Dairy Products
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Dairy Products
Along with bread, meat, olives, grapes, and other fruits and vegetables, dairy products were important foods in the biblical world. They provided great variety and significant nutrition to the ancient diet. Included in this category were milk, butter (churned in skin or ceramic containers), curds (curdled, or coagulated, milk; Gen. 18:8; Isa. 7:15, 22), cheese (lumps made by drying or evaporating milk in the sun or by cooling; 1 Sam. 17:18; 2 Sam. 17:29), and yogurt (called leben in the Near East; Prov. 30:33); these products did not necessarily resemble the modern foods that bear their names. Dairy products were such an important source of food that sheep, goats, camels, and cows were often regarded as more valuable alive (as sources of milk and wool) than dead (as sources of meat). Of course, all flocks and herds were culled systematically for their meat, hides, and horns.
The proverbial “land that flows with milk and honey” reflected the Israelite awareness that Canaan, as opposed to the desert and the wilderness, provided ample vegetation for flocks and herds. Yet, even before the Israelites reached Canaan, Moses reminded them that God had provided “curds from the herd and milk from the flock” (Deut. 32:14). At a much later time, Joel spoke of the day when “the hills shall flow with milk” (Joel 3:18 [MT 4:18]). Milk was used in Canaanite religion, which meant that certain practices were forbidden to the Hebrews (cf. Exod. 23:19). Milk was stored in skin bags and served in bowls, as when Jael tricked Sisera into accepting her hospitality (Judg. 4:19; 5:25).
One of the best-known topographic features of Jerusalem in the NT era was the Tyropoeon Valley, whose name was derived from the Greek word for “cheesemakers.” As an indication that the processing of dairy products was well-known in antiquity, Job’s maturation is compared with the production of cheese from curdled milk (Job 10:10).
Bibliography. J. A. Thompson, Handbook of Life in Bible Times (Downers Grove, 1986).
Gerald L. Mattingly
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (307). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
