Foods in the Old Testament Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Figs are mentioned on numerous occasions in the Bible. As early as Genesis Chapter 3, verse 6, Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nakedness There is a specific reference to eating cakes made from figs in 1 Samuel, when Abigail brought 200 of them to David and his men, along with many other foods.

Numbers 11:5 gives a list of foods which the Israelites are remembering with regret during their wanderings in the wilderness. The diet of manna was starting to pall, and they recalled the riches of Egypt, at least as regards the foods. The verse refers to 'the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick'. Of course, it wasn't just manna - they had meat in the form of quail supplied, which is also in the list.

Apples are mentioned in Song of Solomon 2:5 when the beloved is asked to 'comfort me with apples'. Although olives and olive trees are mentioned frequently in the Bible, the context is mainly to do with the uses of the oil they produce. Mentioning olives as food is rarer, but both Deuteronomy 6:11 and Joshua 24:13 promise that the Promised Land will contain vineyards and olive trees which the weary Israelites will be able to eat from without having to carry out the hard work of planting and cultivating them.

There were no domesticated chickens in the region in Old Testament times, but there are references and instructions for taking eggs from wild birds' nests. Clear instructions were given that the mother bird must not be taken. There is an indirect reference to the eating of eggs in Job 6:6 when he likens the advice from his friends to bland food - the precise words are 'is there any taste in the white of an egg?'. Job wouldn't have known this without having eaten an egg.

The second Book of Samuel mentions butter, cheese and honey together in 2 Samuel 17:29 saying 'honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat'. Butter and honey are also mentioned together in Isaiah 7:22 while cheese also appears in 1 Samuel 17:18. The butter and cheese would not be as we know them and later translations of the Bible refer to butter as 'curds', while the original wording for cheese is translated as 'slices of curdled milk' from the original Hebrew.

Venison, the meat of animals of the deer family, is mentioned in Genesis 27 when Isaac instructs Esau to hunt a deer and bring him a meal made from the meat. As part of the trickery which enabled Jacob to receive the blessing which should have gone to Esau, Jacob, with the connivance of his mother Rebekah, gives his father a meal of goat instead. By the time Isaac realises, he has already blessed Jacob, believing him to be Esau and it is too late to change it.

Lentils crop up regularly in the Bible, forming a staple part of the diet for many people. Esau famously traded his birthright to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of lentil stew in Genesis 25 - this took place before the trickery described in the previous paragraph. Ezekiel 4:9 also refers to the prophet being instructed by God to make a special bread to last him through a siege - lentils are included in this recipe.

Several grains are mentioned in the Bible and were a major part of everyday diet. They include wheat and barley with millet being another ingredient in the bread made by Ezekiel and mentioned in the previous paragraph. It is the only time that millet is specifically named in the Bible.

Three of the foods not eaten in the Bible are forbidden under the dietary laws laid down in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Pigs are mentioned in the Bible, but pork, the meat from them, would not be allowed, nor would rabbit, as the only animals allowed to be eaten had to be cloven-hooved and chew the cud. This allowed Old Testament people to eat cows, sheep and deer. Fish needed to have fins and scales, which ruled out all shellfish, including prawns. The others are not mentioned at all. Tomatoes, oranges and strawberries would not have been known in the Middle East at the time. Cauliflower appears much later in time too.