Daily Life in Bible Times-About the book

The book is aimed at an audience of children around 6-10 years old, it starts with pictures of nomads. What did Abraham and Sarah look like? When Isaac was little, how would he look? Right away children ask about the clothing and belongings of the characters in the pictures. These are the things children want to know. Take a minute and pore over the pictures with your child. If you have an infant in the family, it's a great opportunity to show your older child all the special gear we have for babies. Ask your child whether he or she thinks they had diapers in the olden days. Did they have plastic baby bottles? Did they have plastic anything? You can see where this discussion can lead. Get up and walk around the house with the book in your hand. Look in the closet at your clothes and your child's clothes. Then look at the pictures in the book. What is different? Is anything the same?

The book has wonderful illustrations showing what archaeology has revealed about everyday life in ancient Israel. All of the illustrations in Daily Life in Bible Times are based on archaeological and anthropological research. You can assure your children that this is what the "real" Patriarchs wore, used, rode and ate. Now is your chance to get your children to imagine themselves back into the Bible. "What would you be doing," you can ask them. "Would you be watching television? Listening to an iPod? Playing video games?" Remind the child that these all involve modern inventions.

Most of the people in Bible times couldn't read and were up at dawn to work as long as it was light. People would have spent long evenings talking and telling stories that would become the Bible traditions. The very traditions that we are passing on to our children today.