I was disappointed to see Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s social media outreach @forthechurch feature Jen Wilkin at their upcoming Women’s pre-conference in September. Sadly, Jen is not solid. Her egalitarian, gyno-centric, angry, usurping preaching should be a no-go for women, and the men at that seminary should evidence better discernment.
It is QUITE ironic to me that the topic of her speech will be ‘faithful to the family’, when Jen has not been faithful to GOD! She preaches to men, violating the very word she promises to strengthen you by. (1 Timothy 2:12)
Jen has spent the last decade or more urging pastors and leaders to put women in “visible leadership positions” and even preach, when the Bible says for wives to do good at home. (Titus 2:3-5).
But that has not been Jen’s MO for years. She has a heavy speaking schedule and up until last September for the 12 years previous to that had been on staff at The Village Church. Jen has children, is married, and totally violates the topic of her own upcoming speech. Can a student go higher than his teacher? Can one learn how to strengthen one’s walk by listening to a usurper? No. Avoid Jen Wilkin.
What was a day in the life like for a person who lived in New Testament Bible times? It depended on what trade the person made their living. The first time I looked at the woman of Thyatira, Lydia, a seller of purple. Then we looked at tanners, such as Simon the Tanner whom Peter lodged with. Today I’m interested in what a day in the life of a shepherd would be like.
EPrata photo
Shepherding is one of the oldest professions in the Bible. The first was gardener or overseer. God told Adam to keep the Garden (Genesis 2:15). Shepherd is mentioned second. Genesis 4:2 says, “Now Abel was a keeper of flocks…”
Many of the men and women of the Bible were shepherds. Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Lot, Laban, Moses, Rachel, David, Amos are a few examples of shepherds in the Bible. Of course we know the angels came to announce the birth of Christ to unnamed shepherds protecting their flocks by night near Bethlehem.
Life in Palestine was lived mainly outdoors, and animal husbandry was a major occupation. Even so, by the time of Jesus, that profession was considered unskilled. Shepherds were relegated to the lower socio-economic strata of society. It is therefore poignant that God chose to send angels to shepherds for the first announcement of the Savior’s appearance on earth.
Shepherding was hard.
The duties of a shepherd in an unenclosed country like Palestine were very onerous. In early morning he led forth the flock from the fold, marching at its head to the spot where they were to be pastured. Here he watched them all day, taking care that none of the sheep strayed, and if any for a time eluded his watch and wandered away from the rest, seeking diligently till he found and brought it back. King James Bible Dictionary
David mentions that one duty of the shepherd was to protect the sheep from predators, of which there were many. Lions, bears, wolves, hyenas, and leopards were all interested in a sheep dinner. Sheep won’t fight back, run, or hide. Instead, when a predator appeared, they gather together, giving the predator a big choice on which sheep to pick for his dinner.
EPrata photo
David said he had protected the flock from lions and bears, single-handedly fighting off both at different times (1 Sam 17:34-37). Wolves were the worst enemy of the flock. They were more numerous than lions or bears. They were canny, constant, and fierce. They rarely left off trying to invade the fold and make off with a lamb or young sheep. Wolves are often mentioned in scripture as a symbol of treachery.
In those lands sheep require to be supplied regularly with water, and the shepherd for this purpose has to guide them either to some running stream or to wells dug in the wilderness and furnished with troughs. King James Bible Dictionary
Water was always in short supply in desert lands. That is why it was a special trouble for Isaac when the Philistines, who envied his healthy flocks and herds, stopped up the wells. (Genesis 26:14-15). And it couldn’t be just any water, running water as in a stream or river would spook the sheep. They prefer still water, but it also has to be clean.
The shepherd is not only always on guard against predators (of which are also the human kind, thieves) but he or she must protect the sheep from themselves. If a sheep falls into running water, it will drown, their woolly coats soak up quickly and sheep cannot swim. He needs to be led to calm waters. (Psalm 23:2-3).
Drinking from puddles would give the sheep parasites and they become ill. If the shepherd moves his flocks to the pasture early enough in the morning, the dew-laden grass would contain enough moisture for the sheep.
EPrata photo
Sheep eat a lot of grass, they are totally focused on eating. Because they are so absorbed in nibbling grass, all day, all the time, one or two usually tend to wander away from the flock and get lost. (Luke 15:3-6).
After eating, the sheep needs to rest. She lays down and while resting, chews her cud and digests, as the sheep in a ruminant. Sometimes he won’t lie down on his own. He needs to be made to lie down. (Psalm 23:2-3).
This is not a process wehre the shspherd goes arond adn forces he cheep down (unless it’s to inspect hooves or administer medicine.) The shepherd makes them lie down by providing the condition in which the sheep feel comfortable enough to lie down. They have eaten, they feel safe, they are not at enmity with other sheep. They feel chill, they are fed and full, watered, and they will lie down since the shepherd made the acceptable environment for them.
At night he brought the flock home to the fold, counting them as they passed under the rod at the door to assure himself that none were missing. Nor did his labours always end with sunset. Often he had to guard the fold through the dark hours from the attack of wild beasts, or the wily attempts of the prowling thief (see 1 Samuel 17:34). King James Bible Dictionary
A good shepherd also delivers the lambs, (Isaiah 40:11), grooms and shears the sheep. (Deuteronomy 18:4; 1 Samuel 25:4)
He has an extra incentive to be extra vigilant. If a sheep goes missing, and the shepherd cannot prove it was shredded by predators, the shepherd must pay for the sheep himself. (Genesis 31:38-39, Exodus 22:10-13). That is one reason he is so careful to count them as he brings them into the fold at night. He uses the rod or staff to lower on each one in a careful count. He also runs the rod along the wool so he can examine the condition of the skin and the wool.
