Researching in the Ruins + Giveaway

Dana McNeely

While the internet is a wonderful research tool, books are often more dependable. This was driven home to me recently because my computer has been in the repair shop for more than a week, and I'm typing this on a loaner laptop. I was grateful to an "old ruin" of a book, paper and ink rather than the "cloud," for providing me research material for this blog post.

One of my favorite old reference books is PALESTINE AND THE BIBLE by Samuel Schor, born in Jerusalem around 1860. My falling-apart copy is faded and worn, the nineteenth edition published in 1931, so the book itself is a piece of history. Having the appearance of a homemade book, it is a true soft cover, made of tan paper only slightly thicker than its pages, folded back to reinforce the edges. Perhaps it resembles the first pamphlets from which it originated.

In its introduction, Schor wrote "God's Word is an Eastern Book. It was written in the East, by Easterns, and for Easterns." He went on to say his little book was intended to help Western readers understand Eastern expressions as they studied the Bible. He often included Bible verses to illustrate his descriptions of life and customs in Jerusalem. In 1891, he started what he called the "Palestine Exhibitions." His book developed over the time he lectured and wrote pamphlets for the Exhibitions.

I consider PALESTINE AND THE BIBLE an early precursor to "Everyday Life in Bible Times" books. The book is out of print and I believe copies are rare, so in this post I'd like to share with you a few tidbits of Schor's unique insights.

EASTERN PLOUGHS AND YOKES

• Primitive ploughs were made of wood, had a handle, and were light enough to be carried by a man. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)
• The plough is fastened to the neck of oxen with a yoke and the oxen pass under it.  But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 27:11a)
• The weight of the yoke makes the poor animals stoop, hence the force of the allusion that when God brought Israel out of Egypt and broke their yoke of bondage, He said "I made you go upright." I AM the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. (Leviticus 26:13)
• Partly for protection and partly because of the size of their fields, farmers would often plow together, each with his own team of oxen, creating long, straight plow lines across the field. Thus Elisha was engaged when he was called by Elijah. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. (1 Kings 19:19)

Schor's descriptions of Old Jerusalem painted a backdrop for much of my book RAIN, particularly a scene where Aban, a young former acolyte of Ba'al, observes the prophet Elijah call his successor, Elisha. Part of that scene from RAIN follows:

Antique plow with iron tip as used by prosperous farmers during Israel's Iron Age