Food and drink
Bread
Hebrew lechem · Greek artos · the food named most often in the Bible
Bread was eaten at almost every meal, and the Hebrew word lechem could mean food in general. Most families made their own. Every day grain was ground between two millstones — hard work done kneeling, usually by women and servant girls (Exodus 11:5). Water was added and the dough kneaded in a wooden trough. To make it rise, a piece of old, fermented dough was mixed in; in a hurry, as on the night of the Exodus, the bread was baked unleavened (Exodus 12:34).
Flat cakes were baked on hot stones, on an iron griddle, or pressed against the inside wall of a small clay oven heated with wood, dried grass or dung; they were ready in minutes. Bread of fine wheat flour was for guests and the rich, and barley bread for the poor. Loaves were broken by hand, not cut. Jerusalem had a street of bakers, and the imprisoned Jeremiah received a loaf from it every day (Jeremiah 37:21).
Key verses
So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.”So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Bread; Food and Food Preparation: Grain Crops
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
