BREAD (brad), lekh'cm. The word "bread" was of far more extensive meaning among the Hebrews than with us.
There are passages in which it appears to be applied to all kinds of victuals (Luke xi :3) ; but it more generally denotes all kinds of baked and pastry articles of food. It is also used, however, in the more limited sense of bread made from wheat or barley, for rye is little cultivated in the East. Barley being used chiefly by the poor, and for feeding horses (see BARLEY), bread, in the more limited sense, chiefly denotes the various kinds of cake-like bread prepared from wheaten flour.
Corn, or wheat, is ground daily in the East (see MILL). After the wheaten flour is taken from the hand-mill it is made into a dough or paste in a small wooden trough. It is next leavened, after which it is made into thin cakes or flaps, round or oval, and then baked.
(1) The Kneading. The kneading troughs, in which the dough is prepared, have no resem blance to ours in size or shape. It is done in small wooden bowls; and that those of the an cient Hebrews were of the same description as those now in use appears from their being able to carry them, together with the dough, wrapped up in their cloaks, upon their shoulders, without difficulty. The Bedouin Arabs, indeed, use for this purpose a leather, which can be drawn up into a bag by a running cord along the border, and in which they prepare and often carry their dough. This might equally, and in some respects better, answer the described conditions; but, be ing especially adapted to the use of a nomade and tent-dwelling people, it is more likely that the Israelites, who were not such at the time of the Exode, then used the wooden bowls for their 'kneading-troughs' (Exod. viii :3; xii :34; Deut. xxviii :5, 7).
It is clear, from the history of the departure from Egypt, that the flour had first been made into a dough by water only, in which state it had been kept some little time before it was leavened: for when the Israelites were unexpectedly (as to the moment) compelled in all haste to withdraw, it was found that, although the dough had been prepared in the kneading-trough, it was still un leavened (Exod. xii:34; Comp. Hos. vn:4); and it was in commemoration of this circumstance that they and their descendants in all ages were enjoined to cat only unleavened bread at the feast of the Passover.
(2) Public Ovens. The dough thus prepared is not always baked at home. In towns there are public ovens and bakers by trade; and although the general rule in large and respectable families is to bake the bread at home, much bread is bought of the bakers by unsettled individuals and poor persons; and many small households send their dough to be baked at the public oven, the baker receiving for his trouble a portion of the baked bread, which he adds to his day's stock of bread for sale. Such pubic ovens and bakers by trade must have existed anciently in Pales tine and in the East generally, as is evident from Hos. vii:4 and Jer. xxxvii :21.
(3) Another Mode of Baking. Another mode of baking bread is much used, especially in the villages. A pit is sunk in the middle of the floor of the principal room, about four or five feet deep by three in diameter, well lined with compost or cement. When sufficiently heated by a fire kindled at the bottom the bread is made by the thin pancake-like flaps of dough being, by a pe culiar knack of hand in the women, stuck against the oven, to which they adhere for a few moments till they are sufficiently dressed. As this oven requires considerable fuel, it is seldom used ex cept in those parts where that article is some v.hat abundant and where the winter cold is severe enough to render the warmth of the oven desirable, not only for baking bread, but for warming the apartment (4) Baking with Pebbles. Another sort of oven, or rather mode of baking, is much in use among the pastoral tribes. A shallow hole, about six inches deep by three or four feet in diameter, is made in the ground: this is filled up with dry brushwood. upon which, when kindled, pebbles are thrown to concentrate and retain the heat. Meanwhile the dough is prepared, and when the oven is sufficiently heated the ashes and pebbles are removed and the spot well cleaned out. The dough is then deposited in the hollow, and is left there over night. The cake: thus baked are about two fingers thick, and are very palatable. There can be little doubt that this kind of oven and mode of baking bread were common among the Jews.