Alcohol and the Bible, Part 1
D. Ishmael Abrahams (with Bodie Hodge)
October 11, 2021 (originally published January 7, 2016)
What should Christians know about the debate?
PART 1: ORIGIN AND BIBLICAL HISTORY OF ALCOHOL
INTRODUCTION
There is a debate; in fact, it is often a heated debate. I am repeatedly asked about alcohol by various Christians; for example, some who use wine as communion and others who use grape juice. So I am pulled into the debate from time to time, even though I tend to avoid it. The Bible gives insight on this issue. So in an effort to be prepared, I have studied the subject to see what the Bible says.
God dictates what is right and wrong and is the absolute
authority on every subject, including alcohol. I grew up in churches that were
predominantly teetotalers (no drinking at all). And during that time, I rarely
knew what the Bible said, but often just trusted what people told
me the Bible said. But when I decided to study the subject regarding what the
Bible says, it was not only eye-opening but also exciting and yet relaxing to
see how God’s Word sets the record straight.
Before I get into the debate about drinking versus
no-drinking though, I wanted to address the origin and history of alcohol.
There are a lot of secular stories floating around out there, but again, we
will see what the Bible says (hence, look at the truth) and what we can learn
from it. This will be done in a chronological fashion encompassing aspects from
Creation, after the Fall, after the Flood, and results from Babel.
SOME BASIC TERMINOLOGY
Wine, in its broadest sense, could be fruit wines, honey wines, or grain wines.
- Fruit
Wine: Wine made from fruit like apple wine or grape wine. Grape
wines are by far the most popular. Some of these can be accepted with
other fruits (e.g., passion fruit accents in Moscoto grape wine). Wines
are usually 9-16% alcohol by volume (ABV) but can be much higher than this
typical range.
- Honey
Wines (Meads and Melomels, which are accented meads): honey
based. Melomels are mead with fruit additions. For example, blackberry
mead is mead with blackberry accents for flavor. Honey wines usually ranges
from 8-18% ABV.
- Grain
Wine or Beer/Biere: malted barley based and sometimes wheat, rice
or corn additives: ales (typically top fermented at room temperature) and
lagers (typically bottom fermented at cold temperature) or other grain
alcohols (rice, wheat, corn, etc.). Beers are usually at 4-6% alcohol by
volume (ABV) unless you do it as a double or triple (think of a Doppelbock
or Tripelbock style). With some significant extra effort one can get it to
8-12%. Beers are generally low alcohol compared to wines, meads, and
especially distilled liquor.
- Distilled
Liquor: these are the strong ones, no less than 20% ABV but can
range up to 95% ABV. Heating and evaporating off the alcohol from beer,
sugar-based alcohol, or wine and recollecting it by condensing it together
in high concentrations make these.[1] These
distilled alcohols are not considered wine at all, even though they have
their origin in wine.
BIBLICAL ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ALCOHOL
- Creation
and Alcohol
God created all things during the 6 days of Creation
Week (God rested on the seventh day). Now this doesn’t mean that all
the people alive today were living during creation week! When it comes to
people, animals, or plants, etc., descendants living today go back to these
original created kinds. In the case of humanity, that would be Adam (1
Corinthians 15:45-47) and Eve (Genesis 3:20) our first parents.
This would have been roughly 6,000 years ago based on the
genealogies from Adam to Christ (who was about two thousand years ago) and tack
on 5 days before Adam. Hosts of chronologists, from Jews like Josephus to
Christians like Ussher, tallied these genealogies up over the past 2,000 years
and arrived dates very similar to this. Some places are not straightforward to
compute, so the dates vary ever so slightly. Exodus 20:11 give a good reason to
believe the creation days are normal-length days, as does Christ in Mark 10:6
when affirming man and woman came at the beginning of creation.
The recent secular humanistic/naturalistic idea of an old
earth has not been part of Christian vocabulary until recent times where
Christians have been, sadly, mixing their religion with this humanistic
religion. For those who wish to know more about this subject, I highly
recommend you visit websites that deal with this in greater detail like http://www.answersingenesis.org and http://www.icr.org.[2]
Back to creative acts in Genesis 1, God created laws of
nature by which He upholds all things (Hebrews 1:3) in a consistent fashion.
