Biblical Personal Hygiene Habits

             This is almost never discussed in history classes and certainly not in churches, but, why not? I believe that the churches have been very deficient in their teaching ministry. If we want to really know about the people mentioned in the Bible, we need to know which languages they spoke and whether they were multilingual, what their political opinions were, what they wore, what they ate, what they read and studied, if they told jokes or had any concept of humor, how they settled personal disputes, if they played games, if they kept pets, how they conducted businesses, their prejudices and hatreds,  how their families were structured, their attitudes towards government, etc. They were normal people and were just as smart as we are, but without our accumulation of facts.

            They had the same common personal household and hygiene concerns we have. They had to cook, wash clothing, clean their teeth, take out the trash, clean and straighten the house, clean dirt from under their fingernails, take time to rest, bathe, try not to smell bad, and to clean themselves after urination and defecation. And yes, even Jesus. He was, after all, fully human. That may bother some people, but we must avoid the tendency to view Jesus as being too different from us. He was God and he was sinless and perfect, but he was also a human. To deny that is troublesome.

            There was an early Christian heresy named docetism (from the Greek infinitive δοκεῖν, meaning to appear or to seem to be) which held that Jesus only seemed to be human but was instead only fully divine. This was rejected by the Church because, if it were true, then Jesus only seemed to suffer and die on on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb was not real. Jesus had to be fully human and fully divine.

            Jesus was an orthodox Jewish man. The ancient Israelites, and later, the Jewish people, were one of the personally cleanest peoples. Some of the other cultures around them were only minimally interested.

            The Israelites were instructed in Deuteronomy 23:13-14 to bury their human waste outside their camp. They bathed and they washed their clothing. They were instructed to wash their feet and hands before serving in the Temple. Sick people were quarantined as were persons who had touched a corpse. If a dead animal was found in a water source, that water was not used.

            Certainly, all this cleaning, washing, and bathing was more for ritual purity than for what we now understand, because of our accumulated knowledge, to be proper hygiene.

            Perfumes and spices were used to mask personal body odor but were very expensive and beyond the reach of most of the common people. Washing and bathing was accomplished using clean water. The soaps used were not our modern soaps but were natural mineral products neter (נֶתֶר lye, alkali) and borit (בֹּרִית soap, lye, cleaning agent), which was a vegetable-based lye made from ashes. Jeremiah 2:22,  Malachi 3:2, and Proverbs 25:20.

In the matter of cleaning oneself after defecation, the method was originally to wipe with the left hand and then to rinse the hand with water. Raba (see below) said “Because the Torah was given with the right hand, as it says, ”At His right hand was a fiery law unto them.””

This is a very detailed discussion at https://toilet-guru.com>biblical_old. The left hand was considered to be unclean in many cultures because of its use in this way.

Later, ostraca (pieces of broken ceramic pottery) with smoothed edges were used to scrape and wipe. It made a lot more sense than just using your hand. This is mentioned in the Talmud in Shabbat 81 and Berachot 62a. The concerns discussed by the rabbis were the weights and sizes of the ostraca and when they could be used. The main concern was for ritual purity. www.talmudology.com

The use of the ostraca originated with the ancient Greeks who often wrote the names of their personal enemies on their own personal toilet ostraca.

Yes, scraping with stones sounds a little bit brutal to modern ears, no matter how well smoothed and polished the pieces of pottery may have been. And they were re-used!

The Romans considered themselves to be far more civilized and sophisticated than their occupied non-Roman populations. Instead of a piece of pottery, they used a tersorium (aka xylospongium), a sponge on a stick. Tersorium basically means a wiping thing.

The xylospogium (tersorium) was shared at the communal non-gender-specific public latrines in Roman towns and cities. It is generally believed that several tersori were passed around among all the people at the latrine, of course being cleaned between users, by dipping and swirling the item into a bucket of water and salt vinegar. It sounds lovely.

The tersori were first mentioned in the second century but were surely in use long before that time. The public latrines were surely too vulgar for wealthy Romans who either had their own sponges on a stick or used washable wool cloths.

In the matter of dental hygiene, the mention of cleanness of teeth in Amos 4:6 is a sarcastic reference to famine. Since there was nothing to eat, one’s teeth remained clean.

The ancient Jewish method for tooth cleaning was not as disgusting as the ostraca. They used miswak, chew sticks made of roots and twigs, to clean their teeth.

The Romans considered themselves to be far too advanced and sophisticated to use chew sticks like the barbarians did. They brushed their teeth (and washed their clothing) with urine and also used it as a mouthwash. The ammonia in the urine was believed to whiten the teeth and to remove stains from fabrics. They did not have Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent, or Listerine!

Raba: (I am not a Talmudic scholar, but I believe that Raba is Rabbah bar Nahmani (b.ca. 270 – d. ca. 320 AD/CE) who was considered to be the greatest Torah scholar in Babylon. He quoted Rabbi Akiba (b. 50 – d. 135) who said, “… it is proper to wipe with the left hand and not the right.”

What They Think of Us: Adolf Hitler

“Christianity is an invention of sick brains; one could imagine nothing more senseless.” Adolf Hitler

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;  (1 Corinthians 1:23-27)

Shocking Information About the Roman Empire

Here is one reason why the Jews and early Christians viewed the Roman Empire as hopelessly corrupt. This has nothing to do with the fact that the wheels of the Empire were greased with bribery.  It has nothing to do with the rampant ruthless ambition of many (possibly most) of the military and political leaders.  It has to do with the Roman attitude towards household sexuality.  A Warning: Do not read this if you are easily shocked.

http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-household.html

Typographical Errors

In my post yesterday on The Big Book of Church Jokes I made a typographical error, even though I check every post for spelling and grammar before I release it.  It is very easy to misspell a word, double your “ands” or your “thes, ” leave out “of,” or to  say something which seems logical when written but which really makes no sense.  In yesterday’s post, I spelled “silly” as “sily.”  I apparently totally missed the red underlining provided by my word processor’s Spell Checker program.

