TRANS – AFRICA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

NAME : PETRONELLA KABULO

LECTURE: DR MUMBA

COURSE: BIBLICAL CULTURE

ASSINGMENT QUESTION:

DISCUSS WHY THE FRIEND ANSWERED” DO NOT BOTHER ME, THE DOOR IS
ALREADY LOCKED AND MY CHILDREN AND I ARE IN BED, I CANNOT GET UP AND
GIVE YOU ANYTHING”. CONSIDERING HOW THE HOUSES AND ROOMS WERE
BUILT, AND THE SLEEPING ARRANGEMENT TO HELP UNDERSTAND THE PASSAGE
OF SCRIPTURE.

OUTLINE.

THE BACK GROUND OF THE ORIENTALS HOUSES

THE SET UP OF THE HOUSE ROOMS

THE SET UP OF THE FLOORS

THE SET UP OF THE WALL AND THE SET UP OF THE ROOFS

THE SET UP OF THE DOOR THE SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTSTHE CONCLUSION

AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES.
The scriptures in the Bible Luke 11:5-6 talks about Jesus giving a parable of a friend who
answered by saying,” The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get
up and give you anything”. To understand this parable, would require looking at; the setup of the
Oriental’s houses, walls, roofs, doors, rooms and their sleeping arrangements.
According to Gage Canadian Dictionary (2006:472) a Friend is who knows and likes another
person, who favors and supports, its one who belongs to the same side or group. In the East, a
friend is always welcome to receive hospitality .The Romans of the New Testament times had a
token of hospitality between two friends, which consisted of a tile of wood or stone, which was
divided in half. Each person wrote his name on one of the two pieces, and then exchanged that
piece with the other person. These were often kept and handed down from father to son. Craig
(1993.219) says that hospitality was a crucial obligation the host must feed the traveler who has
graced him or her home by coming to spend the night
According to the book, Wight Fred p.8-11 there was a way in which houses were built .The
Orientals who were the first people present during those days were able to describe how these
houses were made than the Accidents who are the people living after and in the present time. It is
easy to misinterpret what was really meant in the Bible for someone who was not there the time
the story was told. When Jesus talks of the story in the Bible passage Luke 11:5-8. These sayings
originates from the kind of houses people built during that time.

In the Old Testament, living in the tents is of ancient origin. Tent life with its simplicity, and so
much of the time was spent out of doors. They did not build houses with the idea in mind that
most of their daily living would be spent inside them. Their first interest was in spending as
much time as possible in worshipping God out of doors. The houses served as a place of
retirement or place to sleep in. For this reason, the outside walls of the humble house were not
inviting.
It goes back before the days of Abraham. He said the first reference in the scriptures to tent life is
concerning the man Jubal, and it is said in Genesis 4:20, “he was the father of such as dwell in
tents. Concerning the Flood the sacred Record say, “God shall enlarge Japhets, and he shall
dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:27).
The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived most of their lives in tents, in around the land of
Canaan. It was said of Abraham, that he “pitched his tent” in the vicinity of Bethel in Bedouin
tent is the sackcloth of the Bible day’s .It must be remembered that these Orientals sackcloth is
not at all like the Occidental .It is a material made of prickly, course goat’s hair. The Arabs who
lived together as a tribe or clan, as they often do, or if more than one family dwell with each
other, then their tents are not pitched in a promiscuous cluster, but more likely in a large circle to
make it possible for at least some of the flocks to be protected inside the circle.
Houses
Houses began to take the place of tents as places of abode. The average home of the common
people was a one- room dwelling. The house was usually a room with a cushion mattresses
spread side by side. The father would sleep on one end of the house and the mother on the other
end with children in the middle. The houses generally had no floor except the earth, which was
smooth and packed hard.
Walls and roofs
Walls were made with spaces to allow the rain flow off. They were built in such a way to prevent
people from falling off thus causing blood shade, if any man fall from the roof, the Law of
Moses definite in commanding the erection of such. It says, “When thou build a new house, then
thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house”.
Deuteronomy 22:8.
Roofs were laying beams across from wall to wall, and then putting on a mat of reeds, or perhaps
thorn bushes, and over it a coating of clay or earth. The Oriental has few windows that opened on
the street side of the house, and those that do are usually high. As a rule that window has a half-
wooden bars serving as protection from robbers.

Doors
Doors were as well as windows were ordinarily built of the sycamore wood. It was only for
ornamental purposes of the wealthy that cedars wood was used, doors fastened when shut and
bars were usually used for this purpose.
In Luke 11:5-8. Why the friend answered, “don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my
children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything”. One of the answers could be
because of the sleeping arrangements of that time which could be understood by the Orientals. If
the parable of Jesus was to be understood in the light an oriental one- room house, will give
information about sleeping arrangement.

Furnishing of the house.

Furnishing of a one-room Palestinian house were and still are very simple. Mats and cushions are
in use to sit on by invitation to hospitality .The distinction between the house of the villager and
of the city; dweller must be made, in order to understand the scriptural reference to houses.

Sleeping Arrangements
The cushion-mattresses are spread side by side in the living room, in a line as long as members
of the family sleeping close together requires. The father sleeps at one end of the line and the
mother at the other end, to keep the children from rolling from under the cover.
The parable of the importunate friend, which Jesus told in Luke 11: 5-8, if understood in the
light of an Oriental one-room house, will give information for the reason why it was difficult for
the friend to open the door immediately when he heard a knocked.

Coming at midnight meant that the family had already been asleep. Since the doors of the
peasant’s one-room house is opened before sunrise in the morning, and stays open all day long as
an invitation to hospitality. At sunset, the door is shut and remains shut during the night. The rule
about the open doors for the simple house does not hold for the city houses of more than one
room.
Reference is given Revelation 3: 8 for such a door to be shut during light saying behold, I have
set before thee an open door. These doors are said to have been turning on the hinges, if the
doors were fastened when shut, bars were usually used for this purpose.
The man was truthful when he said to his friend” the door is already locked, and my children and
I are in bed” to open the door at that time would mean disturbing the completely family members
who were already sleeping.
The friend had persistence, or boldness to continue knocking on the door until his friend decided
to open the door and gave him what he wanted. According to New Living Translation study bible
P.1709, Jesus gave this example to teach his Disciples about prayer. Persistence or boldness in
prayer overcomes our insensitivity, not God’s. To practice persistence does more to change our
heart and mind than His, and it helps us understand and express the intensity of our needs.
Persistence in prayer help us recognize God work.
REFERENCE ;

New Living Translation study bible, 1996. Tyndale House Publishers, IncWight, Fred (1976:8-
11). Manners and Customs of the Bible Lands. Moody Press, Chicago. USA
.
Keener S. Craig ( 1993:219). Bible Background Commentary .New life Literature (pvt) Ltd
Spur Road 4.EPZ.Katunayake Sri Lanka.

The Holy Bible International Version 2011 Biblica inc Published by Zondervan Grand Rapid
Michigan.

Keller Weiner (1956). The Bible as the History. United States of America