Childhood in Jesus’ Time

#61: “Childhood in Jesus’ Time” by Brendon Wahlberg
“People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” (Mark 10:13-16)
You might wonder, as you read this passage, just who were the little children of Jesus’ day and age? What were they like? How did they live? What did they do (when they weren’t getting blessed by Jesus)? What was childhood like in New Testament times? Let’s go back in time and see what we can learn. Imagine, if you will, that you are a child living two thousand years ago in Galilee…
First things first – you are born. Chances are that you popped out of your mother while she was sitting in a birthing chair, surrounded by female relatives, and helped by a midwife. You were wrapped up right away in linen strips called swaddling clothes, but you didn’t formally get your name until you were eight days old. Are you a boy? Good for you – you will have higher status, and more freedom and privileges. If you are a girl, don’t feel bad – you will be equally loved and cherished. It’s just a patriarchal society, that’s all, and it won’t be changing anytime soon. Plus, as a girl, you avoided a painful circumcision. Still, boys are preferred because when a daughter gets married, she moves away and an asset to the family is lost. A son remains a part of the family forever.
Rejoice! You are a new child! And you are important. The whole reason for marriage is to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Your mother’s main goal in life was to have you. Well, not just you. You probably have around six other brothers and sisters. And that’s not all. You are part of an extended family living in one household. You may be living with cousins, uncles, aunts, sisters-in-law, and grandparents, in addition to your siblings and parents. Why such a large family? Everyone agrees that more kids are better. When all those kids grow up, they are a great asset. A larger family can better fight off an attack. More children are more workers in the field or with the herds. Finally, when your parents are old, you and your siblings can take care of them.
So now you are an infant. Like a modern child, you have to deal with potty training and diaper changing. Actually, you might not have diapers. Those are a lot of work to wash. Your mother might carry a small clay pot for you instead. You are going to be breast fed until you are about three years old. You have simple toys, like a rattle or a clay horse, to play with. You practically never leave your mother’s side. She provides you with a kind of preschool until you are three, teaching you the basics of life until you are weaned and potty trained.
When you are finally out of diapers, what will you wear? Your clothes will be plain. They will be made of simply woven wool or cotton. You’ll have either no underwear, or a loincloth. Your inner garment will be a tunic, fitting closely at your neck and reaching to your ankles. Your belt, or girdle, holds it in at the waist. Your outer garment, or mantle, will be a warm cloak. Your sandals will be simple pieces of hide, tied with thongs or cords. It’s not fancy, but it is what everyone is wearing. And I mean everyone.
Look around. Where do you live? What is your house like? Well, it looks like your family isn’t rich. Your house is built from bricks made out of baked clay and straw. Inside, there is just one room! The floor is made of beaten clay – your mother is always sweeping it. One side of the room is a raised platform, which your family uses for eating and sleeping. The lower area is for the animals. They sleep in the house too. You might have a cow, a goat, a donkey, a sheep, a chicken, or even a dog. Your favorite pet while you are growing up, though, is a little lamb.
It is dimly lit inside your small house. There is just one window, which is basically a hole in the wall, covered by a lattice. But less light getting in means it stays cooler. At night, the only light is provided by an oil lamp set high on a lamp stand. There is very little furniture, too. Your family has a couple of stools. You sleep on a simple mat. Your central heating system is a brazier in which a fire can be lit. With space at a premium, your family has a little set of stairs going up the outside of your house to the roof. The roof is a good place to relax or sleep when it is too hot in the house. People like to talk to their neighbors from their rooftops. But inside, the roof leaks during the rainy season. The animal smells are sometimes too much, and there might be vermin in the walls. It is no wonder you spend more time outside your house. Your mother cooks outside, and tends her small garden there.
Your neighbor is wealthier. They have a few rooms in their house, built around a central courtyard with a protective wall. That allows them the luxury of having their animals sleep outside. Plus they have their own cistern to store water. Your mother brings it from the town well every day. But you must not covet your neighbor’s house. You know that, because if you are a boy, you have already started your religious education.
