Agriculture in the Economy of Ancient Judea

Commerce, crafts, and trade became increasingly important during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but these sectors did not dislodge agriculture as the dominant occupation. Most people’s livelihoods remained directly connected to the land and its produce. Ancient Judaea, however, provided difficult conditions for agriculture. Its terrain was variegated and rough, featuring rocky deserts, mountains, and irregular rainfall. There were few reliable sources of water for irrigation. Far from the ideal of a land flowing with milk and honey, Judaea was an arid land whose cultivation required labor-intensive dry farming with low crop yields. That said, numerous crops were successfully cultivated in different areas of the country in different periods, as seen in excerpts from the Letter of Aristeas and Josephus on the balsam industry and two contracts concerning date plantations from the second century CE. The most prominent crops were the so-called Mediterranean triad of cereals (especially wheat and barley), grapes, and olives. Indeed, the Galilee likely had a reputation for its olives and olive oil. These crops provided sources of livelihood and sustenance and became deeply intertwined with the fabric of daily life, as they often provided the symbolism and idioms that authors drew on to communicate more complicated moral and theological ideas, as in the parable of the sower found in the Gospel of Mark. The world of the Hebrew Bible was deeply embedded in the context of agrarian life, and in their elaborations of biblical laws, the rabbis explored how farming practices related to religious life. Their discussions included everything from cultivation techniques, shown in m. Shevi‘it 2:2–6, to acceptable practices for managing agricultural laborers, as in m. Bava Metsi‘a 7:1.