When his day is done and all sheep are accounted for, whatever kind of sheepfold he has brought he flock into (enclosed shed, circle of stones with a crude roof of boughs of thorns, cave, etc) the shepherd will sleep across the door to protect the sheep while they sleep. If a predator tries to enter, the shepherd will awaken and beat it back. He will do the same against thieves too. (John 10:1-2).
Sometimes the shepherd will mix in with other shepherds and split the night watches. It is not a problem separating out the sheep the next morning as the sheep know their own shepherd’s voice. (Genesis 29:1-3; John 10:27-28).
When Jesus preached using shepherd allusions, the local people all over Palestine knew exactly what He was speaking about. There are many examples of shepherds and their duties (which were numerous and constant) so it is no wonder that the word ‘pastor’ is often used interchangeably with shepherd.
A day in the life of a shepherd was strenuous, long, has its many dangers, with walking many miles in all weathers. But worthwhile. God chose to give many of our Bible heroes the job of shepherd, and to One, He gave the highest job of all. Jesus is THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. (John 10:11-18)
What was a day in the life like for a person who lived in New Testament Bible times? It depended on what trade the person made their living. Last time I looked at the woman of Thyatira, Lydia, a seller of purple. Today I’m interested in what a day in the life of a tanner would be like.
House of Simon the Tanner, Jaffa. In “Traveling in the Holy Land through the Stereoscope”
A tanner was a worker of hides. Tanner definition:
Tanning is the process of treating skins and hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed. (Source)
Tanners were low status people in the Jewish community. They dealt with unclean hides and death. They had to touch dead animals. Plus, they were Gentiles, two strikes. And they smelled bad. Three strikes.
Normally their workshop would be just one or two rooms and a courtyard far from a residential area. You might remember this was a requirement for Lydia’s trade, the dyer who used snail shells (or a plant) to extract and ferment purple, another malodorous process.
Said to be Simon’s house. It may or may not be, but it is in Joppa and it is ‘by the sea’.
Simon was a Tanner in Joppa. He housed Peter for many days according to Acts 10:32, Acts 9:43, Acts 10:17, Acts 10:6. Luke is very precise and mentions Simon’s trade three times in short order. So it is significant that the Lord stationed Peter with a Gentile tanner, showing that Christianity is a religion where all are welcome.
There are only two other biblical references to leather itself; where leather girdles are mentioned (the end product of tanning) and those are in 2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4).
Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea. (Acts 10:32).
And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon. (Acts 9:43).
Despite the infrequent mentions, leather was important and used in many goods. Thus, tanning was an important trade, just a trade that no one liked to be around.
Leather was widely used in biblical times: for sandals and shoes, and for straps and harnesses for horses, donkeys, and camels; the nod, a skin bottle for storing and transporting liquids, is still widely used in the Middle East. All writing materials were also produced from hides. A ritually important use of leather and parchment since ancient times is for Torah scrolls, tefillin, the straps of which must be made from ritually clean animals, and the contents of mezuzot. (Source)
Joppa (Jaffa) is now an old neighborhood in the city of Tel Aviv. It’s by the sea. You might remember Jonah fled from the LORD at Joppa where he boarded a ship bound for Tarshish.
As in Greece and Rome, tanneries had to be located on the outskirts of the towns, far from residential quarters. According to the Mishnah (BB 2:9) a tannery should be situated on the east side of the town only, at least 50 cubits from the outskirts. This was because tanning was a primitive, malodorous process. The residents of an alley or lane could prevent one of their neighbors from becoming a tanner (Mishnah BB 21b). For all these reasons the tanner’s status in society was low. (Source)
As with Lydia’s purple dyeing, that trade and tanning needed to be on the east side because the winds were from the west most of the year, and would blow the odors away from the residential area if the manufacturing was done on the east side.
A Tanner’s dwelling and his workshop location was limited by his trade also. By necessity, they had to be close to to salt water seas.
Simon’s house was by the seashore, as is true of the tanneries along the Syrian coast today, so that the foul-smelling liquors from the vats can be drawn off with the least nuisance, and so that the salt water may be easily accessible for washing the skins during the tanning process. (Source – The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia)
Tanning was a low-status job, so tanners were because of their trade low on the totem pole. As with Lydia’s trade (dyeing of purple), by Jewish tradition, a wife could sue for divorce based on the unpleasantness of her husband’s tanning trade, and it would be granted. An unnamed Jewish Babylon Talmudic scholar of the 6th-12th century-
explains that they are exempt because their bad odor, having penetrated their flesh, cannot be removed. This, he said, was why they had their own synagogues in his day in Babylon. The tanner’s trade was among those from which neither king nor high priest might be appointed, not because the tanner is ritually unfit, but because his occupation is despised
Poor Simon. So, geographically, ritually, and societally, a tanner endured a low status and a marginal communal living. Simon no doubt had friends, even the hated tax-collectors had friends, prostitutes and other tax collectors though they may have been. But a tanner’s trade prevented him from enjoying the full force and joys of communal living and even worship.
Joppa (or Jaffa as it’s called today, the oldest part of modern-day Tel Aviv) is about 45 miles from Jerusalem. On the map, you can see Nazareth to the northeast and Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) beyond that.
So what did a tanner DO? The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia describes the multi-step process. Simon would have had skins percolating in various stages of the process.
Within are the vats made either of stone masonry, plastered within and without, or cut out of the solid rock. The sheep or goat skins are smeared on the flesh side with a paste of slaked lime and then folded up and allowed to stand until the hair loosens. The hair and fleshy matter are removed, the skins are plumped in lime, bated in a concoction first of dog dung and afterward in one of fermenting bran, in much the same way as in a modern tannery. The bated skins are tanned in sumach, which is the common tanning material in Syria and Palestine. After drying, the leather is blackened on one side by rubbing on a solution made by boiling vinegar with old nails or pieces of copper, and the skin is finally given a dressing of olive oil.