For example, consider Genesis 8:22. With laws in place, the existence of
alcohol was now possible as it is simply a set of molecules bonded together.
Let me explain what alcohol is for moment.
What is alcohol?
There is a little science in this, but don’t let it scare
you. Alcohol comes in various forms and are basically molecules that have OH
(one oxygen that is bonded with one hydrogen) that together are bonded to a
carbon atom (C) that has three other bonds attached to that carbon. In other
words it would look like:
Figure 1 Basic molecular outline of alcohols
Figure 2 Methyl alcohol is a common industrial alcohol where
the other 3 bonds of carbon attach to hydrogen.
Figure 3 Ethyl alcohol [C2H5OH]: Ethanol is found in
alcoholic beverages, fruit, and are usually made by yeast. It is also used in
conjunction with gasoline for engine fuel (E-85 for instance).
Figure 4 Isopropyl alcohol: Isopropyl alcohol is what is
found in rubbing alcohol sometimes dubbed “wood alcohol”. This form of
alcohol is poison.
There are many more and some are longer chains but they
still follow the basic format of a C bonded to an OH. Because of their basic
molecular structure, they are soluble in water.
In this article series, we are examining and discussing the
alcohol chain specifically dealing with alcoholic beverages, ethyl alcohol, but
bear in mind that some ethanol cannot be drank (denatured ethanol for example)
but that is not for this discussion. So when discussing alcohol, this is what
is referred to in the remainder of this book.
Essentially, yeast (small fungi) “eat” sugars and replicate.
In this process, the end result produces carbon dioxide (which is good for
plants) and alcohol (which is a natural solvent to break down carbon based
molecules that are insoluble in water[3]).
Also, it is a natural renewable fuel. Yeast provides a process that is
essential to keeping a balanced world and thus, it makes sense that yeast was
working in a proper fashion in perfect world to produce alcohol.
What day was yeast created (since our primary source of
alcohol is yeast)?
The Bible simply does not tell us. Genesis 1:1-2:3 gives the
highlights and order of creation week and yeast was not a highlight; that does
not mean it was not important. But until recent times, few people studied the
various tiny fungi that produce alcohol. It really wasn’t until a French
Christian named Louis Pasteur did an in-depth study on the subject in the
A.D.1800s.
Usually, Christian commentators logically deduce that
various bacteria and fungi associated with the particular creatures were
created alongside them during that creation day. For example, water-dependent
bacteria would have been created on Day 5 with water creatures. Bacteria or
fungi associated with land animals or man (e.g., like those that live in our
gut in a symbiotic relationship, i.e., probiotics) would have been created on
Day 6 along with man or the animals. Keep in mind that the Bible never calls
fungi, bacteria, or even plants as living creature (nephesh chayyah in
Hebrew). Animals were living, and humans are living but humans unlike animals
were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
Regardless, it may be several different days that various
fungi (and bacteria) would have been created depending on the type, purpose and
with what it was associated. Regardless, it was during creation week and all
very good in perfect symbiotic relationships originally of the whole creation
(Nehemiah 9:6, Genesis 1:31).
- After
the Fall
After the fall, things changed. The world went from a
perfect state to a world marred with death and suffering due to man’s sin. Man
had dominion over the world, so when man fell, so did man’s dominion. In fact,
this is the reason Christ later stepped into history to become a man and die
for mankind to redeem and save them. It goes back to the fall. This is why we
die and why we suffer; our common parents disobeyed God’s command. And a
perfectly Holy God must punish sin justly. But a loving God also cared enough
to step in die in our place; this is grace.
But as a result, the world was no longer perfect (e.g.,
thorns and thistles came forth in Genesis 3:18, animals were cursed in Genesis
3:14, etc.). Paul even proclaimed that the whole creation was suffering under
this curse (Romans 8:22).[4] This
is why we need a new heavens and new earth discussed in Revelation 21 and 22.
Did alcohol come into existence as a result of sin?
The Bible doesn’t say but likely not. What we can be sure of
is that there was no longer a perfect symbiotic relationship with things.
