THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW - Chapter 6 - Verse 30
Verse 30. Is cast into the oven. The Jews had different modes of
baking. In early times they frequently baked in the sand, warmed with
the heat of the sun. They constructed also moveable ovens, made of clay,
brick, or plates of iron. But the most common kind, and the one here
probably referred to; was made by excavating the earth two and a half
feet in diameter, and from five to six feet deep. This kind of oven
still exists in Persia. The bottom was paved with stones. It was heated
by putting wood or dry grass into the oven; and when heated, the ashes
were removed, and the bread was placed on the heated stones. More
commonly, however, the oven was an earthen vessel, without a bottom,
about three feet high, smeared outside and inside with clay, and placed
upon a frame, or support. Fire was made within it, or below it. When the
sides were sufficiently heated, thin patches of dough were spread on the
inside, and the top was covered, without removing the fire as in the
other cases; and the bread was quickly baked. The preceding
representation of it is taken from Niebuhr.
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