Tasting Roman Wine from the Time of Jesus

Somewhat late, I think it's important to respond to David Brumbelow's claim that the ancients "often boiled wine" and used 'lactofermentation" to produce a substance much like modern kombucha.

Now, the first response is akin to the study reference here; there is no solid Biblical or archeological evidence of this in Israel. Really, that alone ought to put the claims to rest.

That noted, let's address these. The "boiling down to syrup" claims come from Columella, who lived ~3000 miles from the Holy Land in Cadiz, Spain.

Columella's slaves boiled that (acidic) juice down in lead pots, so what we're dealing with is a practice that caused lead poisoning, smoke inhalation (chimneys were a millenium in the future), heat stroke, scurvy (heat destroys vitamin C), and waste of precious fuel--keep in mind that fuel was scarce enough in Israel that Jews used vine trimmings to bake their bread and heat their homes. Call me weird, but I'm not going to accuse God of commending to us a practice that is extremely unhealthful and destructive, as well as an environmental disaster.

The evidence against lactofermentation is not quite as emphatic, but the first thing to note is that Hebrew has a word for vinegar (chamets), and Numbers 6:3 reports that it was made in the usual way--from alcoholic beverages like wine and "strong drink". No evidence for the process David describes exists in the Scriptures.

Long and short of it is that the archeological and textual evidence we have in the Scriptures establishes very clearly that the predominant use of vitis vitifera is to make wine. Given the alternatives, that's actually a good thing.

As a general practice, I have no objections to having food with wine, but I do object to making it a hard and fast rule.

I actually liked the above comment, however, I also liked the comment about this rule being a close second to abstinence. I do not think we should make this a "hard and fast" rule that we suggest comes from the Bible. However, I think there is a great benefit to having discussions about the effects of alcohol and talking about what we should or should not do if we chose to consume.

I have chosen not to consume. My father hung out in the bars and was an ungodly man. He diluted his alcohol with Coke or Pepsi, but the whiskey in it was still enough to get him in trouble.

I hope my children never consume alcohol. I hope they do not have to see the effects of alcohol to the same extent that I witnessed growing up, but we do not want to shelter them from seeing drunks. I want them to witness what alcohol does so that they know the dangers. A family in our church recently told how their young kids got to see their grandmother drink too much. They realized that it was an important lesson for their kids to realize how quickly it could happen and how dangerous alcohol could be.

We do not tell our kids that the Bible forbids all alcohol consumption. We realize that some have used that approach to convince their children to abstain. The problem is that many of those children grow up and then are convinced that the Bible does not prohibit the consumption of alcohol (I understand that some of you disagree with that, but many of the youth you are teaching will some day come to a different conclusion and too many will be ill prepared for the decisions they then make). Far too many of those kids then start drinking without ever having had discussions about responsible drinking. For too many the conversation about responsible drinking wasn't ever had, because for them drinking wasn't even an option. This has the potential to lead to dangerous excess.

We have had in depth conversations at church during mixed aged Bible studies about alcohol. During those conversations no one encouraged drinking of alcohol, but all the adults emphasized that alcohol could be abused. These are people who either drank a lot before getting saved or drank after getting saved and then decided it wasn't worth it.

They are people who had real life experiences with alcohol, and they were able to instruct those who did not have such experience. This has been great for our youth because rather than just hearing a "don't ever do it message" and nothing more, they are hearing a "we have chosen not to and here is why." They also get to hear about parameters that they should put in place so that they avoid drunkenness if they do choose to consume. They also get to hear from those who had trouble staying within those parameters and thus decided to abstain. These youth are also better prepared to drink responsibly now if they chose to ignore our advice about abstaining. They are also better prepared to understand the wisdom of abstaining.