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RECONSTRUCTION: SEMITIC MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND ESTATE OF L.E. STAGER; ILLUSTRATION: C.S. ALEXANDER

THE HOUSE OF THE FATHER. In the ancient Near East, children were part of the household economic system. This drawing depicts an ancient Israelite household—called a bet ab (“father’s house”)—consisting of a joint family and their households: the paterfamilias, his sons and grandsons, their wives, unmarried kin, slaves, etc. They would have all lived and worked together.