VILLAGE LIFE IN CANAAN
The farmers of ancient Canaan all lived in villages. No farmer would
have dreamed of building an isolated house for his family on his own
field out of sight of his nearest neighbor as our American farmers do.
The danger from robbers would have been too great. Instead of that,
the Hebrew farmer lived in the nearest village or town. Early in the
morning he went out to his field, and in the evening returned to his
home inside the protecting village walls.
These ancient villages would have seemed to us most unattractive
places. The houses were crowded close together. The streets were only
narrow crooked lanes between the houses. In the rear room of each
house were the stalls of the family ox and ass. The brays of the ass
were the alarm clock in the early morning. There was no drainage.
Garbage was thrown into the street. There were smells of all
varieties. One is not surprised by the frequent stories of pestilences
in the Old-Testament history.
=Compensations of village life.=--It seems strange that people who
were accustomed to life in the open desert should have ever brought
themselves to settle down in these dirty, ill-smelling places. Surely,
at first they must often have been homesick for the clean, pure air of
the plains. On the other hand, probably most of them were willing to
put up with the disagreeable odors and the dirty streets for the sake
of being near other people. The desert was lonesome. In the village
there was always something going on, something to hear and see, gossip
of weddings and courtships and quarrels. Even to-day we find it hard
to persuade those who are accustomed to the city to live in the
country. Even though their city home may be a dark tenement in the
slums, yet they enjoy being in a crowd of their fellow men. The
country seems lonesome.
LESSONS IN HOUSE BUILDING
This village and town life, like the work on the farm, was a new
school for the Hebrew shepherds, and set many an interesting problem
for them to solve. They had to learn to build and repair houses. They
were most often built of rough stones set in mud. The mud, when dry,
became fairly hard, but not like mortar or cement. It was always easy
for a thief "to dig through and steal," as Jesus so graphically
described. Even though no thief came the dried mud was always
crumbling, leaving holes between the stones through which snakes or
lizards could crawl. In such a house, if a man should lean against the
wall, it might easily happen that a serpent would bite him, as the
prophet Amos suggests.[3]
=Primitive Homes.=--The floor of the average poor man's house was
simply the hard ground. The flat roof was made of poles thatched with
straw or brushwood and covered over with mud or clay. There was seldom
more than one room. Often there were no windows; even in the palaces
of kings there were in those days no windows of glass. In one corner
of the room there was a fireplace where the family cooking was done.
There was no chimney, however, and the smoke had to go out through the
open door. The door itself was generally fastened to a post, the
lower end of which turned in a hollow socket in a heavy stone. When
the family went away from home the door was locked with a huge wooden
key, which was carried, not in the pocket, like our keys, but over the
shoulder. Such keys had this advantage, at any rate, over ours. You
could not very well lose them and you did not need a key ring.
=Houses of the well-to-do.=--Rich men's houses were, of course, more
substantially and comfortably built. Real mortar made of lime was used
in the walls. There were several rooms, including perhaps a cool
"summer house" on the roof, making a kind of second story. One climbed
up to these upper rooms by a ladder on the outside. The roof was
solidly built and surrounded by a railing, so that on a hot summer
evening the family could sit there and enjoy the cool evening breeze.
There were windows also, covered with wooden lattice work, which let
in light and air.
No doubt every Hebrew father hoped that some day he or his children
might live in such a house. Some of them learned the builder's trade
and were able to lay stones in mortar and to use saws and axes and
nails and other tools for woodwork. Yet when David built his palace,
he had to send to Tyre for skilled masons. Evidently in his day the
Hebrews had not progressed very far in the manual training department
of their new school.
OTHER VILLAGE ARTS AND CRAFTS
Many trades, which with us are carried on in separate shops, were a
part of the household work among the ancient Hebrews: for example,
spinning and weaving and the making of baskets, of shoes, girdles,
and other articles of skin or leather. We will study some of these
household activities in another chapter. Other trades, however, even
in the early days, were carried on by special artisans who worked at
nothing else.
=Trained artisans.=--Metal workers, for example, formed a special
trade. Among the excavations of ancient Canaanite cities have been
found the ruins of a blacksmith shop. When the Hebrews entered Canaan
no one had as yet learned the art of working in iron and steel by
means of a forge with a forced draft. All tools and metal implements,
such as plowshares, knives, axes, saws, and so on, were made of
bronze, which consists of copper mixed and hardened with tin. The
blacksmith melted the metals in a very simple and rough furnace of
clay heated by charcoal. The bronze itself, although harder than
copper, could be worked into the desired shape by hammering and
filing, without the use of heat. We who are used to our sharp, finely
tempered tools of steel would certainly have found these clumsy bronze
affairs most unsatisfactory.
=The pottery shop.=--Another very ancient trade is that of the potter.
This worker did not need much of a shop; only an oven in which to fire
his products, a pile of clay, and a wheel. This consisted of a frame,
in which turned an upright rod on which were two flat wooden wheels,
one small at about the height of the worker's hands as he sat in front
of it, and the other larger, to be turned by the feet. A heap of clay
was placed on the upper wheel, which was then turned by the revolving
rod, the potter's feet all the time kicking on the larger wheel below.
The whirling mass was shaped by the fingers, according to the plan in
the worker's mind.
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| [Illustration: MODERN ARAB WOMAN SPINNING] |
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| [Illustration: ANCIENT HEBREW DOOR KEY] |
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| [Illustration: HEBREW NEEDLES OF BONE] |
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| [Illustration: SMALLER KEY] |
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| Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |
| Fund. |
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How quickly a modern boy would have contrived a different arrangement,
with a belt and foot-tread like the one on our mother's sewing
machine! But for those days the ancient wheel was ingenious. Many
different kinds of Hebrew pottery are found in the excavations: large
jars, small cups, lamps of all sizes and shapes and even babies'
rattles.
=How Hebrew boys learned a trade.=--The youngsters from the desert had
never seen any of these interesting crafts, except perhaps now and
then when their fathers had brought them with the wool to market. But
now, on a rainy day when there was no work to be done in the field or
at home, the boys would go down the street to the blacksmith shop, or
to the shed where the old Canaanite potter worked his clay. One of the
older boys would say, "Let me see if I can make something," and if the
old man was good-natured he would let him try and perhaps would teach
him some of the tricks of the trade. By and by the boy would hire out
as a potter's helper and in a year or two would set up a little
pottery of his own.
So there came to be Hebrew as well as Canaanite potters and
blacksmiths. They were proud of their skill in these arts, and as a
nation they never were foolish enough to look down on them or to
despise those who practiced them. All work was looked on as honorable.
The apostle Paul was a tent-maker. Jesus was a carpenter. And in this
respect for honest and useful work we may see another reason why the
people of Israel have played so remarkable a part in the life of
humanity.
STUDY TOPICS
1. Explain the following Scripture passage in the light of the
customs described in this chapter. Isaiah 22. 22; Deuteronomy 22. 8.
2. In earlier chapters we have seen how the Hebrew leaders drew
lessons about God from shepherd life (Psalm 23), and from farm life
(Isaiah 5. 1-7). What lesson did a great prophet learn in regard to
God from the experiences of an artisan? (Jeremiah 18. 1-6.)
3. Why was it necessary to build a tower in a Canaanite vineyard, as
suggested in Isaiah 5. 2 and Mark 12. 1?
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Amos 5. 19.