Below you will find a 14-minute collage of 3 clips. Speaking are Justin Peters, Paul Washer, and Gabe Hughes of WWUTT. In different ways, all three men explain from the Bible that modern Apostles don’t exist today. The Bible does talk about ‘apostle’, lower case ‘a’, which means “sent”. Anyone who is “sent” is technically an apostle, as in church planter, evangelist, missionary, etc. But the office of Apostle, capital ‘A’, as described in the Bible, is closed to newcomers. When Apostle John died in 90AD, the final Apostle died, closing that office with it.
The past 2 entries in this 4-part series have discussed both the current Christian milieu of how people seem to view singles in church, and looks at what the Bible says about marriage vs singleness.
Today let’s finish a discussion on how the church views singles before moving tomorrow to famous biblical singles.
It’s often other believers who seem discontent for the content single, a concern that deepens the more the contented single asserts his or her state of unmarried peace. Jesus spoke acceptance of singleness in Matthew 19:12.
For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.
Here, Jesus classifies the 3 kinds of single/celibate persons. There is the one who was born with congenital deformities or other diseases which make marital relations impossible and conceiving children nonviable. Others have been made that way by men. In the Bible times, men were purposely castrated if they were destined to work in a harem, for instance, or as a court administrator, as we read in 2 Kings 20:18, Esther 2:3, or Acts 8:27. The Lord’s care for those who were born or made eunuchs was stated in Isaiah 56:3b-5, where God welcomes all believers, without distinction of persons, under the new economy of salvation-
and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56:3b-5)
dry tree—barren (compare Lu 23:31); not admissible into the congregation of Israel (De 23:1–3).(Source: Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Commentary)
How comforting God is when announcing that those who are not by their own choice unmarried, childless, celibate eunuchs will be given a monument and a name. Their marital and family status were a lament to them but they still sought God’s glory and chose the things that pleased Him. What comfort and care He gives to the person who is made eunuch through no act of their own. What a Godly example given to show that no matter what the physical state of a person or their marital status, one can and should seek the things that please the LORD.
MacArthur explains in his commentary,
Unlike the other two forms, this one is not physical…Jesus is speaking of voluntary celibacy of those to whom the gift has been granted by God (v. 11). In that case, celibacy should be used for the sake of the kingdom of God and be pleasing to Him and used by Him. Paul had the gift of celibacy and strongly exhorted others who had the gift to be content with it and use its obvious advantages for Gods glory. (1 Corinthians 7:32-34).
You may have noticed I shifted from discussing divinely given permanent singleness to the topic of celibacy. That is because the two are entwined. One cannot be without the other. If you are single, you are to be celibate. Outside of marriage, celibacy is a mandate from God. We are NOT to be fornicators. (1 Corinthians 6:9, Hebrews 13:4, 1 Corinthians 5:9, 1 Timothy 1:10, 1 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 21:8). Whether young or old, virgin or widowed or divorced, we are to be chaste. (1 Timothy 2:2, 1 Timothy 5:2, 1 Timothy 4:12, Galatians 5:23, 2 Corinthians 6:6
God provides. God sustains. If He gives to some the gift of singleness, would He not also provide the strength to refrain from lust and remain chaste for His name? MacArthur’s commentary again,
Although celibacy us good for Christians who are not married, it is a gift from God that is not given to every believer. Just as it is wrong to misuse a gift we have, it is wrong to try to use a gift we do not have. For a person who does not have the gift of celibacy, trying to practice it brings moral and spiritual frustration. But for those who have it as God’s gift, singleness, like all His gifts, brings great blessing.
Both Jesus and Paul make it clear that the celibate life is not required by God for all believers and that it can be satisfactorily lived only by those to whom God has given it.
Married brethren are rearing children for His name and leading and teaching us, so their kingdom work is equally valuable as mine or anybody else’s! We are a body, each formed uniquely as a snowflake, spiritually given gifts in unique hues to benefit each other and most importantly, Jesus, and this gift also includes the fewer who are gifted to remain single for His name.
God’s care for the celibate, permanent single is obvious from scripture. Singles of any kind are not second class citizens, nor are they in a waiting room for marriage (read: maturity and acceptance). Jesus does not look at us that way and nor should the church. Celebrate His diversity in installing people in the Body from all demographics to labor for His good and glory.
In Matthew 9 there is a passage with a mention of mourners.
Professional mourner was a job in ancient Palestine. In our culture we are self-contained. We don’t sob at the Wake or the Memorial. We try to keep a stiff upper lip and contain our tears when attending funerals. A dainty dab at the edge of the eyes might be seen.
In ancient Israel, it was considered acceptable, even required, to sob loudly, wail, and express one’s self with high emotion upon the occasion of a death. Professional mourners were brought in to help create an atmosphere of bereavement, and they didn’t hold back.
