The Biblical Table

Eighty-five dishes from the pages of the Bible, each set beside the passage that names it.

From the pottage Jacob traded for a birthright to the broiled fish on the shore of Galilee, The Biblical Table gathers the meals of the Scriptures and brings them to the modern kitchen. Every recipe opens as a two-page spread: a full-page photograph of the finished dish on the left, and on the right the story, the ingredients and the method, with the Scripture itself printed in full from the 1611 King James Bible in a column beside them.

Five parts follow the Bible in order: the Hebrew Scriptures, from Abraham's cakes upon the hearth to the widow's barrel of meal; the New Testament, with loaves and fishes by the lake and the wedding cup at Cana; the Apocrypha, the books printed between the Testaments in the 1611 Bible; the Jewish Table of Sabbath and festival dishes kept through the generations; and Neighbors at the Table, the dates, barley, honey and lamb of the oases and caravan roads of Tema, Dedan, Midian and Sheba.

Each recipe comes with a faint antique map of its place, cross-references to the verses that share its bread, oil, honey and wine, and practical measures in cups and grams. The recipes are modern adaptations a family can make on a weeknight or set out for a feast day. At the back: a Biblical Pantry of the ingredients used throughout, an index of every Scripture passage, and an index of recipes.

A book for the kitchen and for the reading chair: ancient food, cooked today, with the Scripture open on the counter. Hardcover, 8.25 x 11 inches, 208 pages, full color throughout.