Emmer wheat in trial plots at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas near Aleppo, Syria.
HUMAN CIVILIZATION RELIES ON only a few plants for existence, most notably on grains. Of these, rice is the most important, followed by wheat. People in western Asia depend on wheat for a variety of products, especially bread. Wheat played a critical role in the agrarian societies of the ancient Middle East. The Quran does not delineate which species are included in the term “grain.” In the three references to grain, they are portrayed as a provision from God: “Let the once-dead earth be a sign for them. We gave it life, and from it produced grain for their sustenance” (Sura 36:33, Dawood). The Bible, on the other hand, distinguishes between wheat and barley.
Wheat, khittaw in Hebrew, is the most important of the “six species of the land”: “It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey” (Deuteronomy 8:8, NLT). Wheat is the most important plant because it provides the greatest amount of nutrition of the crops.
The Greek for “wheat” is sitos. The daily manifestation of this divine provision was bread, the best-known product of wheat, often synonymous with “food.” As if to emphasize this point, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” in His famous discourse in John 6:35. Bread in Bible days was very different from modern bread. In addition, grain, beer, straw, roasted green wheat, and chaff are also produced from the wheat plant and were widely used in Bible times.
Agricultural worker examining durum wheat in May, near Tubas, Palestinian Territories.
Flour was an essential element in many of the Levitical offerings. Straw was used for fodder, bedding of animals, basketry, roofing thatch, and to make bricks. Chaff, the remains after threshing and winnowing grain, is often used in the scriptures as the symbol of utter worthlessness. These uses of wheat are often overlooked by modern-day Bible readers.
Understanding the significance of the many uses of wheat requires some background on the plant—its culture and its evolution. Why is this apparently simple plant the basis of human subsistence in so many parts of the world? What are the major groups of wheat? What wheats were used in the ancient Middle East?
Wheat—like barley, rye, maize (corn), rice, and oats—is a cereal. Cereals are all annual grasses, members of one of the largest families of flowering plants, the Poaceae (also known as the Graminae). Through millennia, wild cereal plants were modified by artificial selection for cultivation: farmers would save the seed of plants with desirable qualities. One such quality is tillering, the ability to produce additional stems from the base of the plant. Anyone who has sown sweet corn in a home garden has seen tillering: put three seeds (kernels) of corn in the ground and four or five stems emerge. These extra stems, each of which can produce ears (or heads), are “tillers.” More stems and more heads result in more grain per plant.
At first appearance, the fruiting head of wheat looks bewildering in complexity, with lots of small, carefully engineered parts. But the basic plan is simple. Each flower (floret) is surrounded by small, modified leaves (bracts). Inconspicuous and tiny, the flower has all necessary reproductive equipment. Flowers, in turn, are grouped into spikelets. Every spikelet is also surrounded by protective bracts, called glumes. Collectively, these diverse bracts form the chaff, which must be separated from the grain.
The head of the grain, then, is an aggregation of florets arranged in spikelets. Wheat, like all cereals, produces a specialized fruit, the grain, in which the coat of the fruit and the coat of the seed are fused. This feature gives extra protection to the seed and allows storage through dry or cold seasons, facilitating sedentary (settled) agriculture. Each grain consists of a minute embryo (the germ), a large amount of starch (the endosperm), and the fruit coat (bran). In modern white bread flour, the germ and bran have been removed; it is considerably less nutritious than whole-grain flour.
When mature, the wheat is cut (harvested), and then it is threshed (beaten or pounded to remove the grain). The condition of the bracts after threshing defines two major groups of wheats—the hulled wheats and the free-threshing wheats. Virtually all wheat grown in western Asia in ancient times was hulled wheat.
In hulled wheat, the glumes separate from the heads at threshing but remain attached to the grain. The product of threshing, then, is the grain with the attached glumes. With glumes in place, the wheat cannot be prepared for eating, so the grain must be further processed to release it from the glumes. Free-threshing wheats, on the other hand, have grains that readily separate from the glumes; the glumes stay with the head. So threshing of free-threshing wheat produces grain ready for milling. Most modern wheats are free threshing. Hulled wheats are not grown on a large commercial scale, today. Modern bread wheat and its processing are much different from the hulled wheats and their processing in Bible days.
“Shattering” is a feature of wild wheats: the grains fall from the plant as they ripen. The term refers to the shattering of the head when the wheat stem is cut at harvest and the grains fall and are lost. Shattering wheats are therefore of little agricultural value. The wheat produced in ancient times in the Middle East was hulled, free-threshing wheat. The product of harvesting was grain that separated freely from the plant but was still enclosed by glumes (or hulled).
