What is "Strong Drink" in the bible?

[Boxerdog]

I have posted before about my experiances with a Baptist friend/brother in law pertaining to alcohol. Anyways I drink mostly beer as my favorite beer is named after st.paul which I think is most fitting.

Anyways I was wondering what types of alcohol would be considered strong drink in the following passage??

[26] and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

What types of drink would this include??

 

[Digitonomy]

what verse is that?

 

[Boxerdog]

Deut.14

1. [26] and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

wine has from 8 to 14 percent alcohol, anything 15 or greater percent alcohol in judaism is considered to be strong drink.

 

[Voco_proTatiano]

I have posted before about my experiances with a Baptist friend/brother in law pertaining to alcohol. Anyways I drink mostly beer as my favorite beer is named after st.paul which I think is most fitting.

Anyways I was wondering what types of alcohol would be considered strong drink in the following passage??

[26] and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

What types of drink would this include??

Dear BoxerDog,
In the Hêliand, a Saxon interpretation of the Diatessaron, the phrase is interpreted as cider.

 

[Digitonomy]

According to this site,

Naturally fermented wine is between 10 percent and 14 percent alcohol. Higher alcoholic wines are fortified wines. On such special occasions God even allowed use of what is translated as “strong drink.” This term comes from a different Hebrew word—shekar—which is used 22 times in the Old Testament, and refers to alcoholic drinks made from dates and other fruit.

The site obviously has an agenda, so I’m not sure how reliable it is. BTW, the Worldwide Church of God is a Los Angeles based denomination, not to be confused with the more conservative and widespread Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) or Church of God (Anderson, Indiana).

 

[Valke2]

Deut.14

1. [26] and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

My translation calls it “ale”. But it can be any alcholoic drink if you are going by the hebrew word.

 

[Boxerdog]

High alcohol beer or meade??

 

[DaveBj]

Deut.14

1. [26] and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.

I was all but booted out of the pentecostal church I was attending 10 years ago because I wouldn’t buy their teaching on mandatory tithing, but funny how this verse never made it into their teachings on the subject.

DaveBj

 

[Liberian]

At the risk of getting off the subject of the thread, the Worldwide Church of God is a non-Christian cult founded by Herbert Armstrong while the Church of God is a fundamentalist Christian denomination. There is quite a difference between them.

• Liberian

 

[DaveBj]

At the risk of getting off the subject of the thread, the Worldwide Church of God is a non-Christian cult founded by Herbert Armstrong while the Church of God is a fundamentalist Christian denomination. There is quite a difference between them.

• Liberian

Actually, the WCOG abandoned their cultish beliefs and joined the evