Homes and Dwellings

Homes and dwellings are places where people live. In Bible times, homes differed according to a person's location, wealth, and way of life. Some people lived in tents, while others lived in houses made from stone or mud brick, often with wooden beams supporting the roof.

Homes often provided space for sleeping, preparing food, storing goods, and caring for animals. Some houses had flat roofs that people used for work, rest, or gathering together. Wealthy families sometimes had larger homes with several rooms and an open courtyard.

Middle Bronze Age Houses

Late Bronze Age Houses

Iron Age Israelite Houses

Houses of the New Testament Period

Israel's early ancestors mostly lived in tents or temporary homes. However, the Canaanites of the Middle Bronze Age, whose land the Israelites entered, lived in sturdy houses. These houses had several rooms built around a courtyard.

This new type of house was simple, with a courtyard and a single room, usually on the west side. This design kept westerly winds from blowing smoke inside. People stored grain in the room instead of the courtyard. Good examples of these one-room houses were found at Tell Nagila, northwest of Beersheba, from around 1700 BC. Three houses had rooms measuring 3 by 2.1 meters (10 by 7 feet) and courtyards 3 by 4.9 meters (10 by 16 feet). Sometimes, partitions divided the room. The walls, made of rough stone and mud bricks covered with mud plaster, were not thick enough for a second story. Houses were close together, sharing a common back wall, with entrances to the courtyard on parallel streets. Each house had a stone and clay bench along the walls.

Sometimes, several rooms were built on one side of the courtyard. The grandest example found is from Tell Beit Mirsim, dating to about 1600 BC. It was likely the house of a local governor or a wealthy person. There were at least six rooms on the western side of the courtyard, which measured about 10.7 by 5.8 meters (35 by 19 feet). The roofed living space, including both the ground and second floors, was about 139 square meters (1,500 square feet). The thick walls suggest there was a second floor. The ground floor may have served multiple purposes, with two stable rooms and two storage areas. Other simpler versions of the courtyard house, with rooms on only one side, also come from this tell in Stratum E (around 1700 BC).

The second type of house in the Middle Bronze Age had a roofed hall with rooms on one or two sides. A good example of such a house with rooms on one side comes from Tell Beit Mirsim, dating from about 1800 BC. The large, roofed, rectangular hall had three large, flat stones along the long axis to support the wooden roof. Rafters of wood and a roof of reeds covered with mud were found in the debris. Each of the three rooms on the west opened into the hall. The stone foundations and mud brick walls were strong enough to support a second story. Second stories could be reached by an exterior wooden staircase or ladder. The floor, made of earth, ashes, and straw, was carefully smoothed over.

A third type of house had an open courtyard with rooms on two sides. A good example is from Tell Beit Mirsim, built on the ruins of a house with a roofed hall. The roofed hall became the courtyard. A house at Tell Taanach from the Middle Bronze IIB period (around 1700 BC) was very strong, with walls over three feet (0.9 meters) thick, laid in mortar. The courtyard had a cistern, and an oven was in a room on the east side. The ground floors were plastered and covered 2,300 square feet (214 square meters). An interior staircase led to a second story.

In some houses, rooms were on opposite sides of the courtyard. Beth Shemesh (Tell er-Rumeilah) and Megiddo provide good examples. At Beth Shemesh, the city wall formed the house's south wall, with rooms to the east and west of the courtyard. People entered from the street into one room. They accessed other rooms by crossing the courtyard. The outer walls were over 91.4 centimeters (3 feet) thick, and the interior walls were 45.7 centimeters (1.5 feet) thick. Mud and lime plaster covered the walls.

At Megiddo, builders constructed houses against the north city wall. In level XII (around 1750 to 1700 BC), archaeologists found three well-preserved houses of this type. Walls at right angles to the city wall separated the houses. Each house had one entrance from the street, leading through a room into a courtyard paved with small stones and pebbles. The courtyards contained the ovens, and one house had a cistern.

A fourth type of middle Bronze Age house had rooms on three sides of the courtyard. These rooms varied in size and use. A good example from about 1600 BC is from Megiddo, level IX. The house measured 12.8 by 11.9 meters (42 by 39 feet) and had nine rooms of different sizes. The courtyard was plastered with lime and had a large oven in the center. A second oven was in an eastern room. Each room had a door to the courtyard. Like other Middle Bronze Age houses, this one had burials under the floors (compare 1 Samuel 25:1; 1 Kings 2:34 for biblical references in the Iron Age).

The diverse types of Palestinian houses in the Middle Bronze Age show a higher level of prosperity than in the Early Bronze Age. Houses and tombs contained many elegant and well-crafted household items.