That was the short version. Here’s the more descriptive process from Wikipedia.
The steps in the production of leather between curing (which involved salting) and tanning are collectively referred to as beamhouse operations. They include, in order, soaking, liming, removal of extraneous tissues (unhairing, scudding and fleshing), deliming, bating or puering, drenching, and pickling. Simon was busy. He either skinned the animal himself of got the skins from a skinner.
Skins typically arrived at the tannery dried stiff and dirty with soil and gore. First, the ancient tanners would soak the skins in water to clean and soften them. Then they would pound and scour the skin to remove any remaining flesh and fat. Next, the tanner needed to remove the hair from the skin. This was done by either soaking the skin in urine, painting it with an alkaline lime mixture, or simply allowing the skin to putrefy for several months then dipping it in a salt solution. After the hairs were loosened, the tanners scraped them off with a knife. Once the hair was removed, the tanners would “bate” (soften) the material by pounding dung into the skin, or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. Bating was a fermentative process which relied on enzymes produced by bacteria found in the dung. Among the kinds of dung commonly used were those of dogs or pigeons.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1915
Sometimes, the dung was mixed with water in a large vat, and the prepared skins were kneaded in the dung water until they became supple from bacterial enzyme action, but not too soft. The ancient tanner might use his bare feet to knead the skins in the dung water, and the kneading could last two or three hours. This combination of urine, animal feces, and decaying flesh made ancient tanneries malodorous. Children employed as dung gatherers were a common sight in ancient cities. Also common were “piss-pots” located on street corners, where human urine could be collected for use in tanneries or by washerwomen. (Source)
It was all very gross. I included the longer version so you can get an idea of what Simon dealt with every day. Hard labor, marginalization, and smelly, chemical-y dung and urine filled processes.
So now we can understand perhaps why Luke included the fact that Peter stayed with Simon the Tanner and mentioned that Simon was a tanner three times in rapid succession. Here, finally, we see as with all walks of life, tanners were finally enjoying fellowship in faith with other disciples. Peter choosing to stay with Simon (Acts 9:43) certainly helped equalize the rungs on the ladder and pointed to the fact that Jesus and only Jesus was primary and exalted. Prostitutes, tax-collectors, dyers, and tanners were fully included in the faith as much as wealthy men (Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus), lawyers (Paul) and luxury merchants (Lydia).
The cross is the great equalizer, and Jesus is full of grace and mercy. The societal inclusion for Simon the Tanner must have been heart-warming to him and his love for Jesus must have abounded all the more. Here at last, he could worship among the faithful, and not in a separate synagogue. On his one day of rest, his voice raised in hymns of praise must have been forceful and joyous.
What was a day in the life like for a person who lived in New Testament Bible times? It depended on what trade the person made their living. Let’s look at the woman of Thyatira, Lydia, a seller of purple.
Lydia is mentioned only a few times in the New Testament, in Acts 16:11-15, and v. 40. She was a worshiper of God, which meant that she was seeking a deeper spiritual life than the pagans around her, though not yet a proselyte. Proselyte was the name given by the Jews to foreigners who adopted the Jewish religion, but Philippi had a negligible number of Jews in the city, too few even to attain a quorum for a synagogue. It is all the more remarkable that Lydia worshiped God in that Hellenistic Roman city, the city where Lydia had come to reside.
Paul found her in Philippi with other women worshiping along the riverbank. It is here that it’s mentioned that she was a seller of purple cloth. (Acts 16:14.)
It appears that Lydia was not alone in Philippi carrying out her trade, as Antiochos from Philippi was the first dyer to be a benefactor to the city of Thyatira. There was a close connection with the dyeing trade of Philippi and Thyatira
In another clue as to the tie between the purple-dyers of Thyatira and the purple-dyers of Philippi, we read in New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor: Light from Archaeology on Cities by Edwin M. Yamauchi,
In 1872 Professor Mertzides discovered in Philippi the following text in Greek inscribed on a piece of white marble: ‘The city honored from among the purple-dyers and outstanding citizen, Antiochus the son of Lykus, ad native of Thyatira, as a benefactor.’
This indicates perhaps that the purple-dyers may have also worked as a guild in Philippi as they did in Thyatira, and that their profession was held in high esteem since there was an inscription made and a benefactor to the trade.
In addition to the murex shell, purple dye can also be made from the madder plant. Debate in academic circles rages as to which item Lydia used to de her wares, murex or madder, but the scales seem to tip at murex. According to Pliny, only the murex made the pure due. Dye made from madder plants was known as ‘turkey red’.
So, the only true purple colorfast dye known at that time was produced by the murex snail, a marine mollusk. Making purple dye was a difficult, costly, and time-consuming process. As a result, purple dye was purchased by royalty, elites, and the very wealthy, who used it to stripe a border of the hem of their garment, as the Senators did in Rome to their togas.
Lydia owned a house, which indicates she was probably a widow and probably well-off. The house was large enough to support Paul, Silas, and Luke and perhaps others with them, on Paul’s missionary journey. She also hosted the nascent church in her home. She impressed upon Paul to stay at her home, without a husband mentioned or other male with whom she needed to consult, the common practice for a woman at the time. Lydia seems to have been shrewd in business, wealthy, and her own decision-maker. She likely ran in high circles since her clients would have been the richest.
So what was life like for a wealthy widow in southern Europe in the first century?
