Among trades and occupations most commonly noted may be mentioned shearing, fulling, carding, dyeing, spinning, tailoring, hunting the gazelle and preparing its flesh and skin, tanning, and the work of blacksmiths and carpenters (Sabbath, vii, 2). The Jews were also soapmakers, and traded in Tyrian purple; they were barbers, bootmakers (Pesakhim, iv, 6), laundresses (Sabbath, i, 5), ass and camel-drivers, and even sailors (Kethubim, v, 5), boatmen and bathmen (Shebiith, viii, 5). As regards agriculture, sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding the sheaves, threshing, winnowing, sifting, grinding, riddling, with kneading and baking, were forbidden on the Sabbath (Sabbath, vii, 2); the Jews owned fields (Kethubim, xiii, 8) as well as flocks and herds, and were fishers; they caught game and birds in nets (Yom Tob, iii, 2; Baba Kama, vii, 7; Kelim, xxiii, 2). The bow was used in hunting, as it still is sometimes by Arabs (Kelim, xii, 4, 5). Hunting on the Sabbath was forbidden (Sabbath, xiii, 6), though games of chance were allowed (xxiii, 2). The occupations regarded as unfit for the pious included dicing, pigeon flying, and usury (Rosh hash Shanah, i, 8). Unguent sellers are noticed, and unguent bottles and oil of roses (Maaseroth, ii, 3; Kelim, ii, 4; Shebiith, vii, 7; Sabbath, xiv, 4) from the rose gardens of Jerusalem (Maaseroth, ii, 5; T. B. Baba Kama, 82 b) and elsewhere; servants and slaves, Jewish or Gentile,[1] were not only owned but also sold (Maaser Sheni, i, 7), and it would seem that a thief might be sold to slavery (Sotah, viii, 8).
The question of coinage and prices may be briefly noticed. The recent recovery of a half shekel weight in Palestine shows that the ancient coin weighing 320 grains troy had the value of 3s. 4d. sterling, but the later shekels weighing 220 grains were worth only 2s. 6d. These, of course, were not struck after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.; and the existence of any of the coins struck during the revolt under Bar Cochebas is to say the least very uncertain. The names of coins in the Mishnah include the Prutha or sixteenth of an English penny, the Assarion, Pondion, and Bipondion (two pence), the Zuza or shilling, the Sela or four shillings, and the gold Minah, the lesser being about £8 6s. 8d., and the larger double that value. An existing half shekel weighing 109 grains is known, with shekels of double that weight. The Assarion (איסר) and Bipondion (בפונדיון) bear foreign names for the smaller copper coins (Shebiith, vii, 4) with the gold dinar (דינאר) which was profane money (Maaser Sheni, iv, 9). A small charge (קלבון) was made for changing two half shekels for a shekel, when the new money for temple payments was issued (Shekalim, i, 6). The Darkon or Daric bore a Persian name (Shekalim, ii, i, 4), and appears to have been worth about a guinea, though stated by Maimonides to have been only eight shillings. The shekel of Jerusalem was double that of Galilee (Kethubim, v, 9; Kholin. xi, 2). The dinar is in one passage reckoned as twenty-five zuzas or shillings (Baba Kama, i, 4). The Prutha was the eighth of an Italian Assarion
- ↑ The value of a slave ranged from a gold dinar (or guinea) to thirty shekels (£3 15s.), see Baba Kama, iv, 5.
d 2
