Believer In Yeshua
Discovering 1st Century Village Life In Galilee
This is an unusual post for us as it talks about a mythical village in Galilee. This village was invented by us as the location for our www.LuvShmuli.com diary entries of a young Jewish lad living in first century Galilee. We have created this story to illustrate in a fun way everyday life in Galilee in New Testament times. Everything included in the diary is based on historical records and archaeology. The village and the diary entries may be mythical but the commentary included on most days contains much that will help people to understand the background to the Gospel accounts.
As part of our research for these stories we have had to take a close look at the available evidence for farming villages in Galilee of the first century. The pictures above form an important collection of records from which we shall draw a number of conclusions about village life at that time. We hope it will add to our knowledge of life at that time and that others will help in this work.
This diary entry from young Shmuli tells us a lot about life in Galilee. He mentions that it is not normal practice for people around the Sea of Galilee to build Sukkot on their roofs due to the wind. This strong wind, that still today blasts down from Galilee’s surrounding hills, is responsible on many evenings for the normally calm water whipping up into terrible storms within minutes. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Sea of Galilee it is always worthwhile getting down to the sea-front early in the evening to watch this phenomenon. They are also mentioned in the Gospel stories.
It is because of these regular strong winds around the Sea of Galilee that I suggested to local archaeologists twenty years ago that their re-constructions of ancient houses in this area could not be correct. They often showed the houses with wood and straw roofs, which could not have survived very long in that area, due to the weather conditions. A better example was the known use of large slabs found at nearby Chorazin. I am gratified to find it is now accepted that wood and straw roofs were very improbable around this lake.
Because of these regular strong evening winds, particularly at this time of year, it is very unlikely that any Sukkah was built on people’s roofs around the first century Sea of Galilee. That is, unless people lived in one of the city centres and had no yard to build their Sukkah in.
We also learn a little about the farmstead of the Shmuli family: These fictional diary entries are, as far as is possible, based upon the historical and archaeological evidence. We already have learnt that the Shmuli farmstead consists of fields of about seven and a half tzemed in size – i.e. about 5 acres. It seems farmsteads in Galilee averaged between 4 & 6 modern acres in size.
The location of Shmuli’s mythical village is shown in the top left of the attached picture – approximately one and a half miles from both Chorazin and Capernaum. The top right picture shows a few of the small farmsteads outside of the fortified town of Gamla on the Golan hills not far away. This shows a small home built into the walls of attached and enclosed paddocks. Within these paddock walls can also be seen a guard tower and areas for confining livestock. Similar farmsteads can be seen just outside of Capernaum marked by the red arrow in the bottom left-hand picture – the green arrow marks the area of Capernaum that visitors see today. Evidence for such farmsteads can just be made out at the site of the mythical village of KfarGanot – see bottom right-hand picture. It is on this abundant evidence that we are basing the imagined village in which Shmuli lives. Beyond these small farmsteads the family would also have owned small fields, often designated by boundary stones. It is very likely that the village also maintained a terracing system on the hillside for growing Olive trees. Similar terracing is still abundantly in evidence today, much ancient and in disrepair. These terraces could be many yards in width/height stretching along the hillsides.
It's well worthwhile visiting www.LuvShmuli.com which has a daily diary of life in a first century Galilee farming village - from the point of view of a mythical young lad, Shmuli. It also has a good commentary giving excellent background historical and archaeological information.
Discovering 1st Century Village Life In Galilee
This is an unusual post for us as it talks about a mythical village in Galilee. This village was invented by us as the location for our www.LuvShmuli.com diary entries of a young Jewish lad living in first century Galilee. We have created this story to illustrate in a fun way everyday life in Galilee in New Testament times. Everything included in the diary is based on historical records and archaeology. The village and the diary entries may be mythical but the commentary included on most days contains much that will help people to understand the background to the Gospel accounts.
As part of our research for these stories we have had to take a close look at the available evidence for farming villages in Galilee of the first century. The pictures above form an important collection of records from which we shall draw a number of conclusions about village life at that time. We hope it will add to our knowledge of life at that time and that others will help in this work.
This diary entry from young Shmuli tells us a lot about life in Galilee. He mentions that it is not normal practice for people around the Sea of Galilee to build Sukkot on their roofs due to the wind. This strong wind, that still today blasts down from Galilee’s surrounding hills, is responsible on many evenings for the normally calm water whipping up into terrible storms within minutes. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Sea of Galilee it is always worthwhile getting down to the sea-front early in the evening to watch this phenomenon. They are also mentioned in the Gospel stories.
It is because of these regular strong winds around the Sea of Galilee that I suggested to local archaeologists twenty years ago that their re-constructions of ancient houses in this area could not be correct. They often showed the houses with wood and straw roofs, which could not have survived very long in that area, due to the weather conditions. A better example was the known use of large slabs found at nearby Chorazin. I am gratified to find it is now accepted that wood and straw roofs were very improbable around this lake.
Because of these regular strong evening winds, particularly at this time of year, it is very unlikely that any Sukkah was built on people’s roofs around the first century Sea of Galilee. That is, unless people lived in one of the city centres and had no yard to build their Sukkah in.
We also learn a little about the farmstead of the Shmuli family: These fictional diary entries are, as far as is possible, based upon the historical and archaeological evidence. We already have learnt that the Shmuli farmstead consists of fields of about seven and a half tzemed in size – i.e. about 5 acres. It seems farmsteads in Galilee averaged between 4 & 6 modern acres in size.
The location of Shmuli’s mythical village is shown in the top left of the attached picture – approximately one and a half miles from both Chorazin and Capernaum. The top right picture shows a few of the small farmsteads outside of the fortified town of Gamla on the Golan hills not far away. This shows a small home built into the walls of attached and enclosed paddocks. Within these paddock walls can also be seen a guard tower and areas for confining livestock. Similar farmsteads can be seen just outside of Capernaum marked by the red arrow in the bottom left-hand picture – the green arrow marks the area of Capernaum that visitors see today. Evidence for such farmsteads can just be made out at the site of the mythical village of KfarGanot – see bottom right-hand picture. It is on this abundant evidence that we are basing the imagined village in which Shmuli lives. Beyond these small farmsteads the family would also have owned small fields, often designated by boundary stones. It is very likely that the village also maintained a terracing system on the hillside for growing Olive trees. Similar terracing is still abundantly in evidence today, much ancient and in disrepair. These terraces could be many yards in width/height stretching along the hillsides.
It's well worthwhile visiting www.LuvShmuli.com which has a daily diary of life in a first century Galilee farming village - from the point of view of a mythical young lad, Shmuli. It also has a good commentary giving excellent background historical and archaeological information.