fuels

Materials used to start and maintain fires. Wood and charcoal were the most common fuels in antiquity, the latter becoming more important with the advent of metallurgy and other crafts because of its higher burning temperature. Other fuels were thorny shrubs (Nah 1:10), withered sticks and twigs, straw or stubble from the fields (Exod 15:7), fat remains, date kernels, dung of cattle, bones of fishes, birds, and animals (Ezek 24:5-10), logs (Gen 22:3; Lev 1:7), and chips from the carpenter’s shop (Wis 13:12). The NT knows braziers with charcoal or charcoal fires on the ground (John 18:18; John 21:9).