Mourning: The practice of grieving through crying and vocalization, most typically for the loss of someone.
Family members’ mourning typically involved sitting on the ground and trembling, tearing one’s clothes, putting ashes on one’s head, wearing sackcloth, or walking barefoot. Family members on a rotating basis would stay with the body so it was not left unaccompanied. Burial was rapid, as embalming was not a customary practice among Jews.
Until burial, though, during the grieving period, “To enhance the atmosphere of grief professional women mourners would be invited (Jer. 9:17).” Negev, A. (1990). In The Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land.
Professional mourners were usually women, who tend to express emotions more easily and was more socially acceptable for that gender. Professional mourning was actually an acceptable job for a woman in ancient Israel. It was a good way to make money if a woman needed to. The more professional mourners there were the wealthier a family was seen to be. Hired mourners helped the family through their grief and offered comfort.
And when Jesus came into the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder, (Matthew 9:23).
The word in the verse, ‘disorder’ is from the Greek thorubeó and it means “to make an uproar”.
Their job was to make a clamor. They wailed, lamented, chanted praises in death songs, played instruments. You can imagine the noise with all this lamentation, crying, flute-playing, plus the regular noise any crowd makes as people talk, cry, and move about.
“These mourners are neither somber nor reserved. “Commotion” is from the Greek root word thorubos which means noise, clamor, and public disorder. “Wailing” is from the Greek root word alalazo. It’s the “alala” sound soldiers made when rushing into battle, similar to what is referred to as ululation.” Source: BibleRef.com.
Jeremiah 9:17 mentions professional mourners, one of many places in the Bible that mentions this job: “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Carefully consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the skillful women, that they may come!“
The amount of time spent mourning for the dead varied in the Bible from person to person. Jacob was mourned seventy days (Genesis 50:3); Aaron (Numbers 20:29) and Moses (Deuteronomy 34:8) were mourned thirty days; and for Saul only seven days (1 Samuel 31:13). In 2 Samuel 3:31-35, we have a description of the great mourning for the death of Abner. (Source Christians Answers).
Also Amos 5:16, Mark 5:38 mention professional women who mourn on behalf of a family. Professional mourning as a job was quite common, very normal. Here is a short Youtube clip of some professional mourners in Sardinia, filmed in 1963. This gives you an idea of the ‘clamor and disorder’ mentioned in the Matthew verse above:
Professional Mourners of Sardinia, from “Women of the World”. Filmed around 1963, from the Italian documentary “La Donna Nel Mundo” and is narrated in English by Peter Ustinov. Clip is 1:55. Sardinia is a large Island of Italy in the Mediterranean sea and north of Tunisia.
It also gives rise to a question in my mind. Death came frequently in ancient Israel. Sickness and tragedy were common. In the clip, it was stated that this group of professional mourners left their hired place of mourning at 4:00 am so as to attend another mourning job in a different village. What was it like to spend one’s days crying and lamenting? Was it hard to work up tears after a while? Or easier? Did their natural outlook become depressed and gloomy, since their entire professional career was to express sadness and grief? Did it take a toll on the emotions of the woman?
In any case, the custom of professional mourning women was a thriving job for these women who chose it. It was a job for which there would always be a need.
I long for the day when death will be no more! No more wailing, crying, no more funerals, no more professional mourning industry! What a day that will be.
Funeral passing by below our hotel room, Elba, Italy
Fun fact: the name for professional mourners is moirologists
Satan convinced a third of the angels to follow him and not God. How? He spoke. His tongue seemed like it was a quicksilver miracle speaking truth and beauty. But it was actually a serpent tongue speaking lies and corruption.
That is the second instance in the Bible of how powerful the tongue is. (The first is God Himself speaking the universe into existence, but humans do not have that power). We see the fall of Lucifer was caused by his tongue in Ezekiel 28:16, 18 where satan’s evil beginnings are recounted. He turned from his beautiful, righteous self to a person of corruption and profaneness:
“By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned;” (Ezekiel 28:16).
“By the multitude of your wrongdoings, In the unrighteousness of your trade You profaned your sanctuaries.” (Ezekiel 28:18).
What is this ‘trade’ spoken of? Other translations say “merchandise.” Was satan running a store? He had items to sell? No, obviously.
“One of the elements of Satan’s sin was his widespread dishonest trade. The word for trade comes from the verb rāḵal which means “to go about from one to another.” Source- The Bible Knowledge Commentary.
He wasn’t trading hard goods. Satan was trading suggestions, gossip, and slander. His very name of Lucifer changed to a title, devil, which means slanderer. He is called an accuser in Revelation 12:10.