Philippi was a leading city in the district, according to Acts 16:12. A safe estimate of the population might be about 10,000-15,000. It lay on an important trade route and the city was patterned after Rome, though it was thoroughly Greek as well. Philippi was a wealthy city. It had a theater, a forum, and an arena in which games were held. It also had baths.
This wealth was shown by the many monuments that were particularly imposing considering the relatively small size of the urban area: the forum, laid out in two terraces on both sides of the main road, was constructed in several phases between the reigns of Claudius and Antoninus Pius, and the theatre was enlarged and expanded in order to hold Roman games. There is an abundance of Latin inscriptions testifying to the prosperity of the city. Wikipedia
Lydia was converted to Christianity, as well as “her household”. A woman of her trade and standing, in such a wealthy city, no doubt would have servants. Lydia would have had many servants.
Servants, of course were a necessity – some wealthy country landlords could have had at least 50 living on their premises. According to the Mishnah (Ketuboth 5:5) – the more servants a woman had, the less she had to do herself. One servant liberated her from baking, two from cooking and breast-feeding. Four allowed her to “sit all day in a chair.” (Source)
In the morning upon awakening, if Lydia went to the baths, a servant would have put up her hair. Women did not go into public with their hair down, and they wore a head covering. Lydia’s house had more than one room, as the common people lived. In fact, a woman of her standing would have lived in a house of upwards of 12 rooms, all around an open courtyard planted with shrubs and trees. Her furnishings would include a divan, upon which people of that era sat cross legged, and at night the divan was used as a bed. There were no special bedrooms in Oriental homes at that period.
Painting by Liotard, in the Louvre
Lydia then likely would have gone to the baths, with her hair up and her head covered. Women took their baths in the morning, men in the evening. The wealthiest could afford to have water piped into their home, so it is possible Lydia took her bath in her own home and didn’t need to venture out until she was ready to attend to her business. She’d be perfumed and her hair oiled.
No one is sure whether Lydia oversaw the actual purple-making process or if she was a vendor of already finished textiles in purple. If she managed a factory of dyers, that would have been an incredibly complex and busy job. Since making purple is labor intensive, she’d be boss of many employees. If the dye she handled was made from the murex, it would bring with it a host of issues. More on that in a minute. But first, here is the The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia on purple-making:
Purple dye was manufactured by the Phoenicians from a marine mollusk, Murex trunculus. The shell was broken in order to give access to a small gland which was removed and crushed. The crushed gland gives a milky fluid that becomes red or purple on exposure to the air. Piles of these broken shells still remain on the coast at Sidon and Tyre. The purple gland is found in various species of Murex and also of Purpura. Purple cloth was used in the furnishings of the tabernacle (Ex 25:4, etc) and of Solomon’s temple (2 Ch 2:14; 3:14); in the palanquin of Solomon (Cant 3:10); and in the hangings of the palace of Ahasuerus (Est 1:6). The kings of Midian had purple raiment (Jgs 8:26); the worthy woman of Prov 31:22 has clothing of fine linen and purple. Mordecai was clothed with purple by Ahasuerus (Est 8:15); Jesus by the Rom soldiers (Mk 15:17, 20; Jn 19:2, 5).
The gland secretes one drop of the liquid. One. Drop. It typically took about 10,000 shells to make a small amount of usable dye. Huge mounds of murex shells have been excavated from all around the Mediterranean.
Archaeological data from Tyre indicate that the snails were collected in large vats and left to decompose. This produced a hideous stench that was actually mentioned by ancient authors. (Aristotle, Vitruvius, and Pliny the Elder). Not much is known about the subsequent steps, and the actual ancient method for mass-producing the two murex dyes has not yet been successfully reconstructed; this special “blackish clotted blood” colour, which was prized above all others, is believed to be achieved by double-dipping the cloth, once in the indigo dye of H. trunculus and once in the purple-red dye of B. brandaris. (Source: The Mediterranean Sea: Its history and present challenges, edited by Stefano Goffredo, Zvy Dubinsky)
Decaying mollusks and old shells make a stench but the murexes smell was particularly pungent. In fact, the clothes that were made from murex dye initially smelled also, and likely were perfumed at the beginning of their wearable life.
In fact, the process of making Tyrian Purple was so offensive, the Talmud allowed a woman to divorce her husband if he became a dyer after marriage, lol. Hence, one issue is that if her business, was factory oriented not end-product sales, would have been some distance outside the city. She’d need to rely either on a trusted manager, or oversee the operation herself. Either way, Lydia was busy all day either on site, at her vendor stalls along the marketplace in the Forum, or at home managing accounts. Or all three!
Roman fresco from the fullonica (fuller’s shop) of Veranius Hypsaeus in Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Fullers prepared the wool for dyeing.
In any case, whether Lydia was a maker and seller of purple textiles or a vendor only, she was a busy woman, between managing her household, her servants, and her business. What is evident is that though she was likely both wealthy and busy, she put her faith first.
Pre-salvation, she worshiped God. She gathered at the prayer place by the river and communed with Him and had fellowship with other worshipers. After salvation, she hosted Paul & Co. along with other believers as the church grew and services were held in her house.
The Bible is replete with warnings not to allow riches to corrupt one’s soul, (Psalms 62:10, Proverbs 11:28, Job 21:13, Ecclesiastes 1:3, Matthew 6:24 etc.) but Lydia was spared that worldly flaw, and she centered her faith and her life on Jesus.
Lydia’s daily routines were not filled with taking time to put on costly adornments (1 Timothy 2:9), nor to laze around all day in a chair. Lydia was busy. I suspect after her heart was opened to receive the Gospel, (Acts 16:14) she redoubled her efforts in business so that she could fund missions and host the church. Her purple-selling now had a purpose beyond worldly status. The vanity of the rich was now funding the spread of the Gospel.
