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Manners & Customs

Washing the Hands

WASHING OF HANDS BEFORE EATING Orientals are careful to wash their hands before a meal, but they would think that the Occidental way of washing in the water already made dirty by the hands, to be very untidy and disgraceful. The servant or whoever takes his place, pours water on the hands to be washed as they are held over a basin. Often the basin...

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Expensive Banquets

Special Suppers and Banquets SINCE THE DAILY MENU of the ordinary Oriental meal is and always has been very simple, something needs to be said about those special occasions when a more elaborate and expensive meal is served. The Scriptures abound in accounts of these formal occasions, such as weddings, birthdays, or other times when special guests...

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Giving the Sop

Again, CHRIST's giving of the "sop" to Judas was in accordance with certain Eastern custom still observed in modern times. John reports what was done and said: "He then lying on Jesus' breast said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Ju...

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Greeting a Guest

Greeting. Upon entering an Arab house or a Bedouin tent, the greetings used are something like this: The host will say: "Salam alakum" which means, "Peace be on you." The guest will respond with the words: 'Wa alakum es-salam," meaning, "And on you, peace." Knowing that these Arabic customs date back for centuries, how significant then are the ins...

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Styles of Clothing

Dress and Ornamentation THE STYLES OF DRESS in Anglo-Saxon lands are undergoing a constant change, whereas, in Eastern countries, the manner of dress today is largely the same as it was centuries ago. There is a prevalent view in Bible lands that it is morally wrong to change anything that is ancient. Thus the prevailing Palestinian dress of moder...

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Never Leave the Guest Alone

Privacy not expected by the guest. An Oriental guest would think he was ill-treated if he were left alone at any time. He does not need privacy at night, because he sleeps with his clothes on. He is happy to have others sleep with him. If a sleeping place is assigned to him in an upper room, then some of the family sons sleep alongside of him that ...

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Weaving Clothes with the Spindle

WEAVING CLOTH AND MAKING CLOTHES The Jewish women were responsible for making the clothing for the family. The wool which was used came from their flocks. It had to be spun into yarn without the use of modern spinning wheels. Concerning this process, the Book of Proverbs in its tribute to the ideal mother, describes it thus: "She layeth her hands ...

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Cooking Meat

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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Cutting Bread

To cut bread would be thought of as cutting life itself. This custom of breaking bread rather than cutting it, is found throughout the Scriptures. In Lamentations 4:4 we read: "The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them." Thus the expression "breaking of bread" came to mean the taking of a meal whatever was included in the meal....

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Eating Posture

POSITION WHILE EATING According to general Arabic custom, the seemly posture while eating is "to sit erect on the floor at the low table, with the legs either folded under the body, or thrown back as in, the act of kneeling. Thus in the desert tent of the Bedouin, or in the simple house of the Fellahin, this would be the position of those eating a...

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