Biblical Foods. Barley.....

BARLEY

A land of wheat, and barley and vines fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil olive, and honey.(Deut 8:8) There is a lad here, which have five barley loaves, and two small fishes. But what are they among so many and they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten (John 6: 9-13)
The bible is filled with references to barley, which is among the earliest known and most nourishing grains ever be cultivated. In fact, say some scholars, the feast of unleavened bread was an ancient barley harvest festival that became the celebration of the Passover.These are the seasonal festivals of Jehovah and on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival of unfermented cakes Leviticus 23:4-6

Experts in bible history say that barley was a staple food of the masses and as such was a prominent feature of these early Hebrews. Neverthless, the fact that barley is mentioned so often shows that the people of the period consumed great quantities of this grain, which played a vital role in their health. You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the time of the month of the Abib, because in it you went out of Egypt."The same is commanded in Ex 34,18:
What is Abib? Abib indicates a stage in the development of the barley crops. This is clear from Ex 9,31-32 which describes the devastation caused by the plague of hail: Barley is a grain that has been cultivated for human and animal consumption since the very earliest times. Barley bread was one of the staple foods of the Israelites and it was used in one of the most famous miracles of Jesus Christ. The grain itself is widely mentioned through the bible. The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later. Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward The Lord; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.(Exodus 9:31-33).

Even today barley is still an important food throughout the Middle East west, which may account for the generally low rate of heart disease in that part of the world. A diet that includes lots of barley, three times a day, has lowered blood cholesterol by about 15 percent in a number of medical studies. As anyone who has done any bible study at all knows, bread –always made from barley or other whole grain flours-was regarded as so vital to good health and along life that it was called “staff of life”

Barley is one of the world’s leading grain crops. Grown since biblical times, barley’s popularity is due in part to its ability to flourish in diverse climates ranging from the Arctic Circle to the tropics. About 30 percent of the barley grown in the United States is used for brewing malt beverages such as beer Barley was one of the earliest cereals to be cultivated, about 5000 BC in Egypt, and no other cereal can thrive in so wide a range of climatic conditions; polar barley is sown and reaped well within the Arctic Circle in Europe. Barley is no longer much used in bread making, but it is used in soups and stews and as a starch. Its high-protein form is widely used as animal feed, an its low-protein form is used in brewing and distilling alcoholic drinks