Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus

by Jodi Magness

In Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit Jodi Magness unearths “footprints” buried in both archaeological and literary evidence to shed new light on Jewish daily life in Palestine from the mid-first century b.c.e. to 70 c.e. ― the time and place of Jesus’ life and ministry.

Magness analyzes recent archaeological discoveries from such sites as Qumran and Masada together with a host of period texts, including the New Testament, the works of Josephus, and rabbinic teachings. Layering all these sources together, she reconstructs in detail a fascinating variety of everyday activities ― dining customs, Sabbath observance, fasting, toilet habits, burial customs, and more.

Genres: History, Religion, Archaeology, Nonfiction, Biblical Studies, Ancient History, Christian

375 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2011

About the author

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author and editor of several books, including Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (2011); The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine (2003); and The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2002).

Reviews

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty of dogs and chickens roamed around ancient Jerusalem, but apparently some Jewish sects didn't want them there in case they would eat meat that had been sacrificed. Pharisees had to stand at a distance when conversing with Gentiles in order to avoid being ritually defiled by their spit. One of the reasons that Qumran sectarians did not defecate on the sabbath was that the regulation distance of their latrine from their living quarters exceeded their sabbath boundary.

This is a great book for the latest scholarship about such things.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discussed Jewish purity issues from the time of Jesus. The author looked at various literary sources from that time (including the Bible and Qumran texts) and compared this to what has been found through archaeology. Were certain rulings by rabbis followed by the general population? The author treated the Bible as just another text from the time period, though she wasn't disrespectful. She focused a lot on the Qumran community, both literary texts and archaeological discoveries. This book was academic in tone but easy enough to follow. There were some pictures at the center of the book illustrating some of the archaeological finds that she talked about. While I did learn some interesting things, it has a rather narrow focus on Jewish purity.

[Allen Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly an extremely dry--although thorough and scholarly--exploration of late Second Temple Jewish purity norms. Heavy on archaeology and obscure, mostly reconstructed texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and various Rabbinic traditions. Magness's writing is, unfortunately, poorly structured and often confusing. Only occasionally does the book discuss the "daily life" of 1st-century Judeans, so I felt a bit misled by the subtitle. To summarize, the book was "fine," but it's not one that I would necessarily recommend.

[Abbey Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, Jewish archaeology of 1st couple centuries is my thing. But when the subject matter is 100% purity laws and how we can observe them in the material culture? The result is gonna be boring. Magness makes it bearable. Great pictures. My favorite is the dung pots. And very academically rigorous obviously. Would make a great intro textbook for New Testament background students.

[Tatie Punkinhead · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, it was very repetative and boring and also wish the 'notes' had simply been added into the actual book and then just had a good old fashioned bibliography. But i am not a scholar so maybe that is just me.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Title was misleading as it didn’t really describe life in the time of Jesus as much as quote texts and passages about what people were supposed to do and how to do it. Very dry and scholarly and not in an interesting way.

[Guy Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book to help me understand the life and environment around the time of Jesus. It was very helpful as I was writing The Only Witness: A History of the Shroud of Turin.

[Alison Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting and well written!!

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This nonfiction book is a fascinating exploration into daily life in Palestine from the mid-first century B.C.E. to 70 C.E., which covers both the time of Christ and the Qumran separatist community (whose preserved library is known as the Dead Sea Scrolls). As such, it serves to highlight several episodes in the Gospels, as well as being a resource on Jewish life.

The author uses the current archaeological record, along with the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bible (Old and New Testaments), other ancient writings (primarily from Josephus), and the Talmud to explore basic daily life in a period that basically covers Palestine for the two centuries before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. In Jerusalem there were two major religious factions. The Pharisees believed that an Oral Law was given along with the Written Law of Moses; they believed in an afterlife, and applied the laws applicable to priests in the Temple to everyday life. The Sadducees were conservative in that they believed only in the Written Law; they were the priestly party, and as such had an interest in remaining on a positive footing with Rome. The Essenes left Jerusalem out of disgust with the other parties, viewing Jerusalem as cesspool of impurity and sinfulness; one community settled in the desert at Qumran, and conducted daily life quite differently than the other two groups (with their way of life attested to by the Dead Sea Scrolls).