The Bible warns against sins of the tongue many times. God hates slander, lies, and gossip. This sin is even in one of the Ten Commandments! Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, says Exodus 20:16.
When my Sunday School class was going through Esther, I learned much. One of the notes I took was the difference in speech between Esther, Haman, and Xerxes (Ahasuerus). King Xerxes was known for being rash, mercurial, and inconstant. These qualities were also part of his speech as well. He rashly made a decree at the urging of his serpent-tongued right hand man Haman, to kill all the Jews. Haman also used his tongue unwisely. He grumbled and complained to his wife and friends, he bore false witness against Mordecai, he gossiped and slandered intemperately.
In contrast, Esther held her peace. She considered what to say and when to say it. She listened more than spoke. Esther listened to the advice of Mordecai (Esther 2:10; 20), to the King’s eunuch Hegai and his advice (Esther 2:15), and to King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) (Esther 4:10). When she did speak, her words carried the gravity of God with them.
Queen Esther, by Andrea del Castagno (1420–1457). Public Domain
Speaking quickly often carries with it the layer of our flesh and its desires. That’s when we get into trouble with our tongue. We are warned to speak less than we listen. Listening then speaking deliberately more often carries with it the words and desires of God.
Jesus listened to sinners for the same reason that He spoke to them: because He loved them (Mark 10:21). He conversed even with those who were seeking to kill Him, and even to them He said, “I say these things so that you may be saved” (John 5:34). Jesus did not listen to the musings or even the accusations of sinners in order to quickly formulate a rebuttal that would “put them in their place.” Rather, He listened to them in order to engage them with the good news of His love so they could be saved (John 3:17). Thus, when we grow as good listeners, we are not only reflecting God’s image; we are reaching out with God’s love. From TableTalk Magazine, September 2019.
Even when Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple, He was not speaking rashly. He stopped and made a cord whip first, (John 2:15) thus acting deliberately and considering what His Father would have Jesus say.
We should model our speech after Jesus, who listened first, then spoke words of God to the listeners.
Many people start off in their salvific walk with God well, but end badly. I don’t mean ones like Judas or Demas, who were always bad but hid it well until the end. I mean genuinely faithful men whom the LORD loved, but strayed from the path of righteousness and ended badly. Let’s take a look at the #1 object lesson in this sad state of affairs, King Solomon.
“But King Solomon loved many strange women — Solomon’s extraordinary gift of wisdom was not sufficient to preserve him from falling into grievous and fatal errors. A fairer promise of true greatness, a more beautiful picture of juvenile piety, never was seen than that which he exhibited at the commencement of his reign. No sadder, more humiliating, or awful spectacle can be imagined than the besotted apostasy of his old age; and to him may be applied the words of Paul (Ga 3:3), of John (Re 3:17), and of Isaiah (Isa 14:21). A love of the world, a ceaseless round of pleasure, had insensibly corrupted his heart, and produced, for a while at least, a state of mental darkness. The grace of God deserted him; and the son of the pious David — the religiously trained child of Bath-sheba (Pr 31:1-3), and pupil of Nathan, instead of showing the stability of sound principle and mature experience became at last an old and foolish king (Ec 4:13). His fall is traced to his “love of many strange women.”source (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible — Robert Jamieson at Biblehub)
It would seem that Peter started off well and it seemed his ending was a sad state of affairs. He closely followed Jesus in Jesus’ incarnation for years, was the leader of the group, was the first to say the right things (and sometimes the wrong things, but for the right reasons). But when Jesus was crucified, at the moment when Peter needed to pull together all his strength, he denied Christ.
But that was not the end! It was the beginning! The difference came when the disciples received the Holy Spirit, including Peter. He was endowed with superhuman knowledge and a tongue to preach praises to God in a sermon that stands forever. He became bold, wise, and earnest.
Solomon did not have the benefit of an indwelling Holy Spirit. He had direct access to God. God visited Solomon in dreams, but for daily holy help in resisting sin, following God’s statutes, Solomon relied on his flesh. And we know how that turned out.
We have the indwelling Spirit in us. We still have our flesh, the devil, and the world harassing us, tempting us, and trying to make us swerve from the path. But the Spirit in us is our holy help to stay inside the narrow lanes of God’s statutes and expectations. What Solomon’s experience teaches us is that no matter how wise we are, our wisdom and even our desire to please God is no match for the world. cf: Peter.
Our flesh, our emotions, and our innate weakness cannot withstand sin. Only the Holy Spirit can help us do that, because He transcends sin. He is holy, supernatural, and is present in us specifically to help us grow in Christ’s likeness.
I think of the scene in Acts where the demon-possessed slave girl kept following Paul around hollering about salvation. Even though she was saying what sounded like a true thing, it as just vague enough to please Jews and upset pagans. Paul was mightily aggravated. This is what our flesh does to us, our thoughts, the world, and our own minion demons that might be harassing us in the invisibles. Saying things that sound vaguely true but are false.
