Manners and Customs of Bible Lands

by Fred H. Wight

Manners and Customs of Bible Lands [Hardcover] Fred H. Wight (Author) 336 pages Moody Press; 1ST edition (December 1953)

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Reference, Christianity

336 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1953

Reviews

[Linda J.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered the who, what and why of Bible life? Manners and Customs of Bible Lands has most of your answers! I used this book in our Bible Leadership Class, as we tried to understand the customs that would help explain some of the Bible verses.

The most widely used vegetables in Bible times were beans and lentils.

Milk in bible times was considered, not simply as something that was added to their food in cooking, but was regarded as a substantial food for all ages.

Meat was eaten on special occasions.

To sleep without a light is considered by most villagers to be a sign of extreme poverty.

There was great fear of the ocean, since they had no charts of the seas or compass to guide them.

All interesting facts, each backed up with scriptures. This is a handy guide to learning more about life and living in Bible times.

[Jonathan Tien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Concise, clear, well-organized by topic, and gives much insight into the cultural, sociological context of Bible stories

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m working on a piece of biblical fiction and read this book as research. Helpful and accessible!

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I came back to Christianity I have found that the Bible is not only a giant book but one that is full of wisdom although usually encrypted. To be able to get it you have to add small pieces bit by bit and each added piece ends up providing more to the story.

And so what better way of getting to know the Bible more than exploring manners and customs of the same region? This book did a great job in exploring different main subjects, comparing the modern world of Israel with its past and the past Israelites with the modern Arabs. As a result it is a bit refreshing to get to know the Middle Eastern world a bit more.

Unfortunately even for all of its information and the opening of the door there was still areas of information I wish that had been covered. There was no coverage of their judicial system, very little spoken of actual gender groups such as exploring the culture of Oriental women and customs that were quite questionable back in the past.

The book though was pretty organized in other considerations. Each chapter explored a certain subject while breaking down further into further paragraphs that were led by an italic header. And within the descriptions when any part focused on parts from the Bible it provided a chapter and verses if you would actually like to look it up yourself.

In the end it was definitely a great book to read and one that I was glad to get a chance to enjoy. Even though I didn't learn everything I wanted to know about the subject I have learned enough to be able to add it to my reading and to be able to get a better picture of what life is like for some of those people in the Middle East. So all in all it will be a good stepping stone for further biblical studies.

[Tripleguess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but dry.

I learned a good deal from this book, but it could be greatly improved by some illustrations of, say, camel saddles, instead of depending on long descriptions alone. It felt tedious toward the end, which I felt was due to writing style rather than subject matter, but I got through it.

[Zach Sparks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good reference book if you are looking for more information regarding biblical context. knowing the history of certain practices allows for a greater understanding of the associated biblical events.

[BJ Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manners and Customs of Bible Lands was written way back in the early 1950's and pulls a lot of information from the British Mandate era. What Wight does is examine the customs and habits of the local people and then use it to illustrate how we can understand those things when brought up in scripture. What things? Food, housing, hospitality, geography, the environment, animals, industry... you get the picture. While it is interesting to see how people from the same land but literally thousands of years later would read and interpret the Bible, Wight constantly says things like, "it hasn't changed in nearly two thousand years," as an attempt to make direct correspondence. This doesn't fly. Cultures aren't static.

Proof of that would be to see how much the culture has changed in this region over the past seventy plus years. Keep in mind, this book was published in 1953. Israel has become a nation, but were still a small minority of the population. This was after the Nakba, but before it had taken on the mythologically legendary status it has today. The Palestinians were living here, but it was a decade or so before they would start to be called "Palestinian" (this didn't become a concensus term until the mid to late 60's). Whatever your take on it, whoever you want to blame, Wight is describing a culture and a way of life that no longer exists today.

[Benjamin Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred Wight's research on the cultures and customs of Bible lands gives the reader valuable insight on the parables and stories of the Bible. Wight generally keeps his personal theological opinions out of the text which is appreciated. This book read easy especially for being a research book. This book does show its age with the use of Bible translations rarely in use and missing 70 years of history that has occurred since the first printing. All in all, an excellent read for understanding Arabian culture and the Bible as a whole.

[Jacob Sabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was and will be a very useful tool in the future. I was bummed my copy seemed to be missing 12-14 pages or so (not why I marked it down, I know that is not the fault of the author). I have read some other books which describe the daily life of the time. This has been one of the better ones I have read so far.

[Brian Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource for better understanding the cultures in which the Hebrew and Christian scriptures arose from ... so different from that of Western readers. Wight writes in a style making the content accessible for a general readership.

[Mercedes Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent reference book when studying the Bible.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book filled with lots of information that will add great context to reading thr Bible.

[Emily K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for any home library.

[Jolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been looking for books that give cultural information about the people in Old Testament (Bible) times. I found "Manners and Customs of Bible Lands" on www.mywsb.com and it has the sort of information I have been looking for - how women and children were treated, marriage customs, how people lived, what they wore, etc.

Other than a couple unfamiliar terms because the book was written in the 1950s (I had to figure out who "Orientals" and "Occidentals" were), the book is easy to read - no college degree required to understand what you are reading.

[Denise Ballentine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good little volume that is a helpful aid to Bible lessons.

[Rukundo]

f2, Bible customs

[Tabitha C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful! Great addition to a small Bible study library.

[Patricia Kruse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

I enjoyed reading this book. I learned a lot about how the people lived in Bible time. Now I will understand the Bible better.