It seems perfectly logical to conclude that alcohol was
being produced by the natural physiology by which God created fungi prior to
sin. Fungi provided a vital role in a perfect creation. It was to break down
sugars, e.g., sugars in fruit or grains that fall to ground, and provide CO2 back
to the atmosphere for plants to use and nutrients back to the soil.
Did abuse of alcohol begin after sin?
No doubt it was after sin that abuse of
alcohol began. Very little information has been revealed to us by God in the
Bible about the pre-Flood world. There are only 6 dedicated chapters in Genesis
and 2 of those (Genesis 1 and 2) were talking of the pre-Fall world!
Jesus did give a potential hint to it in Luke 7. Consider
the phrase “eating and drinking”; it was directly associated with alcoholic
beverages as the Jews of Christ’s generation claimed of Christ that He was a
“glutton and a winebibber” when He was eating and drinking. In other words,
they claimed Christ was a drunk for drinking and this was directly contrasted
to John the Baptist, who was not “eating bread and drinking wine” in Luke
7:33-34. And Jesus reveals of the pre-Flood world:
“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
the ark (Matthew 24:38).
This knowledge of fermented drinks was surely common to the
pre-Flood world and is likely where Noah attained the knowledge to make wine
prior to his incident after the Flood. But there will be more to this in coming
sections.
- After
the Flood
After the Flood, the world had changed again. This time, it
was due to destruction of the earth by water (2 Peter 3:5-6) and numerous other
factors involved. For example, many Christians believe the continents were
shifted at this time and the mountains and ocean basins we have today were
formed as a result of the Flood.[5] They
even denote that the world’s climate underwent a significant change and caused
an Ice Age that followed the Flood and we are still essentially recovering from
that as you read this.[6]
Some have suggested that the rearrangement of bacteria and
fungi throughout the world at the time of the Flood has caused further problems
since these creatures are no longer “stationed properly” as in the previous
world, where things were a little closer to the original perfect world.
Essentially, bacteria and fungi were now growing and reproducing outside their
normal boundaries and that can cause problems. Increased sickness for man and
animals are but one result when you ingest bacteria and fungi that are not
helpful to you.
In other words, in a pre-Flood and pre-Fall world, some
bacteria would have been in a perfect relationship, but now they cause problems
in a different environment.
Did Noah know that the wine could get him drunk?
Based on some of the thoughts in the section above, some
have suggested that this is when alcoholic beverages first came to be, due to
this imbalance. The argument is basically that due to this imbalance, wine is
now alcoholic after the Flood and Noah didn’t know it.
There are problems with this of course. First, grapes have
what is called “bloom”. Natural yeast cells are on the grape skin by design and
these permeate the grape in small controlled amounts to cause small amounts of
alcohol to form inherently. This alcohol is beneficial in that it destroys
bacteria that try to get into the grape and cause problems. It is common for
many fruits to contain minute amounts of alcohol for this purpose. In fact,
this is why things like wine can keep for long periods of time; the alcohol
protects it from harmful bacteria. Furthermore, many winemakers use this
naturally occurring yeast to ferment their wine. It is not as predictable but
still effective.
Second, Noah was likely very aware of what he was drinking.
We often overlook a key phrase in the Scriptures (“Noah drank of the wine”).
This implies that it was not the first time he drank some, and logically he
would have made sufficient amounts to store until the next harvest. One
translation even mark this out as “drank some of its
wine – NIV”). After all, a vineyard is not a few vines, but entire groves of
the vines.
Lastly, recall Jesus statement about eating and drinking
prior to the Flood (see Matthew 24:38 and Luke 7:33-34? Was there more
naturally occurring fermentation going on after the Flood, I would indeed leave
this option open.
Was the knowledge of beer (source: barley/wheat) and mead
(source: honey) known in Noah’s day?
The Bible simply does not tell us. Noah lived 350 years
after the Flood and was alive for 600 years until the Flood came. If Noah had
knowledge about wine making with his vineyard grapes, then there is no reason
to assume he didn’t know how to do it with other fruits, grains, and sugars,
which is an identical process.