Solomon’s failure was incremental. I’m sure the first wife who had proposed setting up an altar to her false god didn’t come right out and say to Solomon, ‘Let’s worship Baal!’ Incremental creep must be nipped in the bud before it grows, settles, and spreads its tentacles. Eve’s failure was listening to the serpent for too long. She should have turned away the moment it said “Hath God said?” He caused her to doubt, then contradicted God’s word, then offered a tempting promise. Three strikes and she was out. So was Adam.
Christ’s grace is sufficient for us. But how often do we rely on it? How often do we appeal to God in our own weakness for His strength?
Peter eventually did. In the Spirit’s strength, Peter became so brave and humble he did not even want to die in the same manner as Jesus did. Tradition says he died crucified upside down.
Reliance on the Holy Spirit will aid us faster and better and more accurately in our pursuit of righteousness in sanctification than our own flesh. Here are further resources on the Holy Spirit. Remember, the very God Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit is inside us, helping us become like brave like Peter end even ultimately like Jesus, and avoid pitfalling like Solomon.
I admire and respect fishermen. I’ve watched the hardy lobstermen of Maine, or the cod fishermen of Massachusetts, the watermen fishing for crabs in the Chesapeake, the shrimpers of the south or the bonefish, sponge, and conch fishermen of the Caribbean waters. Fishing for a living is hard. It is not for the weak or the lazy.
There are no days off, you go out in storms, heat, rain, and ice. You use your body as one with the boat and the sea, drawing from it food and life.
It was no different for the fishermen of Galilee in Jesus’ day. Jesus called four fishermen as His disciples. Simon-Peter and his brother Andrew, and John and his brother James, the sons of Zebedee who was also a fisherman.
Fishing villages along the shore of the Sea of Galilee included Capernaum, where Jesus based much of His ministry, (Mark 2:1); Bethsaida (Luke 9:10); and Magdala, town of Mary Magdalene (Matt 15:39).
The pictures of the Holy Land around 1900 are important because life and traditions in and around Israel didn’t change much until after WWI. A photo depicting life in 1900 would be almost a copy of any scene from the time of Jesus. These Library of Congress photos offer a glimpse into not just the recent past of the 20th century, but a peek back 2000 years.
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-22).
We learn so much from just these 4 verses.
WHERE: They fished the Sea of Galilee WHO: as mentioned, the two sets of brothers WHAT: They were net fishermen as opposed to hook and line fishermen. They cast from boats they owned and they mended their nets (this shows us they were diligent). WHY: Fishing was hard, but gave a living, generationally, in John and James’s case. The dad was a fisherman. Yet when THE Father called, the men left their profession and immediately followed Jesus.
The Sea of Galilee was also called Kinneret or Kinnereth, and also called Lake Tiberias. It’s Israel’s largest freshwater lake. A fisherman’s day would begin at pre-dusk, because they fished at night. Why? The nets were made of linen which were lighter colored. They’d be more visible to the fish by day, since the waters were cool and clear. The fish would avoid the nets.
In addition, the fish were more active and feeding closer to the surface at night. You caught fish at night, in shallow water.
So they fished at night. (John 21:3). The men would launch their boat from shore and sail gently into the shallow areas along the shore. They’d cast their nets, which were really a three-walled net of decreasing size mesh holes, into the water. Little weights along the bottom would help the net sink vertically down, and the top would float, since there were little buoys of cork or wood attached.
They might be catching little fish, (Matthew 15:34), a Kinneret sardine, processed at the salting and drying station of the town of Bethsaida (House of Fish). Or they might be catching big fish, a kind of tilapia with white flesh and good to eat. (John 21:11).
If the fisherman wasn’t using his boat or didn’t have one, he stood near shore, casting a smaller net. When Jesus called Simon-Peter and Andrew, they were on the shore throwing out their nets from land. (Matthew 4:18). When He called James and John, they were throwing nets from their boat with their father Zebedee.
One other way to fish with nets was with a dragnet. Jesus compared dragnet fishing to the kingdom of heaven-
Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and caught fish of every kind. (Matthew 13:47)
This is where a net would be laid out in a horseshoe shape from shore, and dragged in, catching many different kinds of fish. The men would then sort the good fish from the bad, tossing the unmarketable fish away and keeping the good.
Dragnet fishing at Sea of Galilee, circa 1900. Library of Congress, LC-matpc-04570
Either way, the fisherman would swim to the center and dive down to gather either the fish or draw up the net. He’d do this naked. (Meaning with only his light undergarment on, not bare-skin naked). Peter was fishing this way when the verse says he put on his clothes to go meet Jesus. (John 21:7). The nets set from the boat could be several hundred feet long and 20 feet high. In Luke 5:6 when Jesus miraculously filled their nets, the huge nets became so heavy that they needed the other boat crew to help drag it aboard, then the nets were breaking, and the boat began to sink as they brought in the haul!
