50 NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
all kinds are there in abundance, as well as rich pasture land for them.’ Especially fruitful was Galilee, where Jesus spent most of His life, and from which He borrowed the numerous country scenes that we encounter in His parables. A great many people found employment on the larger estates, there being numerous servants, maids, and officials of all kinds attached to the service of a single house (cf. Lk 12” 161).* Fishing was a leading occupation in Galilee, being prosecuted in the teeming waters of the Lake of Gennesareth. We find allusions to this both in the Gospel narratives and in the words of Jesus (Mt 13%", Lk 5"; ef. also the reference in Mt 7% to bread and fish, corresponding to bread and jlesh else- where). After the Jews, under the Hasmonzans, gained access to the sea, they began to prosecute fishing in it as well. A‘variety of preparations were made from the fish that were caught, and these again played their part as articles of com- merce.t See, further, art. FISHING in vol. ii. Hunting is said in the Talmud to have been prosecuted by some for a livelihood; the abund- ance of game in Palestine is shown by the history of Herod, who was an enthusiastic sportsman.t
An important source of income in post-exilic times was that derived from the work of the dif- ferent artisans. Of the industry of some (builders, engravers, smiths, potters) we have a graphic picture in Sir 38; that of others is illustrated by the Talmudic writings.§ Ben Sira recognizes their importance (without them is no city built, and if they sojourn in a strange land, they need not hunger), but he considers them excluded from all higher spheres of activity, such, for instance, as the public service (v.**), The later scribes held a sounder opinion on this subject, many of them, indeed, supporting themselves by manual labour.||
Commerce took a great stride in the Greek period. Particularly after the Jews came into possession of Joppa and other seaport towns, they began to imitate zealously the example of their brethren of the Diaspora, and to take their share in the trade of the world. Palestine was favour- ably situated in this respect. Ancient caravan roads led through Galilee and Samaria to the coast, where the wares were shipped; Arab cara- vans brought the treasures of S. Arabia to the southern part of the land, from which they could in like manner be exported to the West. See, further, art. ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN OT), below, p. 369f. The products of the fertile land, such as oil, grain, wine, flax, formed articles of export, which were exchanged for the products of Egypt and the Mediterranean lands. The Jews began to undertake long journeys by sea in order to enter into commercial relations with foreigners (Ps 10775", Pr 7%, Sir 4374). In Palestine there were both merchant princes and petty traders (Sir 26”), The connexion between home-born and foreign Jews led also to a commencement being made in Pales- tine with those financial transactions for which the Jews of the Diaspora had developed such a turn, having found in Babylon an excellent training school. Since such a condition of things was quite unknown to the traditional Law, and its enact- eee further, Vogelstein, Die Landwirtschajt in Paldstina, + Herzfeld, Handelsgesch. 105 f.
t 7b. 103. Cf. also art. Hunrine in vol. ii.
§ Delitzsch,; Handwerkerleben zur Zeit Jesu, 1875; Rieger, Versuch einer Technologie und Terminologie der Handwerke in der Mischna, 1894.
|| The characteristic saying of Simon b. Zoma, that when he looked on the crowd of humanity he felt impelled to thank God because He had formed them all to serve Him (i.e. to execute all His purposes), has reference not to the favoured body of the Wise, but_to the division of labour amongst men (Jerus. Berakhoth 13a).
4] It is very significant that To 118 represents Achiacharus as ‘purveyor’ (zyvopacr7s) of a foreign king.
ments were felt to be hampering, Hillel devised the so-called ‘prosbole-rule, whereby the legal prescription as to the cancelling of all debts every seven years was practically annulled (see, on this and on the Deuteronomic regulations as to the remission or suspension of debts, Driver, Deut. 178 ff.). The method of taking security was regu- lated very precisely, as the Talmudic writings show (cf. the Lexicons, s.v. many). There were forms in which the names had merely to be inserted. According to Josephus (BJ I. xvii. 6), the bonds signed by debtors were kept in the public archives. As to the estimation in which mercantile occupations were held, Ben Sira speaks as disparagingly as he does of artisans. But at a later period things were otherwise, and both priests and teachers of the Law engaged in trade. For instance, Josephus (Ant. XX. ix. 2) tells us that the high priest Ananias was a great man of business; cf. Tos. Lériéimédth, where we read of the shop of a priest. We may also recall in this connexion the parables which Jesus borrows from commercial life (e.g. Mt 13%") The Essenes alone abjured on principle all contact with trade. See, further, art. TRADE in vol. iv. The increas- ing intercourse for trade purposes led, moreover, to other branches of industry. Thus enns sprang up along the much frequented roads, where the hosts had their charges for attending to travellers (cf. Lk 10*f:), The ‘publicans’ also, to whom the taxes were farmed out by the Romans or the native princes, were indebted to the growing com- mercial intercourse for their livelihood and for the wealth which they so often acquired.