In fact, brewing wine, mead (which is simply honey wine and
even easier to make than grape wine), and beer (made from malted grains like
barley and wheat) are all very similar. If one can do wine, then they can do
the others rather easily. Archaeologically, we have records of ancient
Sumerians (early descendants of Noah) making beer (more on this in a moment).
So the knowledge was available early post-Flood.
So I would leave open the option that this knowledge was
available at the time of Noah–who lived for 350 years after the Flood. It makes
more sense that intelligent people who knew how to make wine could do slight
deviations to make beer and mead than the common explanation given by the
secular world about the origin of beer.
In the secular view, a farmer “who wasn’t so bright” left
some grain (e.g., barley) outside and it got rained on and started to germinate
then wild yeast started to convert the sugars and the farmer drank some of the
fermented beverage as it leaked out. Hence, he got drunk from there, decided to
repeat the process. This is but one the variations I’ve heard over the years.
It is a cute story, but that is how mythology gets started.
Although, not everyone on the secular side believes the origin of beer came via
this type of story. And many have recognized this. It is better to realize that
intelligent people can do variations from grape wine to use other ingredients
to make beer and mead.
- Results
from Babel
As people migrated from Babel in the Mesopotamian area to
other parts of the world, they took brewing with them. In many cases, they took
cultivated crops like grapes or grains with them. But in other instances,
people used the native fruits and grains in the place to which they migrated.
Obviously, the knowledge of wine making was around before Babel, with Noah.
Noah’s sons and grandsons were surely familiar with this process as well.
Furthermore, winemaking has been found throughout the world, even in ancient
times. Even variations of meads and beer have as well.
For example, people who made it to the Americas used a grain
called maize (corn) to make alcohol. In Peru for example, there is an ancient
purple corn drink Chicha that had an alcoholic version by chewing the corn and
then putting it back out in a container and allowing it to ferment. The
fermented version is done differently today.
Others used grains like rice, rye, oats, or fruits like
blackberries, raspberries, apples, and so on. In some cases, other sweeteners
were used like maple syrup, molasses, and so on. As you can see there were many
variations.
What archaeological finds confirm an early use of
alcoholic beverages, particularly beer?
There been a host of things found, primarily in written form
or pottery images. Naturally, the dates given by the secular side have errors,
as they do not follow biblical dating and need to be converted to the biblical
timeframe. Their long-age dates will not be used in light of this fact.
Middle East
- In the
Zagros Mountains at Godin Tepe (today Iran, where Noah’s descendants of
Elam and Madai, the Elamites [including the Persians] and Medes
respectively, settled after Babel)[7],
there was fermentation residue in pottery that had chemical deposits
of Calcium Oxalate known as a “beerstone”. Laced in the fermentation
vessel, this was evidence of barley brewing specifically. Also at the same
location, were wine jars and carbonized barley.[8]
- The
Hymn of Ninkasi was an ancient song written on clay tablets that included
a beer recipe in land of the Sumerians, which is where Nimrod took over
after events at the Tower of Babel. Interestingly Ninkasi is the daughter
of Enki, Lord Nidimmud, who may well be Nimrod or someone who later sat in
royal lineage and title of Nimrod. Ninkasi was elevated to a “godlike”
status by later descendants (it was common for pagans to elevate ancestors
to the level of “gods”). Though of course, they are not gods at all.[9] Anchor
Brewing Company followed the recipe and named the beer Ninkasi.
- Ancient
pottery found in the tomb of King Midas (yes, he was real, but has
been “mythized” too) in modern-day Turkey revealed a beer recipe that
Dogfish Head brewery also cloned and now offers it commercially entitled:
“Midas Touch”.[10]
- Israelites
were known for their wine and drink offerings throughout the Old Testament
beginning in Genesis.
Orient
- Ancient
village of Jiahu in Northern China (some of Noah’s descendants primarily
out of Sineus (Sinites) yielded some pottery that had residues that were
tested. Based on the residues, a basic beer/mead/wine recipe resulted. It
contained grape, honey, and rice and other fruits. One brewery (Dogfish
Head) decided to recreate this beverage and named it Chateau Jiahu.[11]
Americas (We already discussed one previously,
alcoholic Chicha from corn.)