Wheat originated in the northern reaches of Bible lands, the Fertile Crescent. Therein lies a mystery. During the first half of the twentieth century, scientists from several countries tracked the relatives of native wheats in the Fertile Crescent and surrounding areas, from the Caucasus Mountains to Mount Hermon. Like fingerprints, the chromosomes were used for identification of the various characters. Through extensive searching in the field and by thorough laboratory studies, the genetic lineage of wheat—from modern bread wheat to the original wild relatives—was worked out. In recent years, this lineage has been documented and reconfirmed with powerful molecular techniques. Thus, the four ancestors of modern wheats have been identified: einkorn, emmer wheat, durum wheat, and bread wheat.
Wild einkorn (Triticum monococcum) is still common in the Fertile Crescent; it is a shattering grain, so it was of little value in cultivation in Bible days and probably was only harvested incidentally. Einkorn grains have been found at archaeological sites, apparently collected in the wild. From wild einkorn, prehistoric farmers selected for nonshattering plants and for wheats that produced grains maturing at the same time. The first wheat to be widely domesticated was emmer (Triticum dicoccum). Emmer is a hulled wheat. With continued domestication of emmer, durum wheat arose. Durum, Triticum durum, the modern source of semolina flour, is free threshing. Then, after hybridization between durum wheat and a wild grass, bread wheat appeared on the scene long before Christ. With a high gluten content, which traps carbon dioxide in bread dough and causes the dough to rise, bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, is the favored grain for making the light and fluffy loaves now favored in the West.
The selection and evolution of bread wheat, from einkorn through emmer and durum, is one of the best-documented examples of the evolution of any crop (Zohary and Hopf 2000). This study is an elegant model for studying other plants that have been cultivated since prehistoric times. What concerns us, however, are ancient wheats: which wheats were grown in Bible days?
The majority of wheat cultivated in Bible days was emmer, a type of hulled wheat. The presence of emmer wheat is implied from the biblical texts referring to threshing floors, threshing sledges, and mortars. Hulled emmer wheat required considerable work to extract the grain, which may be the reason why threshing sledges were widely used in Bible times, though wheat was threshed in other ways as well. Although laborious to prepare, hulled wheats store well and are more resistant to insect damage than free-threshing wheats.
The use of a mortar and pestle to thresh hulled wheats is well known from a variety of archeobotanical studies. This specific use of the mortar and pestle was probably implied in this verse: “You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle” (Proverbs 27:22, NLT). Some sort of mortar was also used by the Children of Israel in the wilderness, implying that mortars were essential household tools and that the wheat used in Egypt had to be pounded: “The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin. The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars” (Numbers 11:7–8, NLT).
After emmer wheat spikelets are pounded to remove the hulls, bread can be made from it, though it may not conform to our modern image of bread because its lower gluten content would make a flatter loaf. The gluten content of emmer is similar to that of barley, which also makes a flat loaf.
Very little of the wheat grown in Bible days was durum wheat. Why its cultivation was so limited is a mystery (Murray 2000a), since it is known from archaeological sites in Turkey from equivalent ages. Durum is also used to make bulghur, or burghul, cracked wheat widely used in Middle East cooking, as well as frikeh, roasted green wheat. Durum boiled in milk can be eaten as a kind of porridge. Bread can be made from it, although it does not contain as much gluten as bread wheat. It is the wheat of choice for making traditional Middle East flat bread. It also has the advantage of being free threshing and very productive. Having considered durum and emmer, we are left with the third kind of wheat in the Bible, spelt.
Spelt is a hulled bread wheat. The Hebrew word kuccemeth is translated as “spelt” in three places: “The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later” (Exodus 9:31–32, NIV); “When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?” (Isaiah 28:25, NIV); and, “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side” (Ezekiel 4:9a, NIV). Kuccemeth is rendered as “rie” in Exodus and Isaiah in the KJV and as “fitches” in Ezekiel; the NIV translates this word as “spelt.”
