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 this […]
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 always […]
As we have learned earlier in this series, the occupations and tasks performed by men and women were many and varied. And we have also learned that because many occupations were a mixture of cottage industry and manufacturing on a larger scale, the home and field section tends to overlap with jobs in the marketplace. […]
She walked a lonely road, a water jar on her shoulder, that Samaritan woman. In the hottest part of the day she made the way, her solitary way, to the village well. Only after the others had returned to their own homes did she venture out. They did not welcome her company. No more than she, […]
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 women […]
Shepherding is one of the oldest human occupations, second only to gardening and farming. It played a crucial role in biblical times. Sheep were central to the economy and religious life of Israel. And the contribution shepherds made, though invaluable, was often overlooked or undervalued. Abel was the first in the Bible to keep sheep. […]