TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 5

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[The matter under, this .heading is publiahed at the request' of, and ia supplied by, the United Temperance Beform Council -in pursuance of the desire to inculcate the principles of temperance.] THE BIBLE AND WINE. ! T ■

By

B. S. Lions.

There' is no more important aspect of the temperance question than this. If the Bible, the book of God, is with us we have the strongest possible support; if the Bible .be against us then . we are indeed on the wrong path?' The liquor men often assert that the Scriptures recommend wine of the alcoholic kind, and that our Lord, our, greatest exemplar, was not a total abstainer. Alas, many, scholarly men who ought to know better .“have written as if the contentions of “the trade” were correct.

For example, the following very misleading statement in Scliaff’s “Religious Encyclopaedia’’ is frequently quoted and -by too "many it is believed —“The theory of two kinds of wine—the one fermented, intoxicating, and unlawful, the other unfermented, unintoxicating, and lawful, —is a modern hypothesis devised during the present (nineteenth) century, and has no foundation in the Bible or in classical antiquity.” If the author of the article from which this extract is taken had relied more on the available evidence and less on his prejudices he would have written very differently. Both in the Bible and in the classical writers we can see the clearest- indications that there were.-.tho two kinds of wine. , Let us consider the evidence of a few well-known ancient authors, who as witnesses are of great worth. The Roman writer, Pliny the elder, who died a.d. 79, was practically a contemporary of Christ, and knew the customs of that time in the near East. Pliny, in his work “Natural History,” book xiv, describes various kinds of wine as known and used at that period. _ He mentions “semper mustum,” and says: “It is only mqide by using great precaution and. taking care that it does not ferment.” He also says: “The, first of the artificial wines is called adynamon (without strength).” He then describes how this is made by prolonged boiling, and in some cases by also mixing the' grapejuice with sea-water, both of which processes would prevent fermentation, and he adds: “This beverage is given to. invalids to whom it is apprehended that (alcoholic) wine may prove injurious.” ' There is reason to believe that something of this. kind was what Paul meant when he recommended Timothy (I, Tim. v. 23) to take “oinos oligos,” translated in the '• English- Bible “a little wine,” for his stomach’s sake. Scholars know that the Greek word “oligos” may be either an adjective of . quantity, meaning “a little,” or an adjective of quality, meaning “light” (see .Prof. Souter’s Lexicon) 5 . VSo then the words of Paul may really be “use light wine” (like Pliny’g adynamon and several others then well known) “for thy stomach’s sake.”-'

When we consider Paul’s advice in other places this seems to be the sense, unless the great apostle is to be charged with gross inconsistency. For example, he says, when we translate according to the strictly etymological meaning of the words (see Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon, or any other good authority) in I. Thes. v. 8, “Let us since we are of the day drink no wine,” — namely, no alcoholic wine. Significant injunctions are given in I. Tim. chapter iii. A bishop must be “without reproach, sober/’ literally drinking no wine ('Liddell and Scott). In the following verse, “not given to wine,” literally, “not near wine” (mee paroinon). .As Timothy was one of the overseers or bishops of the Church, either Paul’s advice to him refers to a different kind of wine, or the apostle contradicts himself. Yet we know too much of Paul to believe this, even though the liquor men ask us to interpret I. Tim. v. 23 in their way. One is often reminded of the negro preacher who said, “I reckon I put my own narrow notions into the Bible, and then proceed to think that they are inspired. . To return to the matter of classical antiquity, we may mention that Columella, a Roman writer of the first century, refers to several modes of preserving the juice of the grape in its unfermented state. He describes the method of treating it, and says: “This wine will be sweet, firm, or durable, and healthful to the body. It '■ will remain sweet for a year.” Mr W. G. Brown, the traveller, writing r in 1792, said: “The wines of Syria are most of them prepared bv boiling after they are expressed from the grape.” He adds: “There is reason to believe that this mode •of boiling was a general practice among the ancients.” E. W. G. Masterman, M.D.. of Jerusalem, confirms this from his close and comprehensive knowledge of Eastern customs, and says: “Of -the vast quantities of grapes produced in ancient times, a large proportion was without doubt converted into ‘dibs” (a non-alcoholic preparation). “This,” he adds, “is still made in considerable quantities in Syria” (Hastings’s One Vol. Diet. P. 959, pub. 1909). ' The’Rev. Dr Jacobus said in 1870: “The present wines of Jerusalem and Lebanon as we tasted them were commonly boiled ’and sweet, without intoxicating qualities. The boiling prevents - the .: fermentation. Those were esteemed the best wines which were,.least strong.” . . All. these witnesses cannot possibly be wrong. Horace (B.C. ’65-81 the famous Roman author, corroborates when he says: “There was no sweeter wine than Lesbian. It was harmless and would -not produce intoxication.” - ■ ' -

The testimony of classical antiquity and of Eastern usage in later times supports the contention of the temperance people as against the prejudiced contentions of men; like the author of the Schaff Cyclopaedia " article and certain writers in later ' ’Bible dictionaries, who evidently write Cither without full knowledge of the sub- * ject or with a culpable lack of candour. ■ 1 ■ doming to the language of the Bible itself, : a very - significant fact is that 11 different Hebrew words and two Greek ■ 5321& ar ® n( lered “wine” in the Authorised Version. 1 This has been” a fruitful source" of confusion, in the minds of many/ and

the American Revised Version does a little to bring out the distinctions of meaning m the original, though even that excellent edition does not go very far. For our purpose . at. present it will be sufficient to glance at the meanings of three °l,the Old Testament words. TJ .‘.‘ Ya yin’’is found 134- 'times in the ■*4®h r .ew Bible. It is the generic word and includes all kinds of wine just as the word “fruit” includes figs, grapes, olives, apples, and all the'others. “Yayin” issometimes approved (Rs. civ. 15), and very frequently condemned (Prov. xx, 1). We need always to read the context to find out whether it .is good or bad, alcoholic or'nonalcoholic wine which is contemplated. The Hebrew word “chemer”' for wine occurs , about nine times (e.g., Dan. v, 1, where it takes the Chaldee form “Cliamer”). It comes from a root signifying “to be agitated,” “to be red,” hence we may believe .it to mean fermented wine. It may often have been mixed with some drug. . Special attention should be paid to the word “tirosh,” “new wine,” “wine.’,’ In Isa. Ixv., 8, it is .distinctly applied to juice still in the cluster.. But properly it is .a. liquor. (Isa. Ixiij. This is the unintoxicating juice of the grape, and in Scripture i 3 is never said to intoxicate. It is, when mentioned along with harmless products, as corn, oil, etc., always spoken of as a blessing (e. g., Gen, xxv, 28), and its use . is. ileyer. condemned. InHosea tv, 11," it is said: “Whoredom arid wine

(yayin) and new wine (tirosh) take awav the heart.” A careful reading of the whole prophecy, however, will show .that this is a. condemnation of . impure heathen worship. . Even' the _ most harmless liquid in combination with whoredom and alcoholic excess, and as a part of idolatrous living, will steal away the heart from God, who is to be the supreme object of affection (Deut. vi, 5) and of worship (Ex. xx, 4). Professor A.- R. S. Kennedy, in an article which liquor men 'sometimes quote (Encyclopaedia Biblica); and which is certainly not altogether on the side of the temperance interpretation, is compelled to say: “We ought. Jo regard tirosh as primarily the freshly expressed and still unfermented grape juice.’ The point to bear in mind is that this is not forbidden, or its general use condemned, in Scripture.