On a normal, miracle-less day, whether from the boat or from the shore, it still was heavy labor to throw the nets out, wait for them to settle, and then circle back by sail or swim back to haul them in. Repeat. All night. Fishermen were hard workers, strong, and were usually peasants and therefore used to a rough life.
In the morning, the fishermen would stop and bring their gear ashore. They’d eat breakfast. Then they would set to fixing their gear. It was time to spread their nets and examine them. (Ezekiel 47:10). Do any of the stone weights along the bottom need replacing? They’d have to gather more stones, drill holes, and tie them to the bottom. Do any of the cork or wood buoys along the top need replacing? Do the nets need re-sewing? Are they rinsed off? Is the debris picked out of the nets?
The same attention needs to be given to the boat. These items were their livelihood. So the fishermen would examine the sails and sew or patch any worn areas. Check the anchor rope and the mast and the underside. Tar or pitch could be heated to cover the planks to seal them. Ropes need to be re-twined and add pitch to the ends to ensure it doesn’t fray.
At the end of their day they would fold the nets and store them in the boat, waiting for the night-time when they’d put out in the Sea of Galilee again.
A day in the life of a Galilean fisherman was hard, but it offered a living. As with any trade, a father taught the son. Joseph taught Jesus carpentry. Zebedee taught his sons James and John how to fish. Net fishing hasn’t changed much in 2000 years. You could see similar scenes as the ones above in Indonesia, China, Viet Nam, Venezuela or any place. What has changed is the incarnation of Jesus, molding these rough outdoor peasant men into gentle, loving Christians, ready to catch men with the net of the Gospel. And as with these men, our spiritual forefathers, they teach us to this day.
And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:10b).
I pray you and I catch many souls with our net of the Gospel and a life well lived through following Him.
Reddit is so woke. I like to lurk in Reddit groups that discuss TV programs. I enjoy seeing other people’s perspective of a character arc, or share details that I missed. I also enjoy reality TV competitive creative shows like Blown Away (glassblowing) Masterchef (cooking), and fashion like project Runway, Making the Cut, Next in Fashion. VERY occasionally, I comment.
Now, I know Project Runway is totally culturally caved in to all the liberal philosophies that exist, but get this. I followed a thread on a new program under Project Runway, “Dress My Tour”. It’s pretty rough & I didn’t finish the series. But early on, someone on Reddit asked-
“Is Vee a man or a woman or trans? Seriously can not tell? I am binging the show.😂.”
I replied to the commenter: “Veejay born a boy. Transitioned to a girl. Still looks like a boy.”
Reddit jumped in. The moderators said they muted my answer and I could not reply or comment for 28 days due to breaking the content rules about derogatory language and slurs.
Mind you, the original question still stands to this day, where the commenter asked which gender that particular contestant was. I messaged the mods and said that the contestant was open about the sex change, even participating in a trans beauty contest. We weren’t outing anyone. I said that it was a fact, V WAS born a boy and V DID transition to a girl. That is what transitioning means, changing from one thing to another thing. It was my opinion V looked like a boy, and that perhaps the transitioning process was not completed yet. I asked for my comment to be reinstated. I was careful to use the contestant’s name only, not a gender (mis)identification of he or she which would violate my conscience.
So then the mods permanently banned me from that subreddit. (But only that subreddit, I can still comment on Masterchef, Burn Notice or White Collar if I want).
I had quit watching the show by then, there were too many cultural excesses to overlook. I had nothing more to say in the discussion about Dress My Tour, anyway. The fashion wasn’t that good (although I liked how the mentors approached helping the contestant) but the emphasis was on drama and backbiting in addition to all the queer and trans lifestyles etc being shown. And skin.
Liberals who hold to the current cultural philosophies are fiercely attached to them. The tentacles run deep and strong.
But the speed and harshness with which the liberal population, an ever-growing one by the way, is in a sense to be admired. The liberal population certainly does defend their philosophies with vigor. Christians in that regard could take a page from their book. Do we defend Jesus as protectively, swiftly, and fiercely?
We’ve looked at the sellers of purple. Lydia was one. The manufacturing process of purple dye was lengthy and expensive, making purple dye a luxury only a few could afford. However, everyone needed pots. Rich or poor, woman or man, mansion or hut, every person in the ancient biblical world needed ceramics. Therefore, pottery was ancient Israel’s biggest industry.
