Fifteen Eighty Four

Whether you’re a wine connoisseur or not, you’ve likely had a moment at a party or a dinner where someone poured you a glass and expected that you would know what to do next. Give it a swirl, smell it, taste it, and then come up with a myriad of descriptions to describe its characteristics. Drinking wine in the modern world can be quite intimidating especially for the uninitiated, but such was not the case in the ancient world.

Wine dates back to the earliest human civilisations and was enjoyed by kings and farmers alike. Different cultures offered various myths about how this elixir of the gods came into existence. In ancient Egypt it was the generosity of the god Osiris who taught the Egyptians how to plant vines and make wine. In the Greco-Roman traditions, the fruit of the vine came from Dionysus (also known as Bacchus). Euripides wrote in his Bacchae that Dionysus discovered wine and gave it to mortals to relieve their pain and give them the gift of sleep to forget their troubles. Bacchus was also known for wild bacchanals, or drunken parties that could last for days on end. Different cultures offer different origins for wine, but what about the Bible? What do the Jewish and Christian scriptures say about this drink that ‘cheers gods and mortals’? (Judges 9:13).

It might come as a surprise, but the Bible has a lot to say about wine and how it relates to our relationship with God, our relationships with one another, and our relationship to the earth. In Wine, Soil, and Salvation, I explore the use of wine throughout the scriptures and writings of the Second Temple period to demonstrate how this drink of the humble grape becomes a powerful sign and metaphor for the experience of God’s salvation.

The Beginnings of Wine in the Bible

Unlike other wine myths, the Bible offers a story that goes back to the beginnings of creation in the garden of Eden. The book of Genesis portrays God as a gardener who forms the first human from the dust of the earth and then breathes into him the breath of life. We traditionally call this person ‘Adam’, as if it’s a personal name, but it’s not. ‘Adam’ is a wordplay on the Hebrew word for ‘soil’ adamah. The biblical authors want to emphasise humanity’s connection to the earth and participation in the community of creation. We, as human beings, are inextricably bound to the life of the land.

But Genesis (and the rest of the Bible) also understands that we have a spiritual connection to the land. When the first garden dwellers disobey God’s command, we witness a breakdown between adam and adamah. Instead of joy and fulfillment, Adam will experience toil when he works the land which will produce thorns and thistles. So what does this have to do with wine?

You may have read a children’s book about Noah’s Ark when you were young, but you might not have read that Noah was the first to make wine and the first to get drunk! We’ll get to that shortly, but more important is the prediction made by Noah’s father, Lamech, when Noah was born. Lamech says, ‘Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands’ (Genesis 5:29). If the curse that came upon the land was through Adam, then relief from the toil would come through Noah. The key phrase here is ‘out of the ground’ because something will come up from the soil in the renewed creation after the flood that will bring relief which is the advent of the vine.

We’re told that, ‘Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent’ (Genesis 9:20-21). Now if you’ve ever planted grapevines (Vitis vinifera), you’ll know that it takes at least three years before you get your first harvest of grapes. The biblical story moves quickly, however, and soon Noah is passed out lying in his tent.

Noah’s story is not a moralistic tale about drunkenness (though the Bible does condemn drunkenness throughout). Instead, we find that Noah’s renewal of the soil after the flood brings forth something that will bless all of humanity by easing their toil.

Wine and Creation

Wine is ultimately from God that comes from the land. To drink wine in the Bible is to rejoice in God’s creation and provision. To drink wine is to celebrate both material and spiritual blessings that are bound together within the intricate web of creation.

The biblical authors understood that the gift of wine is connected to our moral lives, to how we love God and our neighbour, and to how we care for creation. The story of wine in the Bible is one that reminds us that we are not autonomous creatures. Though we live in an age where human excess has destroyed so much of our natural world, wine is a reminder of our relationship to the land. How we care for the soil is a reflection of how we care for one another.

Wine is attested throughout the rest of the Bible, but it’s not just a drink. It becomes a sign and symbol of God’s salvation, of life, abundance and fertility. Wine is a gift that eases the toil and brings joy to the heart. Wine reminds us of our deep connections to the soil and how we play our part within the community of creation. Wine points to the kingdom of God in the New Testament through the Eucharist and looks forward to the final time of salvation at the end of the age.