Page 29 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

cooking or frying. Today we might put some butter or animal fat in our frying pan but in Bible times olive
oil was used. Of course, olive oil can still be used today for cooking and as a substitute for butter, and
many health experts believe it is a very healthy oil.

Olive oil was also used for grooming the skin, anointing the head (Luke 7:46) and for medicinal purposes
as in the application of olive oil on the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:34)

Dogs

Today we may think of a dog as "man’s best friend." Some people think of dogs as wonderful
household pets. In our day, dogs are looked upon favorably by most people.

This was not so in Bible times. In those days dogs were looked down upon as unclean and
filthy animals. Dogs would eat garbage, dead animals and even human flesh and blood (1 Kings 14:11,
22:38). They even had the disgusting habit of eating their own vomit (Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22). The
only good thing said about dogs in the Bible is that they would sometimes watch the flock (Job 30:1).

In Revelation 22:15 the word "dogs" is used to describe people who are not allowed to enter the holy
city. This means that these people are filthy and unclean and impure. They have no concern about a holy
God. There will be no "dogs" in heaven!

Salt

Today we use salt to season food and make it taste good. When something is tasteless,
salt may help (see Job 6:6).

In Bible times there was another use of salt that was even more important. Salt was
used in preserving foods. What would happen if you were to leave the milk or the
hamburger meat out of the refrigerator? Would it go bad and spoil? In Bible times
people did not have refrigerators or freezers, but they did have salt. Salted foods would not tend to spoil
or become corrupt. Salt was used as a preservative to prevent spoilage.

Also, in Bible times salt was so valuable that it was used in bartering or in purchasing items or in paying
wages. Most men carried bags of salt to keep from dehydrating in the desert. Because of its great
value, salt was exchanged in a covenant between two individuals. Salt from one man’s bag was
transferred into another man’s bag to seal an agreement between the two. Should a
covenant be broken, then those very grains of salt had to be returned to the opposite party.

Houses

Common people would often live in a house that had only one room. How many rooms does
your house have? People in Bible times would spend much time in God’s outdoors, but the
homes did provide a place of shelter.

Often the ground served as the floor. The earth could be smoothed off and packed hard. The walls were
sometimes made of bricks which were dried in the sun (sun-hardened clay). Sometimes the walls were
made by setting stones (sandstones) in mud or clay. Either way, the walls were not very solid, and it

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