POTTERY The production of pottery was one of man’s great innovations in the later stages of the prehistoric period (Prehistory), and one of the most important landmarks in the long process of transition from the nomadic life of hunters and food-gatherers towards a settled existence. Pottery is made of clay, a type of soil almost universally available, which with the addition of water acquires plasticity, enabling the potter to shape it as required. Once fired, the shape given to it is retained. Source: Negev, A. (1990). In The Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land (3rd ed.). New York: Prentice Hall Press.
Amphorae were ancient Roman or Greek cargo pots that goods were shipped in. Excavators and archaeologists could date a shipwreck by the design of the amphora. Every single ship carrying anything had ceramics on board as the cargo containers.
Amphorae are of great use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck and the geographic origin of the cargo. They are occasionally so well preserved that the original content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs and mercantile systems. (Wikipedia)
Ceramics for common uses such as shipping containers (amphorae) and water, wine and oil jugs were so ubiquitous that-
Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, when empty, they were broken up at their destination. At a breakage site in Rome, Testaccio, close to the Tiber, the fragments, later wetted with Calcium hydroxide (Calce viva), remained to create a hill now named Monte Testaccio, 148 ft high. (Wikipedia)
You can picture Job sitting near the pot sherd pile scraping his boils. When Paul was on the ship that was in the terrible storm (Jonah too) the men who threw the cargo overboard were most likely throwing over pots like these.
Amphorae stacking. Suggestion on how amphorae may have been stacked on a galley. (Bodrum Castle (Turkey). A Galley (from Greek γαλέα – galea) is an ancient ship which is entirely propelled by human oarsmen. Source Wikimedia
Smith’s Bible Dictionary says of potters and pottery-
The art of pottery is one of the most common and most ancient of all manufactures. It is abundantly evident, both that the Hebrews used earthenware vessels in the wilderness and that the potter’s trade was afterward carried on in Palestine. They had themselves been concerned in the potter’s trade in Egypt, (Psalms 81:6) and the wall-paintings minutely illustrate the Egyptian process. The clay, when dug, was trodden by men’s feet so as to form a paste, (Isaiah 41:25) Wisd. 15:7; then placed by the potter on the wheel beside which he sat, and shaped by him with his hands. How early the wheel came into use in Palestine is not known, but it seems likely that it was adopted from Egypt. (Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 15:3) The vessel was then smoothed and coated with a glaze, and finally burnt in a furnace. There was at Jerusalem a royal establishment of potters, (1 Chronicles 4:23) from whose employment, and from the fragments cast away in the process, the Potter’s Field perhaps received its name. (Isaiah 30:11)
Before 2500BC pottery was handmade. After 1500 or so, a wheel was used. EPrata photo
Pitchers, water jugs, cups. Perfume jars, juglets, cruets. Wine and oil storage up to 25 quarts. Wide mouth jars stored grain. Sadly, household gods was a thriving pottery industry. Remember Rebekah in Genesis 31, she stole the household gods. These were called teraphim, and they probably looked something like this: (Three Syrian terra cotta idols, 2nd millennium BC, Source)
Pottery objects were made for children, too. War horses for boys and and small cooking pots for girls have been found, as well as rattles and baby feeding bottles for infants. Oil lamps for household illumination were made of pottery. Even broken pottery had uses. Larger sherds would be used as scoops and dippers. Others, to carry coals from one fire to another.
Pottery represented one of the major manufacturing industries of the ancient world, and the Israelite potters were what we called “up and coming businessmen.” With the potter’s wheel, they had assembly line methods of manufacture with different men performing different parts of the process. They knew the temperatures various clays with their various impurities would fire at. They had standard sizes which ran in staggered sizes. Pride of manufacture is indicated by potter’s marks.
Pottery industry was organized by families and guilds (1 Chronicles 4:23). The most difficult part for the apprentice was mastering the firing of the kiln and this was probably passed from father to son. Greeks used to pray to the gods before firing the kiln and the medieval potters also offered prayers first.
(Source for above information, Palestinian Pottery in Bible Times, J. L. Kelso and J. Palin Thorley, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Dec., 1945), pp. 81-93 (13 pages)
The life of a potter was good, because what he produced is always in demand. His wares were not for the luxe crowd as was the purple seller’s, even the poorest of the poor could afford a thrown small water jug. It cost a penny. It was a physical job (see jpg) but not as physical as a dyer or a tanner, nor as dangerous as a shepherd. The local potter was a middle to upper class businessman.
Click to enlarge. Source “Public Life in Bible Times”, JI Packer
Clay was plentiful in Israel and environs, the potter never had far to go for gathering raw materials. He couldn’t perform his craft just anywhere, though. His shop was likely at the edge of town so that the smoke from the kilns would not offend residents. It was a safety feature also, as it prevented fires in the crowded town. This is what the LORD says: “Go, buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests, and go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.” (Jeremiah 19:1-2).
