‘What would Jesus eat?’ Church class seeks answers
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A Web-only photo by Cathy Farmer "Lentil stew, anyone?" asks John Williams Jr., during a class on biblical foods.
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"Lentil
stew, anyone?" asks John Williams Jr., during a class on biblical
foods. Williams taught a short series of Sunday school classes titled,
"What Would Jesus Eat?" at Broadway United Methodist Church in Paducah,
Ky. A UMNS photo by Cathy Farmer. Photo #w05-095. Accompanies UMNS story
#428. 7/28/05 |
July 28, 2005
By Cathy Farmer*
Esau sold his
birthright to Jacob for a mess of lentil stew. You can find the story
right there in the Bible, Genesis 25:29-34. For an eldest son like Esau
to sell his birthright meant he was giving up the leadership of the
family and a double share of the inheritance.
So what the heck is lentil stew?
“Lentil stew or pottage
is made by cooking lentils to mush,” explained John Williams Jr., a
self-described “avid cook” and Sunday school teacher at Broadway United
Methodist Church in Paducah, Ky. Williams is teaching a series
of classes he calls, “What Would Jesus Eat?”
“I’ve been collecting
books on the topic for almost 10 years,” Williams said, “and I’ve been
trying out recipes using only the food common in the biblical world. It
seemed to me that other people might be interested as well, so I offered
this series.”
Back to the lentil
stew. According to Williams, nomads like Jacob and Esau, who lived in
tents and cooked over fires, needed to prepare food that would last. No
refrigerators, you understand. No tables, either. They tended to sit
around on rugs and eat with their hands or by scooping the food with
bread.
“Often, the meal was
cooked days or even weeks in advance,” Williams explained. “It was
served ‘room’ temperature. And it wasn’t uncommon to have a big bowl in
the middle of the tent from which everyone would dip by hand.”
He picked up a pottery
bowl filled with pottage and offered it for sampling. Most of the class
approached the brownish mush — which looked rather like lumpy refried
beans — gingerly.
“Hmmm,” was the general consensus of the 20 or so students. “Not bad, but nothing to give away your birthright for!”
Of course, in his
defense, Esau was famished. According to the account in the Bible, the
oldest twin had been out in the field working or hunting while Jacob,
his mama’s favorite, was hanging around the tent, cooking up beans and
onions.
To the average American, lentil stew might not look all that enticing. But to a nomadic shepherd?
Williams provided a
list of the foodstuffs that would have been available in the ancient
Holy Land. But he cautioned the class to remember that everything was
seasonal — there was no year-round food supply. Nor was the peasant
family able to afford many items on the list.
“Their diet was rather bland,” he said. “And storage was a problem. They used large clay jars for some things.”
“Would you call that biblical Tupperware?” called one woman.
Vegetables were
especially limited from the perspective of a person who can drive to the
local supermarket and pick up nearly anything grown anywhere on the
globe.
Anise, artichokes,
beans, cucumbers, fennel, leeks, lentils, mustard greens, onions and
sorrel rounded out the list of vegetables.
Fruits included apricots, dates, figs, grapes, mulberries, muskmelon, olives, pomegranates, quinces and raisins.
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A UMNS photo by Cathy Farmer Sunday school class members taste the biblical feast prepared by teacher John Williams Jr.
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Sunday
school class members at Broadway United Methodist Church in Paducah,
Ky., taste the biblical feast prepared by teacher John Williams Jr. He
taught a short series of classes titled, "What Would Jesus Eat?" A UMNS
photo by Cathy Farmer. Photo #05-539. Accompanies UMNS story #428.
7/28/05 |
Meat, usually the main
dish in an American meal, was expensive, and it was typically
“stretched” with something like barley by nomads like Esau and Jacob.
“It was sort of the ‘hamburger-helper’ of its time,” said Kristin Williams, John’s wife.
Lamb, beef, fish (both fresh and dried), chicken, pigeons (squab), goat and quail were the meats available.
Herbs and spices
included caraway, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, mustard, saffron, bay
leaves, capers, coriander, dill, garlic, hyssop, parsley, sage and
thyme.
In Psalms, David mentions being “purged with hyssop,” which the class discovered to be rather bitter tasting.
Milk and milk products
such as butter and yogurt were important. Williams offered several
dishes that featured yogurt — cucumbers and yogurt salad and hummus with
yogurt and dill. (Hummus is a mixture of chickpeas, tahini and garlic.
Tahini is ground sesame seeds.)
Since there was no
sugar, desserts would have been few and far between, and possibly
included honey and various fruits, such as dates and grapes.
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A Web-only photo by Cathy Farmer Biblically
inspired dishes (from top): lentil pottage, cucumbers fried with
hyssop, sauteed onions/leeks/almonds and parsley, and lamb stretched
with barley.
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Biblically
inspired dishes featured in John Williams Jr.'s Sunday school class
include (from top) lentil pottage, cucumbers fried with hyssop, sauteed
onions/leeks/almonds and parsley, and lamb stretched with barley.
Williams taught a short series of classes titled, "What Would Jesus
Eat?" at Broadway United Methodist Church in Paducah, Ky. A UMNS photo
by Cathy Farmer. Photo #w05-096. Accompanies UMNS story #428. 7/28/05 |
“I consider the food
mentioned in the Bible the fingerprints of the people,” Williams said as
he described the various dishes he had prepared for the class. “These
would have been included in a feast for events such as marriages,
Passover, family gatherings (think of the dinner prepared for the
prodigal son) and ritual special occasions.
“The first course is
grape leaves stuffed with lamb and wheat, plain yogurt and a shredded
cucumber salad made with yogurt and fresh herbs. You’ll notice there
aren’t a lot of vegetables.
“At the Last Supper,”
he continued, “which was a Passover Feast, what did Jesus eat? Bread and
wine. Jesus wasn’t a man with money, and he tended to eat with the
marginalized, such as prostitutes and tax collectors.
“Does anyone know when the early church met?” he asked. “Sunday evening. And Communion would end the service.”
With a wave of his hand, Williams urged the class to try the rest of the dishes spread over two tables and a counter top.
In addition to the
“lentil stew,” there were cucumbers fried with hyssop, onions and leeks
sauteed with almonds and parsley, lamb stretched with barley, hummus,
pita chips (unleavened and toasted bread), quince, walnuts, pistachios,
almonds, water, grape juice (instead of wine) and olives.
“Pretty good,” was the final decision. “Pretty good.”
*Farmer is director of communications for the Memphis Annual (regional) Conference of the United Methodist Church.
News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Broadway United Methodist Church
Recipe for Lentil Stew
Faith and Food
The Story of Esau and Jacob
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