Daily life
How did people live in Bible times?
What did they wear, how did they live, what jewellery did they have and what did they make with their hands? Dress someone, look inside a house and throw a pot yourself. You'll read the stories with new eyes.
Get dressed the way they did
Put on layer after layer and read what each garment was and where it turns up in the Bible. Or dress him as the high priest.
Help him get dressed for the journey! Tap the clothes, one by one.
0 of 5 on
Tap a garment to put it on. You can read here what it was.
Wool, linen and costly colours
Choose a fabric or a dye and dip the cloth in the vat. Purple and scarlet were so expensive that your clothes showed who you were.
Wool
from sheep
Most clothes were made of wool: warm, strong and available from every flock. After shearing, the wool was washed, carded and spun. The woman of Proverbs 31 seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands.
Wool comes from sheep. Warm cloaks were made of it.
Rings, earrings and crowns
Jewellery was money in your pocket, a bridal gift or a sign of authority. It says a lot in the stories, also when things go wrong.
The signet ring
A ring, or a stone on a cord, with your own seal, to press into clay or wax: your signature. Whoever received someone's ring could speak in his name. Pharaoh gave Joseph his ring; the father put a ring on the finger of his returning son.
A ring with a stamp: your own signature. The father gave his lost son a ring. He fully belonged again!
Nose ring and bracelets
At the well, Abraham's servant gave Rebekah a golden nose ring and two heavy bracelets: a bridal gift. Ezekiel uses the picture for God, who adorns Jerusalem like a bride.
At the well Rebekah got a golden nose ring and bracelets. She was going to marry Isaac.
Crowns
Kings wore a crown of gold, sometimes set with precious stones. Jesus was given a crown of thorns, in mockery. The New Testament promises those who stay faithful 'the crown of life', and in Revelation the elders lay their crowns before the throne.
Kings wore a golden crown. Jesus got a crown of thorns. In heaven they lay their crowns down before God.
Earrings for a calf
Jewellery could also be misused. In the desert the people gave their golden earrings to Aaron, and he cast a calf from them to worship. Later Jacob's household buried their earrings and idols under an oak.
The people melted their earrings into a golden calf and worshipped it. That was not good.
Beauty within
Peter does not forbid jewellery, but puts it in its place: 'Do not let your adorning be braided hair, gold or fine clothing, but the hidden person of the heart: a gentle and quiet spirit.' God looks at the heart.
Jewellery is pretty, but God looks at your heart. Being kind is the most beautiful jewel.
The pearl
Pearls came from far away and were worth more than gold. Jesus tells of a merchant who sells everything for one pearl of great value: that is what the kingdom of God is like. In Revelation each gate of the new city is a single pearl.
A merchant sold everything for one wonderful pearl. That's how happy you can be with God!
The high priest's breastplate
Twelve precious stones in four rows, each engraved with the name of a tribe. Tap a stone.
Tap a stone to see which one it is and whose name it bears.
Every stone has a name on it. The high priest carried them on his heart: that is how God carries his people with him.
Which stones exactly are meant, we don't know for sure: the Hebrew names are old and translations differ. Exodus does not give the order of the names on the breastplate; here they follow birth order, as on the shoulder stones (Exodus 28:10). In Revelation 21 similar stones return in the foundations of the new Jerusalem.
A look inside a house
A house like the many archaeologists have found in Israel: the animals and the stores downstairs, an open courtyard in the middle, and life on the flat roof. Tap a number, or play the seek game.
Look inside the house! Where do the animals sleep? Where do they bake bread? Play the seek game.
The drawing is a reconstruction: houses differed from region to region and century to century.
The flat roof
Beams, branches and a thick layer of rolled clay: the roof was flat, and you lived on it. You dried flax and figs there, slept there on warm nights and prayed there, like Peter in Joppa. It needed a parapet so that no one fell off. Four friends dug a hole in it and lowered their paralysed friend, right in front of Jesus.
On the flat roof you could sleep, pray and play. Four friends made a hole in it for their sick friend!
Tents, gates and dwellings
The tent of the patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived in tents of goat hair and moved about with their flocks. Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent when three visitors came. Hebrews: he lived in tents as a stranger, looking forward to a city that God builds.