The reference in Exodus 9:32, “The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later,” clearly distinguishes between the two crops damaged by the seventh plague, hail. But is the biblical spelt really true spelt, Triticum spelta? This seems unlikely because the wheat in the ancient Middle East was emmer and the distribution of spelt was limited; unlike most cultivated wheats, spelt may not have arisen in the Fertile Crescent. In fact, Murray (2000) states, “Contrary to popular belief, Egyptians did not grow spelt wheat.” The Children of Israel had mortars in their households after leaving Egypt. This does not mean that the refugees took kuccemeth with them because the mortars would be needed for emmer. If there was no true spelt in ancient Egypt, what is kuccemeth? It is probably not einkorn, because this wheat matures later than emmer (Troccoli and Codianni 2005).
Kuccemeth is likely some race of wheat distinguished by color or another feature, distinctions commonly made by variation within crops by farmers and agriculturalists of all eras. We just do not know which variety it is. Mentioned very few times, it must be distinct from the widely planted emmer wheat. Also, in the Ezekiel account, kuccemeth is associated with food for the very poor. Does this make einkorn a candidate? Perhaps kuccemeth was free-threshing bread wheat or a specialized wheat that is no longer grown. What this apparent cereal is remains a mystery.
In the Bible lands of the Near East, cereals are sown in December and harvested after six or seven months. Wheat is grown in regions of high rainfall and fertile soil. Traditionally, farmers save wheat seeds from their harvest to sow the next crop. Jesus used allusions to sowing grain in His teaching, for example in prefiguring His resurrection: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit” (John 12:24, NASB). A seed is planted. If it is not planted, it does not grow. If it does grow, it produces prodigiously. Was Jesus referring to tillering in this verse?
Depending on rainfall in the Middle East, barley would be harvested in mid May and wheat about one month later. The wheat harvest takes place long after the rains have ended, so that the sending of rain during the harvest was a manifest judgment from God: “Now therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes: Is today not the wheat harvest? I will call to the Lord, and He will send thunder and rain, that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking a king for yourselves” (I Samuel 12:16–17, NKJV). Rain at harvest time would cause the wheat plants to lodge (fall and mat together), making harvest difficult and decay of the crop likely.
Wheat is harvested in two ways. It can be cut, usually by a sickle or scythe, and then gathered in bundles. If fodder is scarce due to poor rainfall, the plant is pulled up to increase food for animals. Harvest is the cutting (or pulling) of the wheat, and threshing is the physical pounding or other mechanical abrasion of the heads to obtain the grain. Removing the glumes is the last stage of threshing with hulled wheats. Winnowing is the final cleaning of the grain. Harvesting yields sheaves, threshing yields grain, and winnowing yields chaff.
There were at least two methods of threshing grain with oxen in Bible days. The first, still widely practiced in Pakistan and Ethiopia, simply involves the oxen, usually yoked in a pair, trampling the grain on a threshing floor as referred to by the prophet Micah: “But they do not know the LORD’s thoughts or understand his plan. These nations do not know that he is gathering them together to be beaten and trampled like sheaves of grain on a threshing floor” (Micah 4:12, NLT).
Harvesting wheat in June, near Medaba, Jordan. Workers are pulling the crop so that the entire plant can be used for fodder, a frequent practice in countries like Jordan that have a shortage of fodder.
Sheaf of wheat in June, from field near Kerak, Jordan.
A second method involved a threshing sledge, or tribulum (Ataman 1999, Hillman 1981). The sledge was a platform of flat boards, sometimes with an upturned front end like a toboggan. Stones or metal spikes were affixed to the lower surface. The threshing sledge was drawn by an animal and weighted with stones (or children). As the sledge went over the wheat, the spikelets or grains would be abraded and removed from the stems. Often, the ox was tied to a stake or tree as it carried out its work, a familiar image to Bible audiences in both the Old and New Testaments: “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4, NLT); and in the New Testament, “Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, ‘You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain’” (I Corinthians 9:9, NLT); and another reference, “Those who work deserve their pay!” (I Timothy 5:17–18, NLT).
Wheat was threshed on areas of flat rock where the grain could be spread out. Or flat areas were covered with clay to produce a smooth surface known as a threshing floor. Community gatherings were held at these places, perhaps because the relatively flat surface provided a sort of outdoor arena. Threshing removed the spikelets from the heads or, in the case of hulled wheats, may have removed the glumes as well. If the wheat was stored without dehulling, mortars and pestles could be used to prepare the grain. Today modern machines are used for threshing in the Middle East, but the grain is often piled at sites that long served as threshing floors for sledges. I have not seen a traditional threshing sledge used in the region for almost 20 years.
