LECTURE U

HOUSES

IN what sort of a home did a young couple setting up
independent housekeeping take up their abode ?

At least as late as the exile ɪ there were a considerable
number of people, not necessarily all regarding themselves
as the spiritual sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab,² who
continued to live a nomadic life in tents. As noted above,
a household consisted of more than one tent.³ Such tents
were similar to those of the modern Bedouin, of black
haircloth,-* and their structure is referred to as something
familiar.³ At the entrance to such a tent there would com-
monly be a projecting awning.⁶ It is to be noted that the
word ‘ tents ’ (in the plural) continued to be used in the
sense of ‘ home ’, even when the reference is not to any
temporary encampment.⁷

In the matter of permanent houses there was evidently
nearly as wide a diversity as existed in the British Isles
down to the beginning of the Tudor period, from the
single-roomed cabin of the peasant to the mansion of the
wealthy, commonly built, like a fifteenth-century Manor
House, round one, or even more courtyards.

The majority of poor houses were constructed either of
unbaked bricks,⁸ or of unhewn stones cemented with clay.
That baked bricks were not commonly used in the con-
struction of houses is probable from the fact that it is
mentioned as a peculiarity of the people of Babylonia that
they burnt their bricks which served them as stone.⁹ It

’ SeeJer. xxxv. 7.

³ Cf. Isa. xxxviii. 12 ; Judges iv. ɪ ɪ ; Cant. i. 5.

³ Cf. Gen. xxxi. 33.         ⁴ Cant. i. 5.

⁵ Isa. liv. 2.                ⁶ Gten. xviii. ɪ, ɪo.

’ Judges xix. 9 ; ɪ Kings viii. 66, xii. 16 ; cf. Ps. xci. ɪo.

* This is perhaps indicated in the metaphor used by Job (iv. 19).

^, Gen. xi. 3.

<<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>

More intriguing information