HOUSING
- In Palestine in the time of Jesus, houses were made of clay bricks or stones held together with mud and straw, and had dirt floors.
- You average family lived in one-room, two-level dwellings with living quarters separated from and raised above the animal stalls. Jewish extended families often lived together.
- The poor lived in one-room houses built of mud brick on a stone foundation. External steps led up to the flat roof which provided storage space and somewhere to sit. Inside the house a raised platform at one end of the room provided quarters for eating and sleeping. The lower level was used mainly as a stable.
- Some items in the house included a table, a spinning wheel, wooden bowls, an olive oil lamp.
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OCCUPATIONS
- Men’s jobs were typically farmers, craftsmen, or fishermen
- Women learned cooking and household duties. Women memorized scripture, but it was forbidden for them to read or write.
- The more fortunate would have been taught a trade by their father—as Jesus himself seems to have been.
- Many of those without a steady job would have been casual labourers whose day's wage depended on the whim of those who hired a group of workers each morning.
- Some individuals were therefore reduced to a life of begging or even slavery.
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FOOD
- The range of food was much more limited in New Testament times than it is today.
- Seasonal vegetables (e.g. beans, onions, lentils, leeks, cucumbers), flavoured with herbs and salt, and bread (made from wheat or barley flour) provided the basis of a staple diet.
- There would also have been fruit (though not the citrus fruits for which Palestine is known today), together with nuts, honey and cheese.
- Fish were plentiful, especially around Galilee, and could be preserved by drying and salting.
- Meat would have been something of a luxury.
- For the Jews, there were strict regulations about which animals could be eaten and which were regarded as 'unclean'.
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CLOTHING
- Clothing in the first century was much simpler than it is in our lands today. Most garments were made from wool, though linen was also used (made from flax grown in the Jericho area or imported from Egypt).
- Both men and women would normally wear an ankle-length tunic next to the skin, often held at the waist by a belt (which could also be used as a purse). A cloak could be worn over this, especially at night or if the weather was cool during the day.
- Jewish law required the cloak to have tassels attached to its four corners. Each tassel was to include a blue cord and was intended as a way of helping people to remember to keep God's Law.
- For special occasions, a long flowing garment known as the 'stole' was worn.
- If shoes were worn at all, they would generally have been leather (or perhaps wooden) sandals.
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LANGUAGE
- The languages spoken were:
- - Aramaic, the common, daily language
- - Hebrew, the language used for prayer and
- - Greek, the language of the land
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RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Although life was hard for the ordinary people of Jesus' day, it had its lighter moments. Feasting, singing, story-telling and dancing all had their place as recreational activities. Games, both indoor and outdoor, were also popular. Archaeologists have discovered a number of gaming boards with playing pieces, one particularly well-preserved example coming from what may well have been the Roman garrison in Jerusalem where Jesus was tried before Pilate.
