"What Are We to Eat?" -Give Us "Our Bread for This Day"

 When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he revealed that it was proper to ask God to provide the necessities of life-the "bread for this day." (Matthew 6:11) Bread was such an important part of the diet that in both Hebrew and Greek, the expression "eat a meal" literally meant to "eat bread." Cereals used to make bread, such a wheat and barley, as well as others, such as oats, spelt, and millet, made up a large portion of the first-century Jewish diet. Researchers estimate that a person would consume about 500 pounds [200 kg] of cereals a year, providing about half the calories the individual needed.

Bread could be bought in the marketplace, but most families baked their own-a task involving a considerable amount of labor. The book Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls explains: "As it is difficult to keep flour for a long time, the milling was done by the housewife every day." How long would this process take?  "In an hour of hard labor using a hand mill, "states the author, "no more than 0.8 kg [almost two pounds of flour is produced from 1 kg [more than two pounds] of wheat. As the daily capita consumption of wheat was about 1/2 kg [a pound], in orde  to provide for a family of five or six, the homemaker needed to do three hours of milling." 

Now think about Mary, Jesus' mother. In addition to her others household chores, he had to provide enough bread to feed a husband five sons, and at least two daughters. (Matthew 13:55, 56) Without a doubt, Mary, like other Jewish women, worked hard to help prepare the "bread for this day." 

Next time: "What Are We to Eat?" -"Come, Take Your Breakfast" 

From the jw.org publications