Lydia’s story:
Therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
[When Paul was released from prison, he did not go to the house of the Philippian jailer who had also converted, but straight to Lydia’s home:]
And they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
When we think of a harem, artistic rendering like this may come to mind, beautifully adorned young women lounging languidly. And that may indeed been part of the harem girl’s day. But that’s not all it was.
“Girls of the Harem” (Italian artist Fabio Fabbi 1861-1946)
12Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beauty treatment were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with balsam oil and the cosmetics for women— 13the young woman would go in to the king in this way: anything that she desired was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14In the evening she would enter and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. (Esther 2:12-14).
Xerxes
Xerxes was not a talented king. We read from the book From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire by Pierre Briant:
The Year 479 and Xerxes’ Reputation: Traditionally, modern historiography has presented a terrible image of Xerxes’ personality and reign. This image was already fully fashioned in Rawlinson’s Five Great Monarchies, a work published in 1867: with Xerxes began the disorders of the harem, assassinations, and conspiracies; around him were unleashed the passions of the court princesses and the growing influence of the eunuchs, with the result that “the character of Xerxes sank below that of any of his predecessors.” The king was weak, easily influenced, immature in his appetites, egotistical, cruel, superstitious, licentious.
What is a Concubine?
Concubines are a term used to describe a King’s woman used for sexual intimacy, without being a lawful wife. Lexham Bible Dictionary defines concubine as “A woman who is conjugally related to man but holds a secondary or inferior status to his primary wife.” For many women throughout history, the position served as one of the highest she could achieve in terms of power and safety. Hagar and Keturah were concubines of Abraham. Romans also had concubines.
The Old Testament contains 37 occurrences of the word “concubine” (pilegesh).
Belshazzar had concubines, see Daniel 5:1-3. They were present at the great feast when the Hand appeared and wrote on the wall.
Pharaoh took Abram’s wife Sarai into his palace as an intended concubine. (Genesis 12:15).
Judges chapter 19 describes a concubine degraded. In Patriarchal times a concubine had no authority in the family, and they could not share in the household government. Since they were not a legal wife, they could be sent away (example: Abraham and Hagar.)
Many kings in the Bible had concubines but Xerxes’ harem was the only one described with any detail, so we will focus on his harem for this essay. And Xerxes’ harem apartments have been excavated!
Harem excavation photos: Harem of Xerxes from the University of Chicago, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Caption is already contained in the photo. The ruins were excavated when the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago sponsored an archaeological expedition to Persepolis and its environs under the supervision of Professor Ernst Herzfeld from 1931 to 1934, and Erich F. Schmidt from 1934 to 1939.
What was it like in a harem?
Harem might be a familiar word to us but since harems existed in ancient times in China, Japan, India, Assyria, Persian, and Egypt, their practices and characteristics differed from one culture to another.
A harem is a place where women are sequestered in order to separate them from the world. Once in the harem they had very little interaction with the outside world, unless they were dismissed or in some lucky cases, retired. The women in a harem could not see the outside world and the outside world, including family (if they lived nearby) could not interact with them.
Where did all these women come from? They got there in different ways. Mostly coerced. Normally in a harem there were different classes of women, different groups, living in separate quarters and heavily guarded for their safety and privacy. In Xerxes’ case they were separated by virgin vs. concubine.
The third group of harem women were concubines, beautiful girls (Plutarch, Artoxerxes, 27; Diodorus, 17.77.6; Esther 2.3) bought in slave markets (Herodotus 8.105; Plutarch, Themistocles, 26.4), or received as a gift (Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 4.6, 11; 5.1, 1; 5, 2, 9, 39) and tribute (Herodotus 3. 97), or collected from different parts of the empire (Esther 2.2-3;), and even captured from rebellious subjects (Herodotus 4.19, 32; Cf. Grayson, 1975, p. 114). (Source Iranicaonline.)
Harems were highly regulated
System and Restrictions: Harems typically operated as a system of segregated living quarters for women, often within a palace or residence. They were usually guarded by eunuchs or trusted servants to maintain the privacy and security of the women inside. Women in harems often had limited freedom and were subject to strict rules and protocols. (Source).
The throne hall in the background…you can imagine Esther walking from this large harem complex tot he throne room, not knowing if she was going to be executed. “And then I will go in to the king, which is not in accordance with the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16.
What did they do all day? Greek Philosopher Aelian in his Varia Historia, 12.1 wrote- “While still virgins, they were kept and groomed in the harem’s “first house of women” (Esther 2.9), and trained as musicians, dancers and singers in order that they might entertain their king or the magnate lord at banquets or throughout the night.”
Their education was much better than women usually receive outside the harem. They were instructed in all the arts but also reading and math. They were also taught manners and traditions. It was the ultimate charm school. If the concubine did not excel at her education she would likely have been assigned tasks such as cooking or laundry in the harem. Of course also we see in the Esther verses there was a strict beauty regimen. All this would have taken up her time during the day.
As we see in the Esther verses above, once the woman has ‘gone into the King’ she was moved to a different harem than the one she occupied with the other virgins. In the second house she probably would have been helping to raise any children running around from the union of the concubine and the king. And as in any large system of operations, the women would have been accomplishing tasks such as continuing their education, practicing their musical instruments, or serving others. We know that Esther was given 7 maidservants. (Esther 2:9).
Josephus said in his Antiquities, 6.200 that Xerxes had 400 concubines.
In order to house 400 women, their guards, eunuchs, and servants, the complex would have had to be large!
What happened to Concubines?
