ABSTRACT
Christian Europe experienced its history, including the trials of drought and famine, disease and hunger, war and scarcity, in terms of biblical typologies: what happened now had its model in the biblical world. Kings and queens, rich and poor, had a designated place and role. In a predominantly agricultural world, the Bible continued to speak to the ordinary person until modern times. European farming methods were largely unchanged from biblical times until the 18th century: the ox plough was still used. The practical relevance of the Hebrew Bible in an agricultural society diminished only as industry and urbanization spread, forcing men to seek their destiny and find their station 'not in the hand of God but in their own hands'. Biblical laws of charity were not confined to Jews. Ruth, a Moabite, is allowed to glean in the fields of Boaz in Bethlehem; and the Talmud states that the biblical laws quoted above from Leviticus were applied also to non-Jews.
