Did the Hebrews Eat Breakfast?
First we look to the Passover meal for a clue.
Numbers 9:11 VIN 11 “‘You will celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at dusk. Eat the Passover animal along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They should not leave any of it by morning or break any of its bone. They must observe it according to all the statutes of the Passover.
The Passover lamb was killed after high noon. The sun had already been setting for six hours, by the time the meal was cooked and ready to be served on the 15th. The high Sabbath was about to begin. The eating of the meal started at nightfall and they had to finish it up before the sun rose. It had to be ready to eat before the sun set. Sunset was actually the start of a new day to a Hebrew. Though they numbered their days and counted their hours from the morning.
The first passover was also the day of their exodus from Egypt. After the angel of death passed over, they began to leave Egypt. Sunrise is called the morrow which means the morning, making the phrase, ‘tomorrow morning’ redundant and misleading. ‘To-morrow’ wasn’t the start of a new 24 hour day. They were actually half way through that 24-hour day when the sun rose. But it was halfway through the daylight hours when the sun began to go down; at what we call high noon.
Their most important meal (to start that new creation day off right) was not morning breakfast. Their new day started with a passover feast that they ate in the dark; all night. Passover was prepared during the daylight hours of the 14th, but the meal had to be eaten before the night of the 15th ended. That morning didn’t break their fast. It broke their feast. They were then ready to start their journey, not eat.
Next we get a clue from the wilderness wanderings.
Exodus 16:16-23 KJV 16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. 17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. 22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
The word translated ‘To morrow‘, in the last verse, means ‘fresh’ or ‘morning breeze’, as in a new day. The word translated ‘morning’, in the same verse, actually means dusk. ‘morning’ and ‘to morrow’ are synonyms in time for the new sunrise or fresh air of a new day. The new day technically starts at midnight on our calendar but we usually think of the the sunrise when we say tomorrow. The Hebrews technically started the next day at dusk but the work of gathering didn’t start till the morning air in the light of the new day.
In the wilderness, they went out to gather food from the ground first thing in the morning. That day they ate what they had gathered that morning, but they didn’t have to eat it all in the same 24-hour day. Once again they had to eat it all up before morning arrived again, which was halfway into the next 24-hour day.
The six creation days always started in the dark in Genesis chapter one. Only the seventh day in Genesis has no evening and morning, pointing to the eternal new covenant creation sabbath day. But typically the Hebrews gathered twice as much manna on the sixth day, because they were not allowed to work on the Sabbath. The sixth day of work was doubly blessed. They saved the sixth day harvest into the morning of the seventh day. It didn’t go bad.
One possible pattern we see here is that work started first thing in the morning, not breakfast. They could eat by lamplight but they couldn’t work the fields. They also couldn’t collect manna on the seventh day. They gathered twice as much on the sixth day to prepare for the Sabbath day of rest, which actually started twelve hours later, but they couldn’t gather food again for 48 hours, on the morning of the first day of the new week. It doesn’t say whether they ate once, twice, three times or all day long. If they ate all day while going in circles in the wilderness, it is because they had nothing better to do but eat and complain.
We now turn to the Pharisee in the land for a clue.
Luke 18:11-14 KJV 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Believe it or not the word translated ‘the week‘ by the KJV translators is ‘the sabbath‘. This Pharisee boasted about fasting twice in one day. And it was the day of fellowship and food without work. Therefore the Jewish day consisted of at least two meals, since the Pharisee abstained from two meals that day.
After entering the agrarian culture of the promised land, nightfall was typically when their work ceased. Farm workers and cattle ranchers came in from the fields famished from the hard day’s toil in the soil. As the sun set, the new creation day began, in the dark, with a nourishing meal for that day’s upcoming duties. I assume supper was prepared in the daylight by the wife.
After supper they went to sleep. All night the body digested food to replenish the energy stores in their spent muscles and to reset the brain and body chemistry, in preparation for more day-time work. Everything would look better in the morning light. They woke with the sun, ready to go, not ready to eat again. They haven’t even worked since the last time they ate. After working several hours they would begin to get hungry and tired. Mid-day meal was their second meal of the day, but they were going back to work soon, so it was generally a lighter booster-meal. In the evening, a tired body and a full stomach, along with darkness and the inability to see your work, naturally led to sleep, which is more conducive to good digestion and self renewal than daylight and work are.