Aging and Weakness: The fate of women in a harem as they aged or became weaker depended on the specific circumstances and the attitudes of those in power. In some cases, older or weaker women in a harem may have been assigned roles as caretakers or advisors to the younger members. Others might have been granted some level of freedom or retirement within the palace. However, there are also instances where elderly or weak women were marginalized or had diminished status within the harem. (Source).
A large and ornate harem was often constructed to display the king or sultan or pharaoh’s wealth and power. It would have been highly decocrated
Some were executed. The wife/queen of the king or sultan often wielded much power, and any concubine caught in an intrigue that displeased the queen or the king could be executed. In the 1640s Ibrahim the Mad, an Ottoman king, was told by one of his favored concubines that one of the others had slept with an outsider. Ibrahim was furious. He had his eunuchs investigate, then torture his 200+ concubines in the harem but either the tale was false and it didn’t happen, or they refused to give up one of their own. So Ibrahim had all 280 women sewn into weighted sacks and drowned in the Bosporus Strait. That was definitely a case where an intrigue blew back into unfortunate heights.
In a harem full of women, whether the virgin harem or the concubine harem, rumors and jockeying for position was rife. We see from the verses below that virgins could be favored, and since that is true, there must have been intrigue to catch the attention of the eunuch in charge of them to gain even more favor. But Esther didn’t do that. She trusted God and in HIS favor, Esther rose to the top without her having to curry attention or otherwise plan intrigues.
Esther Finds Favor: So it came about, when the command and decree of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s palace into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women. Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and food, gave her seven choice female attendants from the king’s palace, and transferred her and her attendants to the best place in the harem.
Conclusion
A harem was a busy place. The women were physically prepared, intellectually prepared, and prepared in the arts, charms, and traditions of their culture. They worked raising the children, teaching others, or serving others. Of course if they were chosen, they worked at night, too. Though they had access to better food, education, clothing and even oils, perfumes, and jewels they might not have had access to ‘on the outside’, life in a harem was not always easy. They existed at the whims of the king, and walked a tightrope of luxury vs. execution or abandonment. We know that Esther took her life in her hands by approaching the unstable king Xerxes without his calling for her. It was only by the providence of God she was not executed, as was the rule.
Though the story of Esther is mainly taught to show us the providence of God, it also shows me personally how a life of jockeying and intrigue, gilded cages and sinful jealousies can ruin a life, where even in that environment trusting God for His provision and His life plan for us is always best. Doing so doesn’t always give rise to queenly proportions as it did for Esther, but her demeanor was queenly even before Xerxes took her into his heart, because she is the daughter of THE KING of KINGS. Her reliance on God, peaceful attitude, and kindness shone out among the hundreds of other women in those harem apartments in ancient Persia.
Do you enjoy reading the Bible? I do. Too often though, I allow my mind to drift to the novelization of it, laying aside that this book recounts real, literal events with real, literal people. It’s easy to start thinking of the people we read about as either superheroes, or characters in a novel.
To combat the creep of fictionalization of the pages, or alternately, to make them more real to me, I often think about the people in the Bible going about their day. Our teaching elder recently preached through John 4, the Woman at the Well. This scene of this illegitimate housewife is easier to imagine as she goes about her day, because the time of day and her wifely task is often preached as an important part of the scene. How the housewives gathered in the early morning or later afternoon to draw water from the community well because it was cooler. How that was all the water they had to use during the day, unless they wanted to walk the whatever miles to get more from the well. And so on. A housewife’s day is also recounted in Proverbs 31.
But there are a lot of other professions mentioned in the Bible besides housewife. Shepherds are rife throughout the pages. King, scribe, farmer, fisherman. Tanner, tent-maker, baker, fig picker, seller of purple, cupbearer, cook, hunter, and so many other professions mentioned. What was a fisherman’s day like? What did a seller of purple do? What is a tanner, anyway? Is there still a job of cupbearer?
I decided to do a series on people in the Bible going about their day doing their job. For example, A Day in the Life of: A Tanner, A Day in the Life of: A Merchant. A Day in the Life of: A Cupbearer, and so on. I’ll select professions to write about based on the amount of reliable information I can find (and understand, lol). If there is a profession mentioned in the Bible you’re interested in learning about, what a day in that Bible person’s life would have been like, let me know. I’ll do my best to research it out.
Baker, fig picker, fisherman, scribe… What was the first century Palestinians’ job like?
The Proverbs 31 wife has a husband at the gates, Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. (Proverbs 31:23).
The famous Ishtar Gate, before 4BC. now in Pergamon Berlin Museum. Note the scale, compare the people to the gate. Photo By Rictor Norton – CC BY 2.0. Nebuchadnezzar II inscribed the gate and gave credit to ‘Marduk, lord of the gods’. He will learn later Marduk does not exist.
Gates. I never thought much about ’em until I moved to rural Georgia. My first apartment here in the south had a horse gate. I had to stop my car and get out, unlock and push open the gate, drive through, then repeat the procedure in reverse. Many farm driveways have a cattle gate. Same with a lot of homes that have animals of one kind of another. Big gates, small gates. Gates.
EPrata photo
What does this mean, ‘sitting at the gates’?
In Bible times the cities were walled and you could only enter by a gate. The bigger the city, the bigger the wall. Nineveh with a population of 120,000 and three days’ walking breadth had walls so wide a chariot could run along the top.
At the gates of cities courts of justice were frequently held, and hence “judges of the gate” are spoken of (Deut. 16:18; 17:8; 21:19; 25:6, 7, etc.). At the gates prophets also frequently delivered their messages (Prov. 1:21; 8:3; Isa. 29:21; Jer. 17:19, 20; 26:10). Criminals were punished without the gates (1 Kings 21:13; Acts 7:59). Source, Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Easton, M. G. (1893).
