Furniture

The furniture of a private house in the biblical period was austere, consisting of a bed, a table and chairs (II Kgs 4:10). Most people slept on the floor or on a mud-brick bench, using their garments both as mattress and blanket. Only the upper classes could afford real beds (I Sam 19:15-16; II Sam 4:7). The same bed was also used as a dining-couch. A nicely made bed (Prov 7:16-17) or a bed made of ivory (Amos 6:4) were tokens of great riches and luxury.

Although tables were a normal item of furniture in the houses of biblical times, a dining-table was found in rich houses only. Normally the Israelite would sit on the floor, on which an animal skin, a wooden board or a piece of cloth was laid. Some scholars believe that the table mentioned in the Bible was not a real table but some kind of plate which served both as a table and as a dish for food.

Three types of seating were in use in the ancient Near East. The simplest was a stool without supports, which was used either to sit on or to rest the legs on while sitting on a high stool (Lam 2:1). The second type is a chair with a support for the back, sometimes provided with a footstool; this category includes folding chairs with a back-rest. Chairs of the third type have supports both for the back and for the hands. These chairs had elaborate decoration and were used by kings and princes. Solomon's merited special description (I Kgs 10:18-20).

Austerity in furnishing also characterized the Roman period. Furniture at that time consisted of beds, dining-couches in the better homes (a Greek invention to which the Romans added a support for the back), wooden tables and chairs in ordinary houses, and some made of marble or bronze in richer homes. For illumination bronze candelabra were used.