Information from this period is limited. This is partly because of damage during excavations and because many sites were later destroyed by warfare and rebuilding involving Israelites, Sea Peoples, Egyptians, and others.

Many examples of homes come from this period. The Israelite buildings were initially basic, but their quality improved. At Tell Qasil in the 12th century, there were simple homes with a courtyard and a single room on one side. At the same time, in Beth-shemesh, a larger house had a foundation of large uncut stones, a courtyard about 10.4 by 6.1 meters (34 by 20 feet), and three rooms on one side measuring 3.4 by 3.2 meters (11 by 10.5 feet). Rough stone paving was in the courtyard and two of the rooms. At Hazor, a house with a courtyard and rooms on one side dates to about 900 BC. Half of the courtyard was covered, with the roof supported by stone pillars. These stone pillars are typical of Iron Age houses in Palestine and have been found at sites across the country.

During the time of the kings of Judah and Israel, the most common house type had rooms on three sides of a courtyard. This is sometimes called the "four-room house." A long room spanned the short side of the courtyard, while two other rooms were on each long side. Two rows of pillars divided the courtyard into three sections along its length. These pillars supported the roof and walls, which could be half or full height. People entered the house from the street into the courtyard, where ovens and silos were usually located, although this varied.

The house could be expanded by adding more rooms along the courtyard's long sides. Long rooms could be divided into smaller ones. If the walls were strong, a second story could be added. A well-preserved example of an expanded four-room house was found at Shechem, dating to around 748–724 BC. The courtyard had a storage bin, a large open hearth, a quern (hand mill), stone grinders, and pottery jar bases on stone pedestals. The added rooms included a system to catch roof water and direct it to an underground water system. One room had a large silo connected to a kitchen.

Evidence suggests that larger Iron Age houses were used for industry or commerce. Some houses at Tell Beit Mirsim had dye vats and loom weights. In other areas, many querns indicate a wheat-grinding industry. There is also evidence of wine vats, potters' tools, and shops. Some houses had rooms for religious purposes, containing incense stands, figurines, small altars, and similar items.

Kathleen Kenyon's excavations in Jerusalem uncovered houses from Judah's final days. These houses were small and had irregular plans. However, they shared a common design with those in Judah's hill country. They featured a courtyard divided by stone pillars that supported the roof.

The difference between big and small houses in some towns likely shows the social inequality mentioned by the prophets. In the 10th and 9th centuries BC, many small houses and a few large ones created a fairly uniform picture. By the 8th century BC, in a town like Tirzah, there were three or four large houses and many flimsy structures.

The New Testament mentions houses, roofs, doors, foundations, an upper room, and lamps. One of the parables of Jesus talks about good and bad foundations (Matthew 7:25). In one story, friends took a paralyzed man to the roof, dismantled it, and lowered him into the room where Jesus was (Mark 2:4). Jesus spoke about proclamations made from rooftops (Matthew 10:27; Luke 12:3), and Peter went to the roof to pray (Acts 10:9). People swept houses to find lost items (Luke 15:8) and used lamps for light (Matthew 5:15). There are several mentions of houses belonging to specific people (Mark 8:3; Luke 10:5; 16:4; 19:9; John 11:20; Acts 4:34; 9:11; 10:32).

Some houses had upper rooms on the roof, accessed by an outside staircase. The Passover meal was prepared in such a large upstairs room (Mark 14:12–15). The disciples stayed in a similar room after the death and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1:13). These houses sometimes had servants (10:7), and some had a guest room (Mark 14:14). From the New Testament, we learn that houses varied in size and elegance during the time of Jesus. A typical street in Judea or Galilee had houses ranging from small homes (2.3 to 2.8 square meters or 25 to 30 square feet) to mansions of the upper classes. These larger houses could be two or more stories high with rows of pillars and architectural decorations.

To understand these houses, we look at archaeological and literary evidence. The writings of the rabbis and Josephus provide many details. Excavations from the early Roman (Herodian) period (37 BC–AD 70) offer more concrete evidence. A rich source of information is the excavation in the old Jewish quarter in Jerusalem.

One large house measured about 175 square meters (209 square yards). It had a central courtyard with three cooking ovens and a cistern for storing water. Large niches in some walls contained broken pottery and likely served as cupboards. Traces of mosaic floors and plastered walls show the house's beauty. Several rooms, possibly up to ten, surrounded the courtyard. Remains of other fine houses from the late Second Temple period were found further west. Excavations in the Armenian cemetery area on Mount Zion uncovered houses with colorful wall paintings (frescoes) and mosaic floors.

See also Architecture.