Take This Job and Love It

Join a commercial fishing crew working the waters of Galilee. Duties include casting and hauling nets, sorting the catch, and cleaning and repairing equipment after each shift. Applicants should be prepared for physical work, long nights, and the occasional empty net.

Location: Sea of Galilee

Shift: Often overnight

Skills Required: Net fishing, boat handling, sorting catch, net repair

Work the fields, vineyards, and farms of the biblical world. Duties include planting, harvesting, tending crops and livestock, and gathering produce by hand. Opportunities range from landowners and farmers to hired workers and gleaners.

Location: Fields, vineyards, and farmland

Shift: Daylight and seasonal

Skills Required: Planting, harvesting, tending crops, livestock work

Tend and protect sheep and goats, lead them to pasture and water, keep the flock together, and defend it from predators. Applicants should be comfortable outdoors, prepared for long stretches alone, and willing to go looking for the one wayward sheep that wandered off.

Location: Pastures and wilderness

Shift: Around the clock

Skills Required: Animal care, navigation, protection, patience

Serve in a royal court or help administer a kingdom or province. Duties may include managing resources, advising rulers, overseeing government affairs, and carrying out royal orders. Applicants should demonstrate leadership, discretion, good judgment, and the ability to stay on the boss’s good side.

Location: Palaces, courts, and provincial offices

Shift: At the pleasure of the boss

Skills Required: Administration, leadership, diplomacy, judgment

Serve as a soldier, commander, or military leader. Duties include defending territory, leading troops, carrying out battle plans, and occasionally facing opponents considerably larger than you. Applicants should possess courage, discipline, loyalty, and proficiency with ancient weaponry.

Location: Wherever the battle is

Shift: As needed, including nights, sieges, and very long marches

Skills Required: Combat, leadership, strategy, endurance

Serve God and His people as a priest, prophet, scribe, teacher, or minister. Duties may include leading worship, studying and teaching Scripture, delivering God’s messages, and occasionally telling powerful people things they absolutely do not want to hear. Applicants should be prepared to go wherever God sends them.

Location: Temple, synagogue, and wherever God sends you

Shift: Definitely not 9 to 5

Skills Required: Teaching, worship, leadership, speaking uncomfortable truths

Make, buy, and sell goods throughout the biblical world. Opportunities include skilled trades, textile sales, and portable businesses suitable for applicants who may occasionally need to pack up and move to another city.

Location: Homes, workshops, marketplaces, and trade centers

Shift: Whenever customers need you

Skills Required: Craftsmanship, sales, business sense, adaptability

Work with your hands as a skilled tradesman in first-century Galilee. Duties include building, repairing, and crafting useful items for homes and communities. Applicants should be comfortable with physical labor and working with a variety of building materials.

Location: Nazareth

Shift: Daytime

Skills Required: Building, repair, craftsmanship, hand tools

Provide music for worship, royal courts, and public celebrations. Duties may include singing, playing instruments, composing songs, and leading other musicians. Applicants should be comfortable performing for both God and kings.

Location: Temple, palace, and public gatherings

Shift: Worship services, celebrations, and whenever the king needs calming down

Skills Required: Singing, instruments, composition, musical leadership

Care for people through illness, injury, and childbirth. Duties vary considerably depending on the position. Applicants should be observant, compassionate, steady under pressure, and prepared for situations in which somebody’s life may depend on doing the right thing.

Location: Homes and communities

Shift: Babies and sick people do not keep office hours

Skills Required: Medical care, childbirth assistance, observation, courage