Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Employment

by Palestine Exploration Fund

 

II.—Employment.

The Jews were engaged in trade and in agriculture. Some of them were rich, for there are frequent allusions to the "men of leisure." A place containing ten Jews who were Batlanin^[1] was accounted a city, Megillah, i, 3), and they furnished the congregation of the synagogue, as they were said to have furnished that of the temple when standing. There is abundant evidence that the Jews travelled far by sea and by land.^[2] Media, Italy, Spain, Alexandria, Nehardea, and Greece are mentioned in the Mishnah, with regulations on board ships and on journeys. Women as well as men went abroad: "the dispersion" were the Jews so scattered, and even a Samaritan woman might be met travelling on a ship (Taharoth, v, 8). The employments of the Jews were connected with trade and commerce, both external and internal, as well as with agriculture, though the scribes and doctors of the law still formed a separate class. The Mishnah insists on the importance of teaching a son a useful trade or profession (Kidushin, iv, 14), and includes the curious criticism that "donkey drivers were mostly wicked, but camel drivers good, sailors pious, doctors only tit for Hades, and butchers for the company of Amalek." The literary education of a son (Pirki Aboth, v, 21) began with study of the Bible at five years of age, and of the Mishnah at ten; at fifteen a youth should study the Gemara or Comment on the Mishnah; at eighteen he should marry; at twenty he should study the Law; at thirty comes full strength; at forty understanding; at fifty a man may give advice; at sixty he is aged; at seventy hoary; at eighty still strong; at ninety only fit for the grave; and at an hundred already forgotten. This passage incidentally witnesses the well-known longevity of the Jews.

The trades of the Jews were very numerous and of different degrees, including the sale of silk and satin imported from the East and not yet made in Syria (Kelaim, ix, 2). Shoes and sandals were imported from abroad (ix, 7); oil was both exported and imported (Shebiith, vi, 5); glass was made by Jews in Palestine (Kelim, viii, 9), as it still continues to be made by natives at Hebron. The vessels made or sold^[3] were sometimes of great value, being of gold, silver, and bronze (Baba Metzia, ii, 8) as well as of glass; vases are mentioned as worth 100 or 1,000 zuzas (iii, 4), that is to say, from £5 to £50; they were also made of bone, wood, leather and pottery (Kelim, ii, 1). A bottle of fish (perhaps shark) skin is noticed (Kelim, xxiv, 11) and plates woven of withes (Kelim, xvi, 1), and bottles covered with rushes (Kelim, x, 4) and reed crates (Kelim, xvii, 1). Many of these vessels bear Greek names, and were sold to or bought from the Gentiles. Looking glasses (Kelim, xiv, 6; xxx,]) may probably have been of metal, like those found in Phœnicia. The only wooden bowls considered clean (xii, 8) were made of a kind of cedar wood.

In this connection two interesting inscriptions may be noticed (Waddington, Nos. 1854-2295); the first from Beirut is the tombstone of Samuel, son of Samuel the "silk merchant" (Σερικαρίος), a trader who was evidently a Jew; the second is from Bashan, in memory of Isaac the goldsmith. Neither unfortunately is dated, but at Palmyra (No. 2,619) Zenobius (otherwise called Zebedee) and Samuel, sons of Levi, son of Jacob, raised a memorial in Greek and Palmyrene in 212 a.d., and evidently were members of the Jewish colony in that city, which was still thriving in the twelfth century A.D. Some proselytes in this city appear to have had Jewish mothers and pagan fathers (T. J. Yebamoth, i, 6) as early as the time when the temple was standing. {See "Derenburg," pp. 22, 224.)

Linen seems to have been also an important article of trade, coming from India and from Egypt (Yonia, viii, 5), the latter no doubt in the ships from Alexandria (Oheloth, viii, 3). It was also carried on camels (Baba Kama, vi, 6); but flax was grown in Palestine itself (Baba Metzia, iii, 7; ix, 9). Flax grown at Nazareth in the twelfth century A.D. was considered equal to that of Egypt, but the high priests' robes were of Indian and Egyptian linen. Flax was the only wick allowed for the Sabbath lamp (Sabbath, ii, 3). Linen from Galilee is also mentioned (Baba Kama, x, 9). 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,^[4] 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 (Edioth, ii, 9), so that the latter was the halfpenny. The silver Mina of Tyre was worth five Sela’ or twenty shillings, being nearly equivalent to the gold Dinar (Bicuroth, viii, 7). The current coin of the country recognised by the Roman Government included copper coins of various cities, such as Jerusalem, Tyre, &c., which had pagan superscriptions in Greek. Pompey had forbidden the Phoenicians to coin silver; and gold was only stamped by the central government. Tyrian coins from 145 B.C. to 153 A.D. are well known. The Jews used such coinage in dealings with the Gentiles, as, for instance, in selling sheep, calves, &c. (Pesakhim, iv, 3). The value of a bull appears to have ranged from £2 10s. to £10. A bull of 1,000 dinars is noticed, but these probably were not of gold (Baba Kama, iv, 1; Kholin, iii, 7).

1. See בטלן otiosus Buxtorff. These men of "leisure" were paid, according to this authority (col. 292), for attending the Synagogue services in place of more busy persons.
2. They even owned ships (Baba Bathra, v, 1).
3. Secret signs on vases are noticed (Maaser Sheni, iv, 10), in the forms of Hebrew letters.
4. The value of a slave ranged from a gold dinar (or guinea) to thirty shekels (£3 15s.), see Baba Kama, iv, 5.