People enjoy food.

~Matthew 24.37-42 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.
“Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.
“So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.

People enjoy food--even when judgement is at the door.

The second thing that stands out to me here is how much preparing for food was part of daily life, far much more than today. Today we may spend all day at an office or factory or shop or school then pick up something out of a package for dinner. In those days, the average person spent much more time growing and preparing food. Working in the fields, grinding grain--common scenes. I bet that fresh bread from the newly ground grain was delicious.

Fried chicken?

~Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

When I was a child fried chicken was the classic after-church Sunday dinner. Did Jesus ever sit down to a meal of fried chicken? Who knows? It seems the verses here are the only referrals to chicken/hens in the Bible (more on fowl later). Apparently they were around, so I'm guessing they were eaten.

Mint, Dill, Cumin, and Rue

~Matthew 23.23 "How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You pretenders! You give God a tenth of your spices, like mint, dill and cumin. But you have not practiced the more important things of the law, like fairness, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the last things without failing to do the first.

I wrote about the Luke 11 version of this saying on July 6, but here it is again in Matthew. (Looks like the chronological Bible has chosen the bigger setting for placing this passage.) The point is the same; the herbs are different. For my purpose, that's great. We broaden the picture of what was used during the first century. So add dill and cumin to the list of mint and rue. I love dill and have grown it successfully except that it goes to seed rather quickly. Wikipedia says cumin is "the second most popular spice in the world," behind black pepper. It's the seasoning commonly used in chili powder and its smell makes me think tacos.

PS Generally, I like the New Living Translation, but here I'm disappointed. It just says "herb gardens" in this verse. Give me the details!

The Kingdom of God is a feast!

~Matthew 22.1-14 The Story of the Wedding Dinner

I'm not going to print the parable here, but just note that once again, Jesus is comparing the Kingdom of God to a feast, a banquet, a wedding dinner. Yea!

Tea

Now that cooler weather is here, I enjoy putting a pot of water on the stove for tea. This past weekend Steve and I had a fun group of Chinese grad students over and the subject of tea came up. Did Jesus and the disciples ever share a pot of tea? It would seem not. Neither the New International nor King James concordances have a reference for it and a quick online check confirms no record of tea's appearance in the Middle East until long after the time of Christ.

Vineyards

~Mark 12.1-2 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard."

~also told in Matthew 21.33-34 and Luke 20.9-10

~Matthew 21.28-32 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’"

Vineyards were common enough that they required no explanation.

Fig

Jesus refers to fig trees several times.

~Matthew 21.18-22 and Mark 11.12-14 and 20-25 record his cursing of the tree which was out in full leaf, but bearing no fruit.

~Luke 13.6-9 Parable of the Barren Fig Tree Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’
“The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”

Both of these emphasize the importance of fulfilling purpose, in the case of the fig tree, bearing fruit.

~Mark 13.28 “Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near."

~Luke 21.28-30 So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!” Then he gave them this illustration: “Notice the fig tree, or any other tree. When the leaves come out, you know without being told that summer is near."

Here the tree illustrates how to interpret signs.

In other gospel references, Zacchaeus climbs a fig tree to see Jesus (Luke 19) and Nathaniel is impressed that Jesus saw him under a fig tree in John 1.

~Matthew 7.16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
~James 3.12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

I'm guessing that figs were a commonly eaten fruit of the first-century Middle East and so easily understood as metaphors in making these three points. I don't remember that I've ever had a fresh fig, anything beyond Fig Newtons. :-]