Bible History
Bible History
Choose a Category

Manners & Customs

Family and Household in Ancient Israel

The idea "Family" in ancient Israel was a more expansive concept than our modern conception of the idea. "Family" existed at three basic levels: First, there was the bayit, or the household. This was similar to our nuclear family of parents with probably two to four children, as well as multiple generations, but it also might include debt servants,...

Read More

Canaan & Ancient Israel

Daily Life Home & Family. Education, work and leisure were concentrated in and around the home. According to the Bible, the ideal family in Ancient Israel was large and patriarchal. The extended family or beit 'av (father's house) consisted of three generations (father, married sons, grandchildren) living together. Excavated houses from the Bro...

Read More

Daily Life In Ancient Israel

As it did everywhere else in the Ancient World, an Israeli woman's life was centered in the home. For the majority this was a small wattle-and-daub or baked clay and straw brick house in a village constructed around a spring or well. There were walled towns but apart from Jerusalem these were not that much bigger. An outside staircase to a flat roo...

Read More

Jewish Education in Ancient Times

The importance of education in ancient Judaism is clearly seen in the attitude passed down in the rabbinic dictum that the world is poised on the breath of schoolchildren. Rabbinic law still obligates the father to teach his sons Torah, as well as a trade. The duty to instruct the people has its roots in the Torah with such precepts as Deuteronomy ...

Read More

History of Education in Ancient Israel and Judah

Education is defined as, "teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible, but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and well-developed wisdom. Education has as one of its fundamental aspects the imparting of culture from generation to generation (see socialization)", then first formal education can b...

Read More

Everyday Life in Ancient Israel

It is somewhat difficult for the average modern Catholic to transport himself back, in imagination, to the life of the Jewish race as it must have been lived in Old Testament times. Following the universal tendency of men to think that things must always have been as they are now in our own lives, we can only too easily think that the people of the...

Read More

Women in Ancient Israel

The Apostle Paul urged wives to obey their husbands and husbands to love their wives. This simple exhortation neatly sums up the traditional idea of the family throughout Jewish history as pictured in the Bible. The man was the head of the house and the woman was the helpmate, but they were to work together for the benefit of each: the outcome was ...

Read More

Houses of Ancient Israel

This house is representative of private houses in ancient Israel and Judah from about 1200-586 B.C.E. Such houses, called pillared houses, have been found in both urban and rural settlements. Their ground-floor plans have two or three parallel rooms, partially or completely separated by rows of pillars, extending forward from a broad room at the ba...

Read More

Burial Practices

Ancient Jewish Laws Concerning the Burial of the Dead. In ancient Israel, burial practices were a sacred tradition that reflected the significance of death in Judaism. Ancient Jewish burial practices sought to celebrate the life of the individual while commemorating the deceased's death. Death in the Jewish religion is central because it is consi...

Read More

Musical Instruments in Ancient Israel

Music permeates the culture of ancient Israel. In the Iron Age, the place of music in the life of the Israelites cannot be overestimated. The Bible is rich with references to music and the role that music played in the social, political, and religious aspects of ancient Israel. Festive choruses enriched marriage ceremonies with music and dancing, a...

Read More

61 Bible Translations

Popular Articles

Explore the Bible Like Never Before!

Bible History Online

Bible Study Tools

Top Tags