culture & customs – Signora Sheila

Taxation in Bible Times

Historical market objects on a woven mat: counting board, coins, leather pouches, pottery jars, rolled scrolls, and rustic tools evoke trade.

Poll tax, salt tax, and crown tax! Wherever they went, along major highways, at city gates, or along quiet country roads, the Israelites encountered the tax booth. The main symbol of foreign domination, and that which most stirred their indignation. Foreign taxation was nothing new to them, but the unscrupulous dealings of the Roman tax-farmers andContinueContinue reading “Taxation in Bible Times”

Bible Occupations: Service-Related

Historical reenactment shows robed scribes writing with quills on parchment at a wooden table, with ink pots and tools, conveying focused biblical legal records.

Most service-related occupations were carried out in the marketplace. An important place in the life of Oriental communities for conducting business, and more. As we have learned in the other posts of this series, the marketplace also served as a meeting place, a kind of employment office, and even as a preliminary court. In thisContinueContinue reading “Bible Occupations: Service-Related”

Bible Occupations: Home and Field

A farmer guides two yoked oxen through a dry, freshly plowed field with a stick, creating a rustic, hardworking rural scene under hazy skies.

Work and vocation, as instituted by God, are good. Scripture opens with God at work, creating the entire world and giving man and woman their first occupations: farming and homemaking. He set them to care for the earth, work for their own living, and make or grow what they needed. And although ancient Israel alwaysContinueContinue reading “Bible Occupations: Home and Field”

The Role of Women in Bible Times

Three women in colorful traditional robes and headscarves sit together against a stone wall, smiling warmly at the camera.

In most ancient cultures women were accorded a low status in society, sometimes even lower than animals. Even the great Greek philosophers, with their vast culture, considered them inherently inferior creatures. Aristotle once said, “Woman may be said to be an inferior to man.” Jewish Scriptures elevated woman’s status. But the Hebrew Scriptures valued womenContinueContinue reading “The Role of Women in Bible Times”

The Importance of Fishing in Bible Times

Bearded biblical man raises a hand beside a towering wire-mesh fish sculpture on a lakeshore, with blue water, mountains, and sky behind him.

Fishing and fishermen form an important element in the New Testament narrative. Most of Christ’s earthly ministry centered around the Sea of Galilee. It is where he imparted most of his parables and performed all of his miracles, and 4 of the 12 apostles were fishermen. Old Testament fishing Bible scholars believe, however, that fewContinueContinue reading “The Importance of Fishing in Bible Times”

Inns and Hospitality in Bible Times

People in robes gather outside rough stone shelters, with a donkey, clay jars, and a mountain canyon creating a biblical, rustic scene.

We can only imagine Joseph’s dismay when he found no room in Bethlehem. They ha to sleep in the stable, and with a baby on the way! It But iwas not because the famous infamous innkeeper, anonymous and always maligned, was inhospitable. It was because every home and inn was full. In Jewish culture, it wouldContinueContinue reading “Inns and Hospitality in Bible Times”