At age three, your father started to teach you about your religion and your heritage. Your father teaches you about the Torah. You are learning some psalms, some scripture passages, and some simple prayers. Your everyday life is part of your education. Religious festivals and the weekly Sabbath are endless opportunities for stories, questions, and answers. You are soaking up the history of your people on days like Passover. You get all of this education right in the family setting. But your small town also has a synagogue, and in a few years, when you are seven, you will spend some time there, learning from a teacher about subjects like Jewish history and law, and basic math. You might learn how to read and write, but sometimes those skills are best left to the professional scribes. In an agricultural society, you may not need to read and write much.
If you are a boy, your life has to be balanced between religious and work training. You have to have a trade or an occupation. From an early age, in fact, your family put you to work. At first, it was small jobs to keep you busy and to make yourself useful. You gathered wood for the home fire and brought water from the well. You tended the sheep or the goats, taking them to pasture and watching over them. Now that you are older, you have to go with your father to the field, or to his workshop, and watch him working. You will help him more and more as you get older, because eventually, you will master your father’s trade. It will probably be your job as an adult.
Now, if you are a girl, you don’t have to study all of that religious information. So, how are you going to use all your time? Your mother has some ideas. Her job is to prepare you to be a housewife. There are many things to do at home. There is cooking, and keeping the cook fires burning. There is bringing water from the well. There is doing laundry in the river. There is sewing, grinding flour, baking, spinning, weaving, gardening, feeding and changing the infants, and cleaning the house. A woman’s work is never done! (Is it too late to go back and be born a boy instead? It is your imagination, so sure, knock yourself out.) But remember, you are living in an extended family. Aunts, sisters, grandmothers, and sisters-in-law all help and support each other in the same house.
Are you tired from all of that work? Do you need some playtime? Of course you do. Times have not changed so much. Toys and games were part of childhood too. Children played board games like checkers and backgammon. They had playthings like dolls, dollhouses, puppets, and pull-toys. They played with leather balls and marbles. There were no team sports, but children played catch and held footraces. Boys wrestled, and practiced shooting slingshots. Juggling and hopscotch were popular. And of course, made-up games and storytelling were great pastimes.
Are you hungry now? I’ll bet you are. Your family has only two meals per day. The first one is a light breakfast or a small lunch, perhaps eaten on the way to work. The main meal of the day is an early dinner. The evening meal is an occasion for the whole family. The food isn’t fancy, but it is good for you. Wheat and barley are used for flour, bread, and cakes, baked fresh every two days. For vegetables, you have might have beans, peas, cucumbers, onions, or radishes. There are eggs from the chickens. There could be figs, grapes, raisins, olives, or melons. Milk, yogurt, and cheese come from goats. There is usually fish, of course. There is no candy, but sweets can be made from honey. Your family doesn’t drink much plain water, as it stands around for a long time and is not very good to drink. Instead, they wash everything down with watered wine. All of the food is heavily seasoned, with onions or garlic, salt, mustard, mint, or dill. You don’t eat meat very often. Animals are too valuable to kill for their meat. However, sometimes there is a religious sacrifice which provides a rare meal with meat in it, such as lamb.
I’ll be honest. Your childhood is going to be short. If you were a twenty-first century child, you would have the years between 13 and 18 as an extended childhood called adolescence. But you are living in Jesus’ time. You get no adolescence. By age 13, you are considered an adult. A boy who turns 13 is a man. He can be a member of the synagogue and participate in the services. He can sign contracts and testify in court. He can even get married. Childhood is fleeting, and soon you are an adult who fully participates in the life of the family.
And so we return to the present. Now we know more about what childhood was like in the time of Jesus. Now we know what the little children were like, who came to Jesus to be blessed. In modern times, when we picture those children with Jesus, we might be thinking of the children of today…perhaps a cute little kindergartener. For today’s children, childhood lasts longer, and so, perhaps, does the innocence and trust that makes children proverbially well suited for the Kingdom of God. The children of Jesus’ time were more like little adults, moving quickly into lives of hardship and responsibility. Interestingly, if you look at the same story of Jesus and the Children, but in the Gospel of Luke instead of Mark, there is a small difference in the wording. Instead of Mark’s “People were bringing little children to him”, Luke says, “People were bringing even infants to him” (Luke 18:15-17). I wonder…given what childhood was really like in Jesus’ time, maybe it really was the infants, more so than the older children, who were the best illustration of innocence and readiness for entering the Kingdom.