What Did Jesus Eat? Food in Jesus's Day

If you could sit down at a family meal in Nazareth or Capernaum around the time of Jesus, the first thing you'd notice is the bread. There would be a lot of it.

Bread, and more bread

Bread was the main food in Jesus's world. Food historians estimate it made up somewhere between half and three-quarters of what an ordinary person ate. When the Lord's Prayer asks for "our daily bread," it is asking for the thing that kept a family alive.

Loaves were small, round and flat. A family ground grain into flour on a stone, mixed the dough, and baked it in a tannur: a clay oven about a meter high, shaped like a beehive, with a fire burning in the bottom. The baker slapped flat dough onto the hot inside wall, and in a few minutes it was done.

There were two main grains. Wheat made the better bread. Barley was cheaper, and it was what poorer families relied on. That's why it matters that John's Gospel says the boy who shared his lunch had "five barley loaves and two fish" (John 6:9). It was an ordinary, humble lunch.

What went with the bread

Bread was eaten with whatever a family could add to it:

• Pulses: lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas, often cooked into a thick stew.
• Vegetables: cabbage, turnips, leeks, onions and garlic.
• Olive oil: for dipping, cooking and lamps.
• Fruit: figs and grapes were the everyday fruits, eaten fresh or dried for winter. Dates and pomegranates were eaten less often.
• Eggs, and a little cheese.
• Flavor: salt, plus herbs and seeds such as dill, cumin and mustard. Honey was the main sweetener.

People often ate from a shared bowl, using bread as a scoop. At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks of "one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me" (Mark 14:20).

Fish from the lake

Jesus spent much of his ministry around the Sea of Galilee, where fishing was a big business. Fish were eaten fresh by the lake and salted, dried or pickled so they could travel inland. The Gospels are full of fish: the five thousand fed with loaves and fish, and the breakfast the risen Jesus cooked for his disciples on a charcoal fire by the shore (John 21:9).

Meat was for feasts

Meat was expensive, so most ordinary families ate it only at feasts and holidays. That's why, in Jesus's story of the lost son, killing "the fatted calf" (Luke 15:23) signals a huge celebration.

Archaeology backs up the Jewish food laws of the time. At Capernaum, the lakeside town Jesus made his base, excavators found no pig bones and no bones from fish without scales, unlike nearby non-Jewish towns. A study of a first-century Jerusalem rubbish dump found mostly sheep and goat bones, and no pig at all.

When did people eat?

Later Jewish writings (written down a few centuries after Jesus) describe the usual first meal of the day coming at about the "fourth hour," around 10 in the morning, after work had already started. The main meal came later in the day. It's a good reminder that breakfast at 7am is a modern habit.

Wine and special days

Wine was served at weddings and festivals, but it was mostly a drink for better-off households. At an ordinary village wedding, running out of wine would have been a real embarrassment for the family, which is exactly what happens at the wedding in Cana in John 2.

How to use this with kids

• Put out a small "Jesus's day" snack: pita, olive oil for dipping, a few figs or raisins, and hummus (chickpeas). Ask kids what's missing from their usual lunch.
• Teach the Bread of Life object lesson and hand out the Bread Day coloring page.
• Try the Jesus's day quiz as an opener.