What Did People Eat? · Part 2 · 1:11
No Spoons? The Shared Bowl
No spoons, no forks. In first-century Galilee you tore your bread and scooped. Here is what went in the bowl: lentils, a pot from Kefar Hananya, a stone mug for…
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1Talk about it
- How is eating from one bowl different from having your own plate?
- At the Last Supper, Jesus shared a bowl with his friends. What does that tell you about them?
- Who do you share meals with?
Want the background? Read “What Did Jesus Eat? Food in Jesus's Day”
Read the transcript
At the Last Supper, Jesus says the one who'll betray him is "dipping bread into the bowl with me." To feel how close that is, sit down to dinner in Galilee.
You're on the floor around one big pot of lentil stew. It probably came from Kefar Hananya, the village that made most of Galilee's cooking pots.
Nobody hands you a plate. You tear off some bread and scoop. The bread is your spoon.
But first, Uncle Eli checks your hands. Mark's Gospel says many Jews washed their hands before every meal, and Eli takes this very seriously. You wash them again, just to be safe.
He sips from a stone mug, not a clay one. Stone was thought not to become ritually impure, so lots of Jewish families used stone cups and bowls.
Then Yoni drops a snack in front of you: a bowl of locusts. Some locusts were kosher, and the rabbis had a checklist. Four legs, four wings, two jumping legs. John the Baptist lived on locusts and wild honey. You count the legs. Twice.
Then everyone reaches into the same bowl. Your hand, Eli's hand, Yoni's hand. Sharing one bowl is about as close as a meal gets. You do it with family, and with friends you trust.
So when Jesus says the betrayer is dipping into the bowl with him, he isn't talking about a stranger. He means someone sitting right where you're sitting. So read it again, slowly.
