Food in the time of Jesus Christ

We are at the gates of Holy Week, which will begin on April 2, Palm Sunday. These dates, in which Catholics remember the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, are a wonderful occasion not only to see Ben-Hur again or recover the recipes for French toast, but also to remember the leading role that food has from the beginning finally in the best-selling book in the history of the world, the Bible.

It is impossible to know how many copies of the Holy Scriptures have been commercialized since the popularization of Gutenberg’s printing press, but the most repeated estimates insist that more than 5,000 million copies. What can be determined without a doubt is the importance of food in this book of books (Genesis, the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, the Song of Songs, the Gospels…).

From the forbidden fruit and the apple of Adam and Eve to the last supper, food presides over these texts without exception. Many people, even non-believers or agnostics, unknowingly use food symbolism from the Bible. Think of that phrase so repeated by defecting politicians: “I do not sell myself for a plate of lentils.” Therefore, for some lentils, Esau ceded his birthright to his brother Jacob’s.

Esau, who was very hyperbolic and impatient, had returned exhausted from the field. His brother was preparing an appetizing “reddish stew” (yes, they were lentils) and asked him to give her something because he was starving. And Jacob, who was a profiteer, proposed that he first give him his birthright. “What good will that right do me if I die?” Esau asked himself, who accepted and sold himself for a plate of lentils (Exodus 25: 27-34).

The cultivation of lentils is ancient. They were already known 9,000 years ago in what is now Iraq, from where their consumption spread to the Mediterranean through Greece. In the Bible they are quoted on many occasions, sometimes with a metaphorical sense: “It is better to eat vegetables where there is love than fattened ox where there is hate” (Proverbs 15: 17). These and other humble products today were delicacies in the time of Jesus.

Bread, for example, was fit for kings and the main course at the luckiest tables. The poor ate it from barley; the rich, of wheat. The grain was ground between large stones, a task that almost always fell to the women, although later the bread passed by on their table. For this reason, in Proverbs 31: 27 industrious housewives are praised, always busy, “and who do not eat the bread of idleness.”

Olive oil and wine are other ingredients with a notable role. We do not uncover any news: “Take and drink all of it because this is the chalice of my blood”, it is said in the liturgy. Olives, honey, figs, dates, grapes, almonds, milk and cheeses (especially goat and sheep) are also very important, along with fish. Who has not heard of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish?

You have to eat to live, and not live to eat. The Gospel according to Saint Luke does not say it exactly like that, but it implies it with statements like this: “Life is more than food; and the body, more than the dress”. Calming the stomach is essential to be comfortable with oneself, although not at any price, let’s not do “like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal” (Hebrews 12:16).

The Old and New Testaments, the first and second parts of the Bible, do not escape the omnipresence of food, although if one of its books stands out for presenting Jesus at the most varied banquets, that is the Gospel according to Saint Luke, the third of the four canonical gospels of the New Testament (along with those of Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, and Saint John). With Lucas we see a very human son of God at the table.

Particularly moving is the scene in which a prostitute discovers that Jesus is having lunch at the Pharisee Simon’s house and goes there to wash his feet, which he wets with his tears and dries with his hair. His host even wondered if his guest was a true prophet, for in that case he should know that he was touching an impure woman. That doubt leads Jesus to ask one of the most beautiful questions in the Bible…

“A creditor had two debtors. One owed him 50 denarii. Another, 500. Since they had no money, he forgave them the payment. Which of the two thanked you more? The one with the greatest debt, answered Simon, who knew what they meant. The Bible can be read literally, like an instruction manual for denying Darwin. And it’s terrifying. Or for pure literary pleasure, regardless of any belief, for scenes like this. And it’s wonderful.

If we know how to separate the grain from the chaff, we are facing a document of incalculable value, which explains in minute detail even the eating habits of the time. A typical menu for the best occasions in a home made up of a carpenter and his wife could consist of an aubergine puree starter, a plate of roasted fish and dates for dessert (or dried figs and peaches) with almonds and honey.

In Ezekiel 4: 9-12 there is even a recipe from Yavé: “In a container you will mix wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and oats to make a dough. You will light a fire and prepare a bread with the mixture. Every day, at the same time, you will eat a quarter of a kilo of that bread, and you will drink half a liter of water”. Of course, in order not to destroy the magic, we will not specify the eschatological way in which the flames had to be kept alive.

Meat was not available to everyone. The normal diet consisted of vegetables and fruits. Sacrificing an ox or a lamb implied having a lot of fresh meat that would spoil quickly, so those privileged with access to these products had to reserve them for very special days, like when the prodigal son returns and his father asks the servants: ” Kill the fattened calf, let’s eat and celebrate.”

The other son, the one who stayed with his father, did not take it well: he always obeyed him and was never entertained, not even with a simple kid. Do you remember the question about the two debtors that Jesus asked Simon, the Pharisee? Well that. The greatest debt deserves the greatest forgiveness and the greatest gratitude. In addition, a humble food can be wonderful: “Bread of nobles the man ate” (Psalms 78:25).

The mystic Saint Teresa of Jesus did not always explain herself very clearly (“I live without living in myself, and I hope for such a high life, that I die because I do not die”). But she also said things that we all easily understand, such as that one should not look for God only among baptismal fonts and confessionals because the Lord also “walks among the pots and pans.” The Bible is the best proof of how right that phrase is.