Note the verse in Jeremiah 18:2 where God said for Jeremiah to “go down” to the potter’s house, no other direction was necessary. Pottery was a necessity and everyone would know where the potter’s house was. There would be at least one in every village.
The Psalms have a series of songs called Song of Ascents, this was to be sung on the way up. So when God said for Jeremiah to go down to the Potter’s House, it was likely that the potter was situated outside the city at the bottom of the mount. The raw materials were there, anyway.
The specific area where potters were is noted in Jeremiah 19:1-2,
Ben-hinnom later was transliterated to Gehenna, the waste dump with fires that Jesus likened to the fires of hell. One can imagine this quarter of the city and environs, with kiln fires constantly blowing smoke over the valley, piles of raw material clay, clay covered potters at work, waste mountains like the one mentioned above in Italy that was 148 feet high. source Biblical Archeology
In one of the Bible’s most beautiful metaphors, God likened Himself to a Potter and His creations as clay. His work is completely sovereign.
Jeremiah 18:1-6
The Potter and the Clay 18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
There is a traditional saying about the roots of the word sincere. Not all potters were honest, as happens in every trade, there were a few bad apples floating around.
On the other hand, it also could have as its root two words in the Greek, one word meaning sun, the other meaning to judge, so that it literally in its root meaning has the idea of testing something by sunlight – testing something by sunlight. That, by the way, we don’t know for sure if that’s the root of eilikrins, which is the Greek term, but it is the root of sincere, which is a Latin derivative.
The Latin word is sin cerae, and it literally means “without wax.” Now, let me explain what that means. A potter who was making a jar, or a bowl, or a plate, or a dish of some kind, would turn it on his wheel; and then when it was completed, he would take it and fire it, bake it, as you know. Frequently, because of some impurity in the clay, or some error in judgment in terms of the temperature, or whatever, it would come up with a crack. A cracked jar, or pot, or bowl, or dish, would be useless.
But because of the money invested in it, the unscrupulous potters would try to cover up the crack, and they would take a hard wax, and they would fill the crack with wax. And then they would cover it over with whatever they were using to coat or to paint the pot or the bowl. And so when any wise person went into the marketplace to buy a piece of pottery, they would typically hold the pottery up to the sunlight and rotate it to see if it was without wax, because the sunlight could shine through the crack and reveal the wax – which, of course, the first time anything heated was put in it, would melt, and it would be discovered as useless.
A life, then, needs to be held up to the sunlight to determine whether it’s got any flaws that are being falsely covered over by the wax of hypocrisy. That’s the idea. That may well be the root of the word “sincere.” That certainly is behind the Latin concept, sine cera, which means without wax.
I ‘sincerely’ hope you’ve enjoyed this peek at the potter. There is actually much more to be enjoyed about the long history of pottery, which began in or near Egypt perhaps as early as 5000 BC. There are different ages of the evolution of pottery, Palestinian trends in pottery, the painting and decoration of ceramics. A potter was a skilled artisan, busy from dawn to nightfall, creating useful and decorative items for the many people and tribes in his area. He was one of many workers depicted in our Bible, such as the Seller of Purple, Tanner, and Shepherd.
If you have a suggestion for ‘a day in the life of’, please let me know in the comments!
While He was in His incarnation, we often think of the Pharisees as the object of Jesus’ most fervent wrath. But the Sadducees and the Scribes also endured invective from our Savior. The scribes were themselves filled with sinful hate toward Jesus. Here are just a few examples:
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20).
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. (Matthew 23:1-3).
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. (Luke 22:1-2).
Jesus’s declaration in the first verse above Matthew 5:20 was a shocking message. The Scribes were supposed to be the incubators of righteousness, the guardians of truth, and the teachers of teachers of Israel. How did things get so out of whack? Why did Jesus condemn them?? What IS a scribe anyway?
Prior to the time of Ezra the Scribe, the scribes acted as secretaries of the state/king/pharaoh. (Esther 3:12). Baruch was scribe to Prophet Jeremiah. They prepared and issued decrees in the name of the king (2 Samuel 8:17; 20:25; 1 Chronicles 18:16; 24:6; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 12:9-11; 18:18-37, etc.).
The class of Scribe for our purposes today began at the time of Ezra during the period of the return from Exile. Ezra was a priest and a scribe.
