1 Samuel 17:18 - "also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand ..."

2 Samuel 17:29 - "honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat; for they said, ‘The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.’"

Cheese is one of the oldest known foods. Ever since man has learned to domesticate cattle and goats, and use their milk, he has had the knowledge to make cheese. In fact, the making of cheese was such a well-known occupation that Josephus refers to the "Valley of the Cheese-makers."

During biblical times, the standard method of making cheese was by salting strained curds, molding them into small discs, and drying them in the open air. These curds were the residue of a soured milk, which was consumed in great quantities, since the people felt that it quenched the thirst better in its soured form that it did fresh, and, of course, it’s not a very big step from sour milk to cheese, which is more easily portable.

The Greeks and Romans were supposed to have had cheese as a staple of their diets at least a thousand years before the Christian era. It is mentioned in the earliest documents that are in existence, so we can be forgiven for saying that it is indeed an ancient food.

In biblical times, there were three kinds of cheese: HEMAH, which is comparable to our cream cheese; GEBINAH, which was an ordinary, coarsely grained cheese, and HARIZ HE-HALAB, which is a long way of saying cottage cheese. We can walk down the aisles of our magnificent supermarkets today, and see row after row of exotic cheeses, both domestic and imported.

But, essentially, the common ingredient is there, the ingredient that likens us to our ancestors - the basic ingredient for cheese making is milk of some animal or another.

We are very nutrition oriented today, and we are fully aware of the nutritional values in cheese and cheese products. Would it surprise you to know that the ancient Romans were also aware of these nutritional values? Not, of course, that they could isolate them or give them scientific names; but they did recognize that cheese had strength-giving properties that were essential for soldiers such as they were.

In many countries today, particularly in poorer countries where meat is a luxury for the common man, cheese is still a staple of the diet. To offer a guest cheese, bread and salt is to offer him your hospitality. Perhaps we could offer that to Kraft or one of the other big dairy products companies for a slogan!

We find very few links any longer to ancient forebears, but the cheese maker of today is a direct descendant of these forebears. His methods may be more modern, and much more sanitary, but his products remain the same.