Food theme appears repeatedly in the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. The Israelites ate two main meals: around noon and in evening. Meals were eaten at low tables, without use of cutlery, which at that time still were not known. They did not use as individual plates; the bread played their role. Meat (or fish) was put on bread, also dipped in sauce (Chouraqui, 2012, s.163). Often bread was eaten with lentils, as in this case: Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank (Bible, Genesis 25,34). And in the next part he had made a stew and had broken bread into a bowl, and was going into the field to take it to the reapers (Bible, Daniel 14:33).

Bread was the most important food. It occurs in the Bible many times, it is an essential component of meals. It was baked mainly from barley, but there were also used other ingredients of bread flour, a mixture of wheat and barley, broad beans and lentils, millet and spelled, known as Ezekiel’s bread (Bible, Ezekiel 4:12).

Bread dough could be baked in different ways: “If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of the finest flour: either thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in or thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with olive oil. ⁵ If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of the finest flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. ⁶ Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. ⁷ If your grain offering is cooked in a pan, it is to be made of the finest flour and some olive oil "(Bible, Leviticus 2.4 - 2.7).

When the bread was ran out at the time of departure of the Israelites from Egypt, God sent them manna. Manna was a seedlike substance with a shiny appearance like resin. The people went around collecting it and ground it between stones or pounded it fine in a mortar. Then they boiled it in a pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a delicacy cooked in olive oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna was right there with it (Bible, Numbers 11,7-11.9).

The bread was an essential component of the supper, including the Last Supper. When the bread ran out, Jesus performed the miracle of the multiplication of five loaves and two fish, so that it sufficed for 5000 listening to his teachings (Bible, Mark 6,34-6,41).

Fish is another food product often found in the Bible; After all, some of Christ's disciples were fishermen. Fish was baked in the fire: "When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread" (Bible, John 21.9). But the fish was also eaten sweet, "And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb" (Bible, Luke 24,42).

An important product in the Israelites kitchen was olive oil. Olive groves were the source of this precious fat, which were obtained by extrusion. Olive oil was used for many purposes, including the bread making “Use the best wheat flour, but no yeast, and make some bread with olive oil, some without it, and some in the form of biscuits brushed with oil” (Bible, Exodus 29.2 (GNB).

Meat was among most desirable meals but rarely available. Usually, it was the meat of sheep or goats. The Israelites brought forth by Moses from slavery in Egypt, complained about the scarcity and recalled the time spent in Egypt as better, with food available: "The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Bible, Numbers 11,4-11,6). Description of preparation meat appears quite frequeantly, though it was not everyday nourishment, "But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!” (Bible, Isaiah 22:13). Meat consumption was permitted only when cleaned of the blood, which, under penalty of exclusion from the nation of Israel could not be eaten. This order is repeated many times in Bible.

The other food products, listed in the Bible there are delivered to David and his warriors before a battle together with clay dishes and pans: wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils honey, yogurt, sheep, and cheese (Bible, 2 Samuel 17.28).

The most valuable products used for buying grain in times of famine Israel lists “a little resin, a little honey, spices, pistachio nuts, and almonds” (Bible, Genesis 43.11).

The aforementioned wine was consumed not only to meat dishes. It was drunk daily on par with water. Work in the vineyards was mentioned as often as work in the fields. When it comes to wine it is not certain whether it is an alcoholic drink or plain grape juice. Both options should be considered (Chouraqui, 2012 s.162). Wine was always served during feasts. The turning water into wine during the wedding in Cana of Galilee was the first miracle of Jesus, recorded by John the Evangelist (Bible, John 2,1-2,11).

Probably, as in the other cultures, meal recipes were written even we haven’t discovered them yet. The Bible gives quite a lot of information about the meals, but by definition it can not include precise instructions for the preparation of dishes.

The oldest manuscripts of biblical texts discovered in caves at Qumran, also known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, found in the years 1947-1956, are systematically examining and digitized and can be found at http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/.