At a great gathering of the people, of which an account is given in Nehemiah 8-10, the Law was publicly read by Ezra, and a solemn covenant entered into for national obedience to it. Being thus established as the binding rule of both civil and religious life, it became necessary that the Law should be thoroughly studied and interpreted to the people, who otherwise could not reasonably be expected to comprehend fully its principles and their application. This duty at first fell naturally to the priests, who for a time continued the main teachers and guardians of the Law. But gradually there grew up an independent class of men, other than the priests, who devoted themselves to the study of the Law, and made acquaintance with it their profession. These were the Scribes. Possibly at first their chief duty was to make copies of the Law, but the higher function of interpretation was soon added; and as the supreme importance of the Law came more and more to be recognized, so the profession of a Scribe came to be held in higher estimation than even that of a priest. Source
The scribes taught the Law, and did so since Ezra the Scribe (who was also a priest) through to the time of Jesus and beyond to today.
The scribe’s job was to copy and recopy the scrolls, preserve them, and interpret them. When Jesus did the reading of the Old Testament at synagogue (Luke 4:16-17), He was handed a scroll. This had no doubt been copied by a scribe at some point. A copying scribe was meticulous in copying the letters perfectly, even counting the spaces between each word so it matched exactly to its original. His title was sofer, (sopher) which in Hebrew literally means, “counting,” as in letters.
In the Holman treasury of key Bible words, we read,
In New Testament times, the scribes were a class of scholars who taught, copied, and interpreted the Jewish Law for the people. They appear in the Gospels primarily as opponents of Jesus. They continually accused Him of violating the Law on numerous occasions: in forgiving sins (Matt. 9:1–3; Luke 5:17–26), in breaking their notion of Sabbath observance through work and healing (Luke 6:1–2, 6–11), in not following their accepted ceremonial washings (Mark 7:2–5), and in ignoring their practice of fasting (Luke 5:33–39). Not surprisingly, they especially disapproved of Jesus’ practice of mingling with the unclean and outcasts of Jewish society (Mark 2:16–17; Luke 15:1–2).
Being a scribe came with a high esteem, the people regarded them highly because of their literacy, their education, and their influence in the community. They performed several functions:
Scribes studied and interpreted the Law
Scribes taught the Law, especially to youth
Scribes judged in the community, as well as wrote official documents such as marriage contracts etc.
Scribes copied and preserved the scrolls.
A youth whose family designated him for the life of a scribe would send him to a school at about age 13. If he was accepted, his training would commence then and last until about age 30. Depending on which career track he wound up in, a day in the life of a scribe of any type would no doubt be inside, not as the dyers, tanners, or shepherdslived, out of doors at the mercy of the elements. He was not a blue collar worker, he was a white collar professional.
If he was a little more fortunate, his career track might take him to litigator or an arbiter or even an executor. (Luke 12:14). He might be appointed to the Sanhedrin or become an esteemed teacher at one of the schools. If he was a copying scribe, he would do his work at his home or an office, have adequate lighting, sit at a table with quill, ink, and parchment, and bend for hours over his papers. His days and weeks would look like this:
Several centuries ago the laws of the Soferim, called STaM, were unified to give consistency in writing Sefri Torahs. It generally takes one year to write a Torah. On an average each Torah will have 245 columns with 42 lines each with a consistent total 304,805 letters. A very rough estimate required for a Sofer’s time would be one sheet per week (average 52 sheets per Sefer Torah), one column per day, six lines per hour, and 3 letters per minute.
Cattermole, George, 1800-1868; The Scribe
A scribe understood the Law, interpreted it, and debated fine points of the law with his clan, or in practical manner aided the community members in living it to the letter via the official documents such as wills or marriage contracts he drew up. It was a good profession and a lucrative one at that. The long years in apprenticeship and training were worth it. It was good work even at the lower rungs as copyist or executor in a small town. Sadly, over time the scribes began to add to the Law by oral tradition and precedent. Their esteem came to be so high that,
As time passed on the “words of the scribes” were honored above the law. It was a greater crime to offend against them than against the law. The first step was taken toward annulling the commandments of God for the sake of their own traditions. (Mark 7:13) …While the scribes repeated the traditions of the elders, Jesus “spake as one having authority,” “not as the scribes.” (Matthew 7:29). Source
So when the people said that Jesus spoke as one having authority, not as one of the Scribes, this was a big deal. By that time, Scribes had ascended quite high int he socio-economic ladder and had much influence and authority.
Equally, it was a big deal that the Scribes opposed Jesus and plotted to kill Him. (Luke 22:2). They had the money and influence to do it, and we know that they succeeded. They were active in obtaining Jesus’s death. (Matthew 26:3; Luke 23:10).
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20 )
——————————
Some Scribes named in the Bible
Baruch (scribe to Jeremiah) Ezra (Ezra 7:1-25) Zadok (Nehemiah 13:13) Shemaiah (1 Chronicles 24:6) Jonathan, David’s uncle, was a counselor, being a man of understanding and a scribe (1 Chronicles 27:32) Shimshai (Ezra 4:8)
the-end-time.org 