For winnowing, the farmer would throw the threshed grain into the air so the wind could carry away the chaff. A shallow basket or woven mat was used to hold and catch the grain. The final step was to lift the grain, often with a type of fork that allows the chaff to blow away: “His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out” (Matthew 3:12, NJB; Luke 3:17).
Threshing wheat. This sight would have been a familiar one in Bible times, especially since emmer wheat was grown. In this scene in October in Ethiopia, the oxen are muzzled.
CERTAINLY THE BEST-KNOWN biblical reference to wheat and wheat products regards bread, with almost 300 references. Considering the setting of the Quran, it is not surprising that wheat bread is not specifically mentioned. In the Bible, lack of bread resulted in hunger and famine, sometimes as a divine judgment. Food was bread.
In traditional western Asian cultures where bread is the staple food, it is treated with care. Stale bread is not thrown out; it is used in some way.
The Bible says little about the details of baking bread, such as the type of ovens that were used. Samuel (2000) provides helpful discussion on the baking of ancient flat bread. One common type of oven, still used in Syria, is a cylindrical structure made of mortar. At the bottom of the structure, a wood fire heats the mortar. The dough is placed on the hot surface to bake. When finished, it is lifted off.
Except for certain ceremonies, bread was made with yeast, or more precisely, leaven. The concept of leaven is less familiar today, when pure dehydrated yeast is used. In Bible times, a bit of the dough was put aside before baking a batch of bread to be used as the “starter” for the next batch, as with sourdough starter. This practice was common; it was referred to in Jesus’s teaching. Substituting “yeast” for leaven in modern translations (such as NLT) can confuse the present-day reader, who might envision pure, dehydrated yeast. Rather, the ancient leaven was a mixture of yeast and dough.
Bread was used in some of the Levitical offerings. “Consecrated bread” was placed each week on the golden table by the lamp stand in the tabernacle and Temple, a reminder that bread was associated with God’s provision (Exodus 29). Other offerings required a diversity of bread: “And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Jehovah” (Exodus 29:23, ASV). In summary, bread was widely used in the sacrifices.
Wheat flour was produced by grinding in hand mills or with querns. Querns are usually large stones in which a shallow trough has been ground or worn. Grain is put in the trough and ground, using a smaller stone that fits into the groove. Both types of grinding were practiced in the ancient Middle East.
Hand mills were made from two flat stones, circular in shape and of equal size. In the center of the stone was a hole through which a wooden or iron shaft could be placed to turn the upper stone while the lower stone remained stationary. Grain was fed into the mill through an additional hole in the upper stone. Shallow grooves were cut into the stones so that when the upper stone was turned, the grain was ground, and was forced out through the grooves.
Such hand mills were as common in ancient households as microwave ovens are today. Family dependence on the mill is evident in a verse where the upper part of a hand mill could not be taken as security: “No one may take a mill or a millstone in pledge; that would be to take life itself in pledge” (Deuteronomy 24:6, NJB). In another verse, the upper stone of a hand mill was used as a lethal weapon: “So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire. But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull” (Judges 9:52–53, NASB).
BREAD AND FLOUR MAY BE well-known Bible images, but beer is not, though it was an ingredient in at least one of the Levitical offerings: “The Drink-Offering that goes with it is a quart of strong beer with each lamb. Pour out the Drink-Offering before God in the Sanctuary” (Numbers 28:7, MSG). Beer is mentioned in at least nine verses, though usually not with a positive connotation: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel—not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more” (Proverbs 31:4–7, NIV).
Beer production in the ancient Middle East and Egypt is well documented. Delwen Samuel has given us insight into ancient baking and brewing (Nesbitt and Samuel 1996, Samuel 2000). With scanning electron microscopy of starch grains and yeast cells, Samuel showed that Egyptians used a malting process in their beer. Sieves, frequently pictured in tombs, were apparently used to remove the large quantities of chaff in the brew. Barley was the main ingredient in beer, although wheat was also used to a lesser extent (Samuel 2000). Since the same grains were grown in Canaan, it seems likely that the same process was used.
