Food and drink
Wine
Hebrew yayin, tirosh (new wine) · Greek oinos · the everyday drink
Wine was the everyday drink of the Bible lands. People in the Caucasus were already making it about 6000 BC, and it reached Egypt before 3000 BC. The grapes were cut in late summer and carried in baskets to a winepress, often a shallow vat cut into the rock, where men and women trod them with songs and shouts (Isaiah 16:10). The juice ran into a lower vat and began to ferment within days in the heat. When the skins and twigs had settled, the wine was strained and stored in clay jars or goatskins; new wine went into new skins, because old ones would burst (Matthew 9:17).
Hebrew has several words for wine, and the word for a feast literally means “drinking”. Wine could be mixed with spices (Song of Songs 8:2), and wine gone sour became vinegar. Greeks and Romans mixed their wine with water. Whether Israel did so in Old Testament times is debated, but by the time of the Mishnah two or three parts of water to one of wine was usual.
Key verses
Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.But the grapevine replied, ‘Should I stop giving my wine that cheers both God and man, to hold sway over the trees?’wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering.Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!”Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wine; Food and Food Preparation: Fruits, Nuts, and Wine
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