The gate wasn’t like what we may think of with a wall, an open gate, then voila, you’re in. Since the gate was the most vulnerable part of the city’s defensive system, there was a gate, then some chambers, or barriers. Or, more gates.
“During the Iron Age, the period of Israelite monarchy, two-, four-, and six-chamber gates are found. … Undoubtedly, the development of new weapons, including more effective battering rams, required new defensive strategies. Among such innovations were the introduction of inner and outer gate structures. Such double-gate structures may well have been intended to strengthen defenses. Assaulting an outer-gate structure would not give access into the city proper; it would only lead through a narrow passage (where an invading army would be under continual assault by defenders on the walls above) to an inner-gate structure, likewise well defended. Sites with inner- and outer-gate structures include Tel Dan, Megiddo, and Lachish.” Source- Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
Typically, the city’s market or bazaar would be close to the gate, so merchants would not have to drive their animals through the whole the city. Since there was so much activity coming and going at the gate, this is where the elders sat to judge, mediate, and consider city business.
EPrata photo
Below we see a photo of the inside of a city gate, a four-chambered one. Photo and caption by Ian Scott:
“This is one of the four chambers that line the gate complex of Iron Age Gerar. Note the well-preserved bench running around the inside of the chamber. This is where soldiers might prepare to repel invaders who penetrated the outer gate. It is also in such gate chambers that the town elders would pass hot days, hear complaints, and adjudicate disputes.”
Lot had a position at the gate. This means he was an elder of the city of Sodom. Genesis 19:1 says, “Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom.”
Boaz was an elder at the gate, too. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the redeemer of whom Boaz spoke was passing by, so he said, “Come over here, friend, sit down here.” And he came over and sat down.” (Ruth 4:1).
Eli was at the gate. When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. And so he judged Israel for forty years. (1 Samuel 4:18).
Gates where were a triumph was proclaimed, or prisoners of war displayed. A conquering King and his men would stand at the gate to show their victory, because the gate was considered the place of authority, economy, justice, and was actually the all-in-all life-blood of the city.
Much is made of Deborah’s position as Judge and Prophetess in the Bible. People who wish to imbue women with more authority than the Bible gives often revert to Deborah as the model and example. No. Further, it is interesting to see that Deborah did not sit “at the gate” as was customary. She was not located in a city. She judged under a palm tree in the hills of Ephraim. (Judges 4:5).
So perhaps that is more than you wanted to know about gates and elders sitting at the gate, but I thought it was interesting architecturally and theologically.
About the series: I have written discernment essays critiquing various teachers. In articles like that, I include sources, explain the teacher’s errors thoroughly, and provide examples. All this make the essays longer. Nowadays however, people like to read less lengthy material. So I cut to the chase and made shorter essays showing why these folks are false. In the Cut to the Chase I include links at the end if you care to go to my longer essays and/or other resources.
Why should we avoid Jen Wilkin?
1. Poor hermeneutic. Wilkin’s emphasis on gender and pushing for opportunities for women to teach (no focus on exercising the other gifts, solely teach, preach, or be hired leader-staff) is starting to twist her hermeneutics. I saw this in each of the messages I watched, including a Bible teaching from 2014 supposedly expositing Joshua, the Rahab segment of that speech. Her teaching is off. I would not trust it and sadly do not recommend Jen Wilkin’s Bible studies. Some have called her recent teachings ‘gynocentric’ which I think is apt.
2. Discernment. Jen is partnering with and promoting questionable/false teachers. She is increasingly speaking with Kelly Minter, Christine Caine, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore. Also Jackie Hill Perry. See one example here. Another is the Lifeway Women’s Leadership conference in February 2020. More recently Jen spoke at an Oklahoma Women’s Retreat alongside Whitney Capps, who is part of false teacher Lysa TerKeurst’s Proverbs 31 Ministries and Lifeway Women…and The Gospel Coalition Women with Muslim Isa-dreams believer David Platt.
3. Egalitarian. In one famous example, Wilkin based her entire talk on the biology of men and women, avoiding the biblical/spiritual foundation. When she does refer to the Bible it was to present a different interpretation of the creation of humans in Genesis 2.
3a. Preaches to men: In that speech, Wilkin explained to the attending male pastors and church planters, that it’s important to understand the biology of men and women when you’re planting a church, and so you can use women in “visible leadership”. You hear this phrase from Wilkin a lot … “visible leadership”. She is big on women in visible leadership. As opposed to “hidden leadership”? Wilkin tries to make the case that men and women are interchangeable and therefore their roles are too. She does not preach the beauty of an Abigail, Anna, Lydia, Mary, Dorcas. Her sole focus of late is women who leading, and often mentions Deborah and Huldah. She is against the concept of complementarian helpmeet, which is why she needs to reinterpret Genesis 2.
3. Attitude. Titus 2:3a says, Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior Wilkin is on record as being angry and being snarky. Greear said in his introduction about her that he’d first heard of her as ‘The Bible Girl’ and talked with her, testing her for her biblical knowledge, and “she’d always give back a snarky answer, to let me know that she knew a whole lot more than I did about whatever I was asking about, so I learned to be very respectful around her…”
Unknowingly Greear made Proverbs 27:15-16 come to life-
A constant dripping on a day of steady rain And a contentious woman are alike; He who would restrain her restrains the wind, And grasps oil with his right hand.
Wilkin sometimes demonstrates a barely suppressed anger, a vitriol that in one case clearly came through. She actually called one noted and credible theologian “a pervert”. It was uncharitable in the extreme. In another case of an author of a commentary writing that Rahab was a prostitute, she said to her audience, “If I ever meet him I’ll probably sock him in the face.” Maybe her anger is not so suppressed after all.
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Titus 2:7-8).
