The Rural Voice, 2002-12, Page 18or
nd the nativity scen
Agriculture plags a big role in the story of the
first Christmas but what was farming like in
biblical Bags?
By Keith Roulston
t s a scene familiar to every child from the time
he or she first sings Away in the Manger: the
animals of the stable looking on at the Baby
Jesus lying in a manger while shepherds from the
hills outside Bethlehem come to be the first to
worship the Son of God.
And for Christian farmers, there's always been a
pride and vindication in the knowledge that it was
to lowly shepherds minding their flocks of sheep
that the angels first delivered the news of the birth
of Christ'. Obviously agriculture played an
important part in the lives of people,at the time but
what was it like to be a farmer or a shepherd?
Our image of Palestine, based on modern
television pictures, is of a dry, often desolate land
of desert and rock where the miracle of modern
irrigation has allowed 21st century Israel to create a
land of richness. But research shows that the
Palestine of 2000 years ago was indeed a land of
plenty, with a varied climate ranging from cooler
areas that allowed the growing of cereal crops to
the tropical heat of the Jordan valley that allowed
the growing of rare spices.
Soil in Palestine varied from rich silt deposits
laid down by flooding in the maritime plains and in
the Jordan valley to cretaceous limestone and
basaltic rocks in the more elevated regions. The
fertility of the plains was carried into the hillsides
by building low walls of stone, then laboriously
carrying the soil from the valleys to fill in behind
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14 THE RURAL VOICE