Thursday, October 10, 2013 (full size gallery)
We continued the series on “Feasting with Jesus” based on the book The Food and Feasts of Jesus.
The series began in Lent and started again last month with “Picnic on the Beach” featuring the return of Christ in the Gospel of John
We had 10 to dinner on a soggy night at St. Peter’s. Besides opening glasses of wine, the dinner featured spiced lamb, split pea soup, bulghur, two types of bread and apricot and date pastries. Catherine lectured on agriculture in the time of Jesus, the importance of grain, and also the festivals that were centered around the agriculture of the time.
Those in the first century saw it was a miracle from God that new plants emerged from what looked like to be dead seeds. For that reason wheat and grains were symbols of resurrection. “Fertility, the mysteries of life, nourishment and vitality were also represented by grains” as the authors explain. Grains typically grew in the valleys. A 1000 years before Jesus time farmers terraced many of the hills so that crops could be grown on them without fear erosion. Olive fruit trees , vineyards and some vegetables crops were grown there