THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, BEQUEST OF LILLIE P. BLISS, 1931; PUBLIC DOMAIN
For millennia, the camel has been an indispensable companion for various peoples throughout the lands of the Bible. Historically, the region has been home to the one-humped Arabian camel, or dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), although the two-humped Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), native to central Asia, also occasionally appears in ancient art and literature.
The lucrative trade in precious commodities from Arabia, including frankincense, myrrh, saffron, and cinnamon, fully depended on these sturdy beasts so perfectly adapted to the rough and arid conditions of the desert environment. These ships of the desert can walk up to 25 miles a day and can go weeks without drinking and months without eating. Their thick-lined mouths allow them to eat even thorny bushes, and their eyes are lidded with a nearly transparent membrane that protects against blowing dust and sand. Camels can carry up to 500 pounds on their backs and are a valued source of milk, wool, and leather. Their dried dung is used as fuel. However, the story of their domestication in the ancient Near East is complicated.
In the Hebrew Bible, camels first appear in the stories of Abraham (Genesis 12 and 24), who allegedly owned and rode camels. But because the patriarchal episodes are generally dated to around 2000 BCE, and the camel (gamal, in Hebrew) was not domesticated in the Levant until about 1000 BCE, some scholars believe these references are anachronistic. However, if we consider Abraham’s Mesopotamian or Syrian origins, where archaeological and textual sources indicate much earlier domestication, it is not inconceivable that the biblical Abraham did, indeed, own camels.
Camels then appear in biblical traditions about the United Monarchy: King David appoints an overseer of camels (1 Chronicles 27:30); and the Queen of Sheba uses camels as long-distance mounts to visit Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:2). Writing in the fifth century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus reminds us that camels were also important beasts of war: The Persian victory over the Lydians of Anatolia, in 546, was due to the Persians’ use of camels in confronting the Lydian cavalry, because “no horse can endure the sight or smell of a camel” (Histories 2.80).
By the turn of the Common Era, the camel was so common in the eastern Mediterranean that Jesus used its bulky body to illustrate the difficulty a rich man has in entering heaven, saying, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).
Postbiblical Christian tradition then inserted the camel in the Nativity scene as mounts for the “three kings of Orient,” who followed yonder star to bring the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn Jesus.
For millennia, the camel has been an indispensable companion for various peoples throughout the lands of the Bible. Historically, the region has been home to the one-humped Arabian camel, or dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), although the two-humped Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), native to central Asia, also occasionally appears in ancient art and literature. The lucrative trade in precious commodities from Arabia, including frankincense, myrrh, saffron, and cinnamon, fully depended on these sturdy beasts so perfectly adapted to the rough and arid conditions of the desert environment. These ships of the desert can walk up to 25 miles a day and can […]
