Empire. A somewhat similar system to the Turkish system was in operation in the Roman Empire in New Testament times. The office of publican, or tax collector, was in itself legitimate enough, as it was necessary to have government taxes, and important to collect them. But there was resentment on the part of the Jews a...

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Hunters in Scripture

HUNTERS Nimrod the first hunter recorded by Scripture. He was called "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Genesis 10:9). Of Ishmael it is said that he "dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer" (Genesis 21:20). Esau was "a cunning hunter" (Genesis 25:27). Isaac said to Esau, "Take, I pray thee; thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to...

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Wild Animals

Hide-outs for wild animals. Israel and Syria have their hide-outs for wild animals and fowl. Wild beasts have lived in the wild parts of the Lebanon Mountains to the north of the Holy Land through the years, but this was more the source of these animals for Syria rather than for the main part of Israel itself. The marshes immediately north of Lake ...

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