Knowing how easy it is to make a mistake when one writes, it makes it even more amazing to know that the first five books of the Bible (the Torah) have been preserved by the Jews at the LETTER level for thousands of years.

Each synagogue which can afford one owns as Sefer Torah, a handwritten copy of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  This is in the form of a scroll which is used in formal religious ceremonies.  When not in use, the scroll is stored in the holiest spot in the synagogue.

Each of the scrolls is produced under extremely restrictive conditions, on a particular type of parchment using a particular type of quill pen by one specially trained rabbi.  The entire scroll must be produced by that one sofer (scribe)..

The number of letters must total 304,805 with each letter in its proper position, each one perfectly formed, sized, and placed.  The ink of a random imperfect letter may be scraped off the parchment and replaced by a perfect one.  If any error of any sort involves the name of God, that page must be cut from the scroll and a new perfect page must be sewn into its place.  The removed page is buried with respect.

A Sefer Torah can take as long as a year and one half to produce and cost as much as $10,000.  Parchment is a perishable material; still, the oldest known surviving are over 700 years old.

The Jews have done us a great service by their historical insistence on preserving the purity of the scriptures.

"The New York Same-Sex Marriage Vote" Revisited #3

On 28 June 2011, I posted "The New York Same-Sex Marriage Vote" and promised, "More on tax-exempt status, homosexuality, persecution, and marriage later."  Today, persecution.

The first persecution specifically of "Christians" came under the Roman Emperor Nero in 64 AD/CE.  Claudius in 49 persecuted Christians because he thought they were Jews.  Over the years it has never really stopped, whether it has been overt or more subtle.

Persecution takes many forms; it is not always whips and chains and burnings.  Social disapproval, economic interference, litigation, and other forms of harassment can be very effective.  The world at large does not share our values.

"Martyr," from the Greek word, μάρτυρας, means "witness." Christians don't have a tradition of seeking to be martyrs.  We do have a tradition of at least some of us not flinching when called upon to witness.

Ancient Libyan Ruins Threatened by Fighting

The Ruins of the Carthaginian/Roman city of Leptis magna in modern Libya are being threatened by the fighting between the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and those of the NATO alliance.  There is a strong possibility that Qadaffi is hiding military equipment in this and other historical sites, knowing that western forces will be reluctant to damage historical treasures.  A NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) spokesperson has been quoted as saying,"We will strike military vehicles, military forces, military equipment or military infrastructure that threaten Libyan civilians as necessary."

Leptis magna (now known as Lebda, Libya) is not mentioned in the Bible, but Libya itself is. The city of Cyrene, the home of Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21, Matthew 27:32) is located in Libya.  The city of Leptis magna was especially prominent in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and, in 70 AD/CE, became the home of a community of Jewish slaves sent there by Rome after the War of 70.

The city was founded about 130 km east of modern Tripoli as Lpqy sometime near 1100 BC/BCE, a colony of the seafaring Phoenicians and became a major city of the Carthaginian Empire.  In 146 BC/BCE, during the Third Punic War, it fell into Roman hands.  It became one of the major cities of Roman Africa.

If You Don't Do It ...

Mordecai, a Benjamite who was one of the Jews of the Diaspora, deported during the reign of Jehoichin (Esther 2:5-6) was one of those brilliant and capable men who rise to positions of prominence wherever they end up.  He ended up as a trusted Persian official.

He raised, as his own daughter, Hadassah, a cousin whose parents had died when she was a child.  Her Persian name of Esther is probably from the Akkadian goddess named Ishtar, the equivalent of Venus.

After the Persian king, Xerxes, divorced his wife Vashti, he sent out an order to collect up all the beautiful young virgins in his kingdom for what is best described as a "tryout."  Esther was the clear "winner," and won the king's favor, but even she did not dare to just walk in to the king and say "Hi."

Esther was secretly Jewish at the instruction of her adopted father.  Then, when Xerxes was manipulated into issuing an order to exterminate the Jews, Mordecai asked Esther to do something which terrified her.

"When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.  But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions." Esther 4:1-17

God's will cannot and will not be thwarted.  When you are called to act, you must choose to act or to step aside and someone else will step up to answer their call from God.  When you step out of God's plan, you are not promised protection from what may happen.

Gone!

     I just spent the last week in Mundelein and Vernon Hills in Illinois and came away with an odd feeling.  I saw maybe eight black people the entire time I was there and several of them were employees of restaurants and stores I visited.  I saw plenty of Asians and Hispanics but almost no blacks.  It felt creepy, a whole group of people suddenly just gone.  I live in the Deep South where African Americans have a heavy and very visible presence.

     During my alone time during the week I read Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover.  One of the prime movers in the Torah Bible Code movement was Rabbi Michael Dov Ber Weissmandl,  who spent the last years of his life pursuing the codes.

     The more obvious historical significance of Rabbi Weissmandl is his role in at least being able to delay the extermination of the Jews of Slovakia by bribing and deceiving numerous Nazi officials.  It haunted him the rest of his life, but, ultimately the rabbi was not able to save even his own immediate family.  In total, over six million Jews were murdered.  It was as if the entire Jewish population (about 5.2 million in 2009) of the United States were missing.

     The near absence of black people reminded me of the sudden disappearance of the Jews from Europe.  There and then suddenly just gone.