- An
ancient brewery in Peru was found aloft a mountaintop that was used to
make an alcoholic version of Chicha.[12]
- An
alcoholic beer made from chocolate was made by the Aztecs called Cocao
Wine.
Africa
- A
large-scale archaeological site was a brewery in ancient Egypt
(descendants of Noah’s son Mizraim) at Hierakonpolis near Luxor. The
residuals left in the ceramic vats included grapes, dates, and wheat.[13]
Europe
- Romans
(Rome was founded by Romulus in 748 B.C.) used to ferment fish into a
horrible concoction called Garum used in various cuisines along with wine
and beer.[14]
- Vikings,
Germans, British, Scots and other northern European ancients like Celts
have evidence of drinking in ancient times. But let’s not be tedious here.
The list could go on, but this should be sufficient to show
ancient use of alcoholic beverages after the Tower of Babel events occurred in
various parts of the world. Leading a researcher in the area of archaeological
and history of beer making, Professor Patrick McGovern (Scientific Director of
the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and
Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia), has
researched many of these and more in his books and articles.[15] Although
reproductions of some of these are based on residuals at the bottom of
fermentation container, we need to keep in mind that several different batches
of things could have been brewed and left residual in these containers. So the
assumption that each of these was used in one batch is speculative to say the
least, but possible and interesting nonetheless.
The point is that alcoholic drinks from wine to mead to beer
and “everything in between” has been found all over the world. This is good
confirmation that the information was known prior to the split at Babel for
this technology to spread throughout the world in ancient times. Then as people
settled, they used what was in their area to make and ferment beverages.
It is possible that through trade and migrations this
process was shared, but that would tend to have similar types and not
necessarily the variety we saw in ancient cultures. For example, when
Europeans came to America they brought their recipes for beer, etc. to America.
In other words, they brewed things similar to the Europeans (e.g., Christian
Moerlein in Cincinnati brewed beers similar to German beers), not harnessing
maize or chocolate (in recent times, brewers in North America been
investigating all sorts of things though). Though I would leave this
possibility open and I’m sure this influences alcoholic beverages during later
migrations, I would suggest the primary reason for ancient alcohol, was due to
the knowledge of brewing, including beer and mead, prior to the dispersion at
Babel with Noah’s family.
- The
Bible and Alcohol
Wine/winepress/winebibber/wine worker is mentioned 215 times
in the NKJV. Here are some of these uses (Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek, Strong’s number
and what it was often translated as):
Hebrew/Aramaic
tiyrowsh, 08492, New wine
yayin, 03196, Wine
gath, 01660, Winepress
chamar, 02562, Aramaic for wine [Aramaic is a
Hebrew language (language of Eber) that carried over from the reign of the
Babylonian Empire that was made up of descendants of Abraham’s relatives that
originated in Chaldea (think of Ur of the Chaldeans, of which Abraham
was called out). After the Empire, the Chaldean form of Hebrew broke into two
variations-East Chaldee and West Chaldee. West Chaldee became known as
Aramaic since it dominated the land formerly known to Aram, a descendant of
Noah. Hence, the language was a trade language due to the influence of the
Babylonian Empire and was until it began being replaced by Greek
around the time of Christ as the new trade language. Hence Aramaic and Hebrew
of the Old Testament have many similarities.]
aciyc, 06071, Sweet wine;
cobe, 05435, Heavy drinking of wine;
tsa‘ah, 06808, Wine worker
yeqeb, 03342, Wine vat, wine press
Greek
Oinos, 3631, wine, winepress
Oxos, 3690, Sour Wine, vinegar mixture
Gleukos, 1098, sweet wine
Paroinos, 3943, given to wine, drunkenness
Other words were also used for alcoholic beverages besides
wine such as “drink offering” in Numbers 28:7 (necek) or “strong drink”
as in Proverbs 20:1 (shekar) and many others. All this is to say that
the Bible does not shy away from the topic and much can be learned from reading
these passages in context.