LIKE BEER, ROASTED GRAIN, or “parched corn” as translated in KJV, is a lesser known Bible wheat product found only in Leviticus 23:14; Joshua 5:11; Ruth 2:14; I Samuel 17:17; and I Samuel 25:18. Could roasted grain be frikeh? Throughout modern-day northern Syria, frikeh is a traditional preparation of green wheat. Frikeh is made from wheat with green heads. Dried for at least two hours after cutting, the wheat is then burned until the chaff is black and the tip of the grain is charred. Barley is harvested at the same time as frikeh production, so barley straw was readily available as a fuel for a cool fire. As soon as the charred green wheat is cool enough to handle, the grains are removed from the heads for tasting. The soft, green grains are chewy, slightly sweet, with a desirable smoky taste. When fresh, frikeh can be cooked with meat, like rice. It is usually dried, however, and cracked, because cracking shortens the cooking time. Frikeh is ideally dried in the shade to avoid bleaching the green grains. Traditionally, durum wheat is used to make frikeh, but bread wheat is also used. In Bible days, emmer was used since it was grown almost exclusively (Musselman and Mouslem 2001).
Could frikeh be the roasted or parched grain mentioned in the Bible? In the widely used Van Dyck edition of the Arabic Bible (1865), parched corn (KJV) or roasted grain (NIV) is translated frikeh in the six verses where it occurs. In the Syriac text, froka, a cognate of frikeh, is used. In Hebrew, the word is kawlee, which is derived from a word meaning “to scorch” or “to parch.”
Frikeh is a good candidate for roasted grain because of its association with the barley harvest and its use as a dried provision. The suggestion that kawlee is sorghum has little basis (Moldenke and Moldenke 1952). In Ruth, roasted corn was eaten at the barley harvest, which is when frikeh is prepared; this coincides well with the timing of modern production. In the references in I and II Samuel, roasted grain is associated with other dried foods (beans, raisins) that can be readily transported.
The word in Joshua 5:11 is different. The New Living Translation renders this as “roasted grain” but notes that it was “some of the produce of the land.” In other words, this was not grain that had been brought across the Jordan. Could this be fresh frikeh?
BIBLE READERS MAY seldom think of straw as being valuable to farmers in ancient Israel. But the straw from wheat can be as valuable as the grain under some circumstances (Murray 2000). As in the days of the Pharaohs (Exodus 5:10–13), straw is still important for brick making in rural Mesopotamia and elsewhere. Straw from either wheat or barley is mixed with mud and put into wooden forms to make bricks. Wheat straw is more commonly used because barley straw is more valuable as fodder. Humble dwellings are made from sun-baked bricks. Fire-baked bricks are more durable and were used to make some of the buildings in the Fertile Crescent that still stand. Straw is also mixed with the mortar of the mud houses characteristic of the northern Fertile Crescent. Chaff was widely used as a temper in brick making in ancient Egypt (Kemp 2000).
Less enduring than bricks, baskets and mats were necessary every day items and could be made from straw. Making baskets from cereal straw has almost vanished from the Middle East today, with the advent of synthetic materials. There are no explicit references to making baskets in the Bible, but in ancient days long-stemmed wheat stalks were no doubt valued for this purpose. And straw, though without specific references, was likely used in construction, to make roofs of temporary houses. This wattle-and-daub roof construction with straw as one of the constituents was used as recently as the past century.
Frikeh, roasted green wheat, drying on sidewalks in Aleppo, Syria. After drying, the grain is cracked and sold.
Sometimes used for fodder, straw of wheat was more frequently used as bedding for animals in the Bible. So it was an important item to have on hand for animal care, as when the servant of Abraham arrives to seek a bride for Isaac: “So the man [Abraham’s servant] went to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and fodder were brought for the camels, and water for him and his men to wash their feet” (Genesis 24:32, NIV). Linked with chaff and easily burned, straw is mentioned by the Apostle Paul as an image of poor spiritual investment: “On this foundation, different people may build in gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw but each person’s handiwork will be shown for what it is. The Day which dawns in fire will make it clear and the fire itself will test the quality of each person’s work” (I Corinthians 3:12–13, NJB).
The most humble wheat product, chaff, is the only part of the wheat that has little or no value. In the approximately twenty references in the Bible, chaff always refers to something worthless and of little weight, which can easily be carried before the wind. The following example is perhaps the best known: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away” (Psalm 1:1–4, NIV).
In contrast to its scriptural imagery, cereal chaff is now of exceptional value to archeobotanists. It contains microscopic inclusions of silicon called phytoliths. Phytoliths are distinctive for each species. By examining the phytoliths from chaff from archaeological sites, it is possible to determine which plants were used.
The importance of wheat in the cultures of the Middle East cannot be overemphasized. Wheat originated in that region, and its domestication is one of the epochal events in the history of human civilization.
Manufacturing sun-dried bricks in Morocco with straw from wheat. Sundried bricks are a low-cost building material, without the expense of firing the bricks.