4. Omissions. Wilkin does not teach the role of women as submissive learners, content in her God-designed role to serve at home and humbly in the church. She does not teach women mentoring other women. She does not teach positively about the women who submitted to their biblical roles, like Lydia, Eunice and Lois, Anna. Jen speaks of “the gifts” but restricts ‘the gifts’ to teaching and not the other gifts such as administration, hospitality, support, etc. She focuses on the teaching and positions of women in “visible leadership.” Omissions are harder to detect but once you realize Jen gives only part of the story of our roles and joys, you can’t forget it. She is unduly entranced with gender politics and it’s affected her teaching and her own walk.
Further discernment essays from The End Time critiquing Jen Wilkin-
I went back and re-edited the following two series. They are slightly shorter now.
The ultimate care for us is that God sent His Son, Jesus, to live a sinless life, die on the cross shedding His blood as the sacrifice required, be buried, be resurrected and ascend to the place of honor next to the Father. This process opened the door for humans to repent of sin and go to heaven through Jesus as the door, be justified from our sin, declared righteous. The Father sees a repentant human as having Jesus’ righteousness.
Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, 2 by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as [e]to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).
This is the Gospel.
God could have wiped out Adam and Eve when they sinned, but He did not, instead shepherding His lambs throughout the eons of history to culminate in the cross. What grace! What love! What care!
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:29).
This care is permanent. It is eternal. Who can’t take us from Jesus after we repent and are justified? Who is greater than Jesus to be able to do that? Is there a strong man who can do this? No! This care is not only available, but it is eternal.
Examples of God’s care throughout these eons:
He took care of all the earth’s animals of their kinds, and took care of Noah and his family before, during, and after the terrible deluge.
But God remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. (Genesis 8:1).
Short devotional explaining that God remembering does not mean that God forgot then came to mind. God Remembered Noah
When the Hebrews were wandering in the wilderness, their sandals and clothes didn’t wear out! His care extends from the sustaining of the universe so we can live within it, to the eternality of our souls, down to the minute details of life!
And I have led you in the wilderness for forty years; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. (Deuteronomy 29:5).
The fresh manna appeared every day except Sunday for 40 years. And meat, too.
At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. (Exodus 16:12b)
He feeds the birds.
EPrata photo
Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? (Matthew 6:26).
Pau’s thorn was a care! God was guarding Paul from becoming conceited.
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:9).
If your circumstances are dire, if you are anxious for the near future, just remember no matter the external conditions, your soul is safe, even your daily care down to the smallest detail is in the Father’s hand. Trust Him.
When a person dies, the eulogy tends to be flowery, and usually leaves out the negative characteristics of a person, and focuses on the positive. We want a dearly departed loved one to be remembered well. We erect gravestones, some larger or more ornate than others. Some of these have simple born-died facts, others have a life verse, motto, or even a flowery description.
“Seventeenth and eighteenth-century stones generally had solemn epitaphs which prompted passers-by to contemplate mortality and the fleeting nature of life on earth.” (Source).
These epitaphs or selected Bible verses on headstones were meant to demonstrate both how the person shepherded his or her life, and to cause those reading the gravestone to think about their own life after death.
“Behold And See As You pass By, As You Are Now So once Was I, As I Am Now So You Must be, Therefore Prepare To Follow Me.”
EPrata photo. “Resting in hope of a glorious resurrection”
An inscription probably from 5th century found in Sicily, reads in translation:
“Here lies Marinna who lived honorably and without blame, and left this world to go to the Lord at the age of 37 years, paying her debt on December 24, but she loved God.” source The Catacombs by Paul Carus.
Many early Christians’ graves were marked simply “without blame.” If you ponder that for a second you realize just how beautiful that is. To be a Christian is to be a person whom God sees as without blame (or spot or blemish- meaning, sin).
Catharine Wilcox, Jan 29, 1824 was laid to rest in Mt. Zion Presbyterian Cemetery. The Inscription and Notes read as follows, “Age 25. w/o Cyprian Wilcox. “She was a Christian” : “In that solemn hour when the last enemy appears, what conquering power like this I know my sins forgiven.” (Source).
In fact, if you look up the word ‘blameless’, you see it is often used in both the Old Testament and the New.
What does it mean to be without blame?
but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— Colossians 1:22
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. (Ephesians 1:4)
It doesn’t mean that they were without sin. Only Christ is without sin. It means, “not absolute or faultless perfection (compare Job 9:20; Ec 7:20), but integrity, sincerity, and consistency on the whole, in all relations of life (Ge 6:9; 17:1; Pr 10:9; Mt 5:48). It was the fear of God that kept Job from evil (Pr 8:13).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary).
It means that Noah and Job always chose to do good in God’s name, had integrity, and their character was faultless in their constant pursuit of holiness. Satan attributed Job’s character to his prosperity but it was the fear of God that kept Job blameless.
We have the gift of the Holy Spirit to aid us now, so anyone who has repented of sin and is in Jesus is seen by the Father through His Son as blameless, perfectly righteous.
What an incredible shepherding of life to have written on stone that the Christian was blameless in living. They must have borne much fruit to be seen so. Of course the true epitaph occurs in heaven, when we eagerly stand before Jesus upon our arrival and hope to hear those golden words, honey to our hearts,
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’ (Matthew 25:21).
How incredible to be ushered into eternal joy, spotless, blameless, all because of the sacrifice of Jesus. He laid down His life, shed His blood as God’s lamb, and was buried. Rising again and ascending to the Father, Christ is and was and always will be blameless. He is the true origin of blamelessness, and we are grateful He ordained His elect to be so, after Him and through Him.
If you’re interested, as I am, lol, in historic cemeteries and gravestones and epitaphs, here are some links that have more information.
the-end-time.org 
