Manners & Customs of Bible Lands by Fred H. Wright, © 1953, Moody Institute of Chicago

The writer, like any other craftsman has a set of favorite tools. I have been featuring a few resources that I find to be invaluable in my writing and personal Bible study.

While I aspire to publish Christian fiction, I do quite a bit of script writing for a local drama ministry. You can peruse at few at www.dramadrash.org, and I invite you to do so. You will see that most of my titles have a biblical theme. I’ve also written several biblical exegeses, also on this website, which require a thorough research of reliable sources.

One well worn and dog-eared text in my collection is Fred Wright’s Manners & Customs of Bible Lands. In this book, Wright covers such topics as dwellings, foods and dining, hospitality, daily activities, dress, marriage and family, illness and death, occupations, and other topics too numerous to mention.

One reason that I continually refer to this book is because Wright is concise and doesn’t waste my valuable time with long, windy dissertations. He covers the basic facets of each area, and the facts are very easy to find and extract.

Included in this study are the peoples surrounding Israel in the Middle East, which is helpful for comparison and drawing conclusions about the origins of some customs and traditions. I derive an appreciation of the historical landscape that the Master lived and taught in two thousand years ago.

Wright writes in simple, easy to understand terms and adds wonderful illustrations. Rendering this book even more functional are an extensive bibliography, index, and scriptural index.

Many books on Biblical customs have been written since Manners & Customs of Bible Lands, I still rely heavily on this text for my personal and professional research.