What kind of furniture (tables) did they have in the 8th century BC?

LinaBellus said:

There is a mention of a table and a stool in this passage, however, as far as I'm concerned the making of tables only spread from the 4th century BC onward, but Elisha lived some time in the 8th century BC.

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It depends what you mean by "table." AFAIK, Egyptian tables often had the form of a flat tray on top of some kind of stand. Those go back long before the time you're talking about.

LinaBellus said:

"Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither."

In 2 Kings 4:10 we read about the woman from Shunem suggesting her husband to make a little chamber for Elisha, and setting some furniture in the room also. There is a mention of a table and a stool in this passage, however, as far as I'm concerned the making of tables only spread from the 4th century BC onward, but Elisha lived some time in the 8th century BC. Anybody aware of manuscripts or archaeological findings that could prove the use of tables in early ancient history such as implied in 2 Kings?

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I read on wikipedia, that Egyptians used stone tables just to keep things off the floor, that might date back to Exodus? But you could dig around in there for research?

However, tables as we know them also existed before Elisha. Here is a set of Egyptian furniture (stool, table, wine-jar, chair) from around 1400 to 1350 BC and now in the British Museum:

I've been to Pompeii, but haven't yet researched times prior to 79 A.D.
Wood furniture wouldn't have survived.

"To a large extent, the types and styles of ancient Roman furniture followed those of their Classical and Hellenistic Greek predecessors. Because of this it is difficult to differentiate Roman forms from earlier Hellenistic ones in many cases. Gisela Richter’s typological approach is useful in tracing developments of Greek furniture into Roman expressions.[23]Knowledge of Roman furniture is derived mainly from depictions in frescoes and representations in sculpture, along with actual pieces of furniture, fragments, and fittings, several of which were preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The most well-known archaeological sites with preserved images and fragments from the eruption are Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy. There are fine examples of reconstructed Roman furniture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as well as the Capitoline Museum in Rome."
Ancient furniture - Wikipedia



Greek bronze lampstand, 3rd century BC


In Pompeii some beds were masonry and some were metal. Tables could have been carved from marble or other stone.

LinaBellus said:

as far as I'm concerned the making of tables only spread from the 4th century BC onward

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There's another point here about translation generally. Bible translators pick the closest English word to the original Hebrew or Greek, but that English word may have a slightly different meaning.

The meaning that you picture in your head when you read the English word might not be the true meaning. This is why illustrated Bible dictionaries can be useful.

For example, 1 Corinthians 13:12 refers to a mirror (KJV: "glass"). However, this doesn't mean a mirror as we know it, but a metal mirror (bronze or perhaps silver, and polished the way that this one is not). Such mirrors give a rather distorted reflection:

Phoebe Ann said:

I've been to Pompeii, but haven't yet researched times prior to 79 A.D.
Wood furniture wouldn't have survived.

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I posted a picture of a wooden table from 1400 BC. Wood survives very well under the right conditions (and in the absence of fire).

Pete Savin on Twitter: "As at #Pompeii wooden items survived as voids within the ash, beds & tables salvaged after the earthquake Pete Savin on Twitter"

Phoebe Ann said:

Pete Savin on Twitter: "As at #Pompeii wooden items survived as voids within the ash, beds & tables salvaged after the earthquake Pete Savin on Twitter"

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Why are we talking about Pompeii here? Obviously those were not good conditions for preserving wooden objects. And the eruption was roughly 900 years after and 2000 km distant from Elisha.

LinaBellus said:

Elisha lived some time in the 8th century BC.

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And, btw, I thought Elisha was 9th century BC? 2 Kings 9:1-3 tells us that his life overlaps with Jehu, who is solidly dated.

In fact we have a contemporary picture of either Jehu or Jehu's ambassador, giving tribute to Shalmaneser III of Assyria in 841 BC:

YUCK! Roman slaves washed their owner's clothes in urine!

Pompeii

Radagast said:

Why are we talking about Pompeii here? Obviously those were not good conditions for preserving wooden objects. And the eruption was roughly 900 years after and 2000 km distant from Elisha.

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I wasn't disputing anything you said. I was sharing that there were wooden objects and I didn't see your post until after I made that post.

LinaBellus said:

Thank you everyone for commenting, I'm going to look into the sources you mentioned above. I've always had a picture in my head of people sitting on the floor in Jesus' day

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If you look at the NT Greek, it's clear that in Jesus' time they would have eaten by reclining on low couches at the table Greek/Roman style.



Modern translations make that explicit, e.g. Matthew 9:10 (ESV): And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

LinaBellus said:

and also I remember watching the movie The Passion of the Christ in which there's a scene where the actor who plays Jesus is making a table as we know it today and his work is being ridiculed by his mother who's never seen such a piece of furniture before.

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Haven't seen the movie, but remember, it's not a documentary! I'm pretty sure Mel Gibson put that in to emphasise the fact that (1) Jesus was not just a carpenter but a good one, and (2) Jesus had insights beyond the purely human.

LinaBellus said:

So when I was reading 2 Kings a few weeks ago I noticed that it mentions a table and a stool too so I concluded that it must have been the type with a stand where you needed to sit on a chair.

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Like I said, English words can be deceptive, which is why illustrated Bible dictionaries can be useful.

LinaBellus said:

"Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither."

In 2 Kings 4:10 we read about the woman from Shunem suggesting her husband to make a little chamber for Elisha, and setting some furniture in the room also. There is a mention of a table and a stool in this passage, however, as far as I'm concerned the making of tables only spread from the 4th century BC onward, but Elisha lived some time in the 8th century BC. Anybody aware of manuscripts or archaeological findings that could prove the use of tables in early ancient history such as implied in 2 Kings?

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The story was probably written down during the Babylonian Exile, not during the 8th century.