|Original caption: "Threshing, Floor (illeg.)"|
(Credit: George Eastman House, circa 1900)
Earlier this year we posted this feature on agriculture in the Holy Land 100 years ago. We wondered why the photographs seemed to focus on Arab agriculture in Palestine, and we presented a theory that they were documenting Biblical prohibitions and violations.
We recently found this American Colony picture (top right) in the George Eastman House collection. Its caption notes the "illeg." nature of muzzling animals during threshing. The theory is no longer theoretical.
The American Colony photographers were religious Christians and probably knew the Bible from beginning to end.
|Plowing with a cow and a camel (circa 1900)|
|"Thou shall not muzzle an ox in its threshing"|
לֹא תַחְסֹם שׁוֹר בְּדִישׁוֹ
Deuteronomy 25 (circa 1900)
|Plowing with a cow and and an ass|
(circa 1900) See also here
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the originals.
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