Jesus’ Sleeping Arrangements

Having lived in third world slums has opened my eyes to details in the Bible I might otherwise have missed. For example, in the parable of the man begging for bread from his neighbor at midnight, the neighbor protests, “. . . my children are with me in bed” (Luke 11:5). Apparently the entire family was sleeping in the one bed, as common folk have often been forced to throughout history.

In commenting on this verse, Leon Morris writes, “The whole family would sleep on a raised platform at one end . . . possibly with animals at flood level.” I Howard Marshall comments, “The house is a single roomed peasant’s cottage (Mt. 5:15) in which the whole family sleep together on a mat which serves as a bed . . .” (Matthew 5:15 indicates one little light is sufficient to illuminate the entire house.)

“Most beds would be merely the place on the floor, sometimes a low ledge along a wall, where the person slept. The covering would commonly be one’s garment” says The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Although the Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia thinks Mark 4:21 (Luke 8:16) suggests beds with legs might have been common, the highly esteemed Arndt and Gingrich Greek-English Lexicon believes that in this context it refers not to a bed but a dining couch. This interpretation is favored by William Lane. I Howard Marshall, on the other hand, cites Jememias’ book Parables as saying it might be referring to the usual way of extinguishing a lamp to avoid fumes (and so there is no need to assume a gap under the bed).

With average houses being a single room, it would be luxurious even to have a second room, let alone a spare bedroom. If Jesus travelled alone, I could conceive of him finding adequate accommodation (though not by our standards) wherever he journeyed, but even in very hospitable villages this would surely have been hard with twelve disciples also needing beds. (And do you really think Jesus would have hogged the best accommodation for himself?) Moreover, considerably more than twelve travelled with him. Consider, for example, Matthias and Barsabbas (Acts 1:21-23) and a number of women (Luke 8:1-3). In addition there must also have been who sometimes accompanied him and sometimes didn’t.

Sources

Leon Morris Luke: An Introduction and Commentary Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1988.

I Howard Marshall The Gospel of Luke (The New International Greek Testament Commentary) Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1978, page 329, 465.

George Arthur Buttrick (Editor) The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible Abbingdon Press, Nashville, 1962, I:372.

Charles F. Pfeiffer, et al (editors) Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia Moody Press, Chicago, 1975, page 211.

Arndt, William and Gingrich, F. Wilbur A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature Second Edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1979, page 436.

William L. Lane The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1974, page 165.