The city gate
The gate was more than an entrance: in the chambers beside it the elders sat, justice was done and deals were made. Boaz settled his marriage to Ruth there. 'Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate.'
A house in the wall
In some cities houses stood against or within the city wall. Rahab lived like that in Jericho, and let the spies down from her window on a rope.
Built on the rock
In a land of dry riverbeds that suddenly flood after a downpour, everyone knew: don't build your house on sand. Jesus: whoever hears my words and does them is like someone who built his house on the rock.
Many rooms
'In my Father's house are many rooms.' A family house grew with the family: a room was added when a son married. Many read Jesus' words against that background: he goes to prepare a place, there is room for those who belong to him.
He pitched his tent
'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us', literally: pitched his tent among us. John is thinking of the tabernacle, the tent in which God lived among his people.
Clay, wood, stone and thread
Almost everything was made by hand, often at home. Jesus was a builder, Paul a tentmaker, Peter a fisherman. Try the potter's wheel and the loom yourself.
At the potter's wheel
Shape a pot. Does it fail? Then the potter makes something new from it.
Jeremiah went down to the potter's house. The pot he was making was spoiled in his hands, but the potter did not throw the clay away: he made it into another pot, as seemed good to him. 'Like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand', says God. Paul uses the same picture in Romans 9.
The potter's pot went wrong. He didn't throw it away but made something new from it. That's how God is with us.
At the loom
Choose a colour and throw the shuttle through the threads. Row by row your pattern grows.
0 of 12 rows
An upright loom: the warp threads hang taut, weighted with stones, and the shuttle with the weft thread passes in front and behind in turn. Job complains that his days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. How fast will your cloth grow?
Choose a colour and throw the shuttle through. Over, under, over, under: that's how it becomes cloth!
What everything was made of
Clay
Pots, lamps, jars, ovens and even roofing: all of clay. Potsherds are what archaeologists find most. Paul: 'We have this treasure in jars of clay', to show that the power comes from God.
Clay made pots, jars and little lamps. God is like a potter and we are the clay.
Wood
Wood was scarce and precious: doors, roof beams, ploughs, yokes. Joseph and Jesus are called 'tekton', usually translated carpenter; the word means a builder in wood or stone. Jesus' yoke 'is easy'.
Jesus and Joseph worked with wood and stone. They made doors, ploughs and yokes.
Stone
Houses, walls, millstones, tombs and the great stones of the temple. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Peter: you are living stones, built together into a house for God.
Houses were built of stones. Peter says: you are living stones in God's house.
Bronze
Copper and tin together: for pots, weapons, the altar and the basin of the tabernacle. Moses made a bronze serpent on a pole, and whoever looked at it lived. Jesus: so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Moses made a bronze snake on a pole. Whoever looked at it got better.
Iron
Iron was harder than bronze. In Saul's time the Philistines had the smiths, and Israel had to go to them to sharpen its ploughs. The prophets see a day when swords are beaten into ploughshares.
Ploughs were made of iron. One day we'll turn all swords into ploughs!
Gold and silver
Gold and silver were refined in a crucible: the fire takes out the impurities. That is how the Bible describes God refining people. Peter: your faith is more precious than gold tested by fire.
Gold was made very pure in the fire. That is how God makes our faith strong.
Spinning and weaving
Almost every family spun and wove for itself: wool and flax became thread, thread became cloth on an upright loom. Bezalel and Oholiab were given wisdom by God for the weaving of the tabernacle. 'You knitted me together in my mother's womb.'
On a loom thread became cloth. God made you too, thread by thread.
Leather
Tanned hides became belts, sandals, skins for water and wine, and tents. Paul earned his living as a tentmaker, together with Aquila and Priscilla, so as not to be a burden to anyone. Jesus: you don't put new wine into old wineskins.
Paul made tents of leather and cloth. That's how he earned his food.
Nets
Fishermen on the Sea of Galilee knotted nets of linen thread and mended them after every night. James and John were mending their nets when Jesus called them. After the resurrection the net was so full, 153 fish, and it did not tear.
Fishermen made nets of rope. Jesus said: come, I will make you fishers of people!