In this book the author considers Purification, Food, Household Vessels, Dining Customs, Sabbath Observance and Fasting, Coins, Clothing and Tzitzit, Oil and Spit, Toilets and Toilet Habits, and Tombs and Burial Customs, with a Epilogue on The Aftermath of 70 C.E. To a large degree, for every subheading, the higher-class people in Jerusalem (the Sadducees) lived one way, incorporating Roman customs, the lower-class people of Jerusalem and the countryside lived another way, and the Qumran community lived in an extreme of purity laws (among other things, they apparently fasted on the day before each Sabbath, so as not to defile the Sabbath by urinating or defecating).

She also considers the Gospels and how the life of Jesus and what he did corresponded to these areas; an observant Jew, he rejected orthopraxy (correct action) in favor of orthodoxy (correct thinking). In the section on Tombs and Burial Customs she reviews the burial of Jesus in the garden tomb, the burial of the Apostle James, and ossuaries (especially the ones featured in the news in the past several years).

The book contains an extensive section of notes, covering some 83 pages, which I began reading while reading the main text, but abandoned as an unwieldy procedure, They are quite informative, though, and add to the main text. I enjoyed reading the book, and regret that I must return this book to the library.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

An archaeologist puts a few aspects of ancient Jewish life under the magnifying glass.

With a strong interest in the time and place that this book examines, and having enjoyed the author's The Archaeology Of Qumran And The Dead Sea Scrolls, I was more than willing to buy this volume. And in the main I think it delivered the goods, even though I believe that its subtitle, "Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus", is not really an accurate description of its contents. For, as the main title suggests, this book looks closely at certain material details of that Jewish daily life; it does not set out to give a full, rounded sense of life in ancient Judea.

Those material details, though, are interesting and telling. The author looks at what both archaeology and ancient text sources have to say about the ancient Jews' attitudes and habits regarding the ritual purity of their bodies and hands; various animals such as locusts, dogs, and chickens; and their household vessels and eating arrangements. Probably my favorite chapter was 10, "Toilets and Toilet Habits", in which Magness impassively examines this important but often overlooked aspect of everyday life.

Her method in general is to look at various text sources, biblical, ancient, and modern, and see how the current archaeological record fits with the various views. When all the evidence is presented, she offers her own opinions, which are always cautious and reasonable.

The author comes across as sober and conscientious. Fanciful speculation and word-painting are as alien to Magness's style as levity. She's not afraid to weigh in on controversial topics, such as the authenticity of the ossuary of James, brother of Jesus, but only after long consideration of all the evidence. Her thoroughness is further reflected in the fact that the text of this 335-page book ends on page 186; the rest is end-notes, bibliography, and index.

The upshot is that while I find Magness's prose dry and workmanlike, I have a lot of confidence in her as a researcher. She doesn't mind going through piles of evidence, sifting, assessing, and doing her best to leave her feelings, whatever they may be, out of it. And while this book's zooming in on the minutiae of ancient Jewish life has a kind of through-the-keyhole quality of seeing only fragments, those fragments are revealing of the bigger picture--and they are well supported.

The ideal readers for this book would be biblical archaeology nerds. After them, those who have a serious and searching interest in the details of life in ancient Judea, and would-be archaeologists.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too dry and oddly organized. The idea itself is interesting--using what texts we have from Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic commentary, etc to learn about daily life during the New Testament period. That said, I'd prefer a book that focuses on how daily life affects our interpretation of NT passages. The author does this nicely from time to time, but it's not the focus of the book. It doesn't have any introductory material in each chapter. As a result it sort of lurches from topic to topic and chapter to chapter without any idea about why the author picked these issues or why they tie together.

[Dave McNeely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well-researched, this book is clearly only for an academically-interested reader. At times, the information is tedious, especially given that the "conclusion" is often a necessarily qualified and timid supposition. Full of interesting information, though.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really learned a lot about biblical life, sects, and observance of purity laws, as well as how much we really haven't learned yet about the time and how much is open to interpretation. Really interesting, I really enjoyed it!

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

And for my next trick, I will transform an archaeologist into a rabbinic scholar!

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will be a good reference tool in the future, but not very readable. Good mix of literary and archaeological investigation into social customs of the first century AD in Israel.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and fair review of the ancient jewish communities in the archaeological record