KOSHER FOOD IN  MARY'S KITCHEN

 A woman prepares food in a simple Middle Eastern house

Jewish women prepared all the family's food. In doing so, they played an important part in maintaining the 'Jewishness' of the family.

Mary of Nazareth almost certain kept a 'kosher' kitchen. This meant the kitchen itself, and each item of food, was 'proper' for a Jewish family.

Certain foods were (and are) permitted to Jews; others were not.

Jews were forbidden to eat specific types of food, and had to prepare their food in a particular way.

Their meat, for example, came from animals who had cloven hooves and chewed their cud - the goat and the lamb. These had to be be killed in a humane way, so that the animal suffered as little as possible.

As a rule, animals that ate grass were permitted, animals that ate flesh were not. All reptiles were forbidden. Fish must have fins and scales; crustaceans could not be eaten.

These were not arbitrary choices. Each of the forbidden foods had the potential to carry disease, or be dangerous in some way to anyone who ate it.

As a devout Jewish family, Mary and Joseph carefully observed the dietary laws of Judaism.