There were quite a few people in the Bible who drank wine,
told people to drink, received, and gave wine. Here is a list of some of these
people:
|
Whom? |
Reference |
|
|
1 |
People before the Flood |
Matthew 11:18-19; 24:38; Luke 7:33-34; 17:27 |
|
2 |
Noah |
Genesis 9:21-24 |
|
3 |
Abraham |
Genesis 14:18 |
|
4 |
Melchizedek |
Genesis 14:18 |
|
5 |
Lot (and daughters) |
Genesis 19:32-35 |
|
6 |
Job’s sons and daughters |
Job 1:13 |
|
7 |
Isaac |
Genesis 27:25-37 |
|
8 |
Jacob |
Genesis 27:25-37 |
|
9 |
Moses |
Exodus 29:40 |
|
10 |
Aaron and the Levite Priests |
Numbers 18:12, Exodus 29:40, Leviticus 23:13, etc. (but
there were restrictions, e.g., while working at the Temple (Leviticus 10:9) |
|
11 |
Nazirites |
Numbers 6:20 |
|
12 |
Boaz and Ruth |
Ruth 2:14 |
|
13 |
Jesse and David |
1 Samuel 16:20 |
|
14 |
Abigail to David |
1 Samuel 25:18-35 |
|
15 |
David |
2 Samuel 16:1 |
|
16 |
Solomon |
Ecclesiastes 2:3, Song of Solomon 1:2-4 |
|
17 |
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach Meshach
and Abednego) |
Daniel 1:5-7 |
|
18 |
Hosea |
Hosea 2:8-9 |
|
19 |
Jesus |
Luke 7:33-34; John 2:1-11, John 19:29-30 |
|
20 |
Paul to Timothy |
1 Timothy 5:23 |
To be continued in Part 2
[1] Some
claim the Arabs, Egyptians, and Greeks knew of the distilling process but it was not until the A.D.
1100s that we have evidence of it archaeologically; but it could have been much early than our
records of it; e.g., consider Proverbs 20:1, 31:6, and Isaiah 24:9. Forbes, Robert James (1948) A short history of the art of
distillation, p.89;
[2] New
Answers Book 2, Ken Ham, Gen. Ed., Chapter 4 How old is the earth? by Bodie
Hodge, Master Book, Green Forest, AK, 2008, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab2/how-old-is-the-earth.
[3] Jim
Clark, ChemGuide, 2003, http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/alcohols/uses.html
[4] For
a good treatment of this subject, I suggest the book How could a loving
God…, Ken Ham, Master Books, Green Forest, AK.
[5] New
Answers Book 1, Gen. Ed. Ken Ham, Master Books (Green Forest, AK), 2006,
pp. 186-197.
[6] New
Answers Book 1, Gen. Ed. Ken Ham, Master Books (Green Forest, AK), 2006,
pp. 207-219.
[7] Many
of the connections of peoples listed here come from Josephus, a Jewish
Historian living about 2,000 years ago. See his book The Antiquity of the Jews
Book 1, Chapter 6: Nations receive their names from their first inhabitants.
2219-1996 BC. See also Bodie Hodge’s expanded research on this on DVD: The
Tower of Babel,
[8] McGovern,
P., Barley Beer, Biomolecular Archaeological Museum, http://www.penn.museum/sites/biomoleculararchaeology/?page_id=84.
[9] Ancient
History Encyclopedia, The Hymn to Ninkasi, Goddess of Beer, http://www.ancient.eu.com/article/222/
[10] Smithsonian
website, The Beer Archaeologist, Abigail Tucker, August 2011, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Beer-Archaeologist.html
[11] National
Geographic News, John Roach, July 18, 2005, National Geographic
Website: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0718_050718_ancientbeer.html and http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0718_050718_ancientbeer_2.html.
[12] Science magazine,
Beer of Kings, Mary Beckman, July 30, 2004, http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2004/07/30-02.html.
[13] Heirakonpolis
Online, “Explore the City of the Hawk”, http://www.hierakonpolis-online.org/site/brewery.html
[14] Ancient
History Website, N.S. Gill, Garum, http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romanfood/g/garum.htm ;
Ussher, J., The Annals of the World, Master Books (Green Forest,
AK), translated by Larry and Marion Pierce, 2003, p 76.
[15] Professor
Patrick McGovern , http://www.penn.museum/sites/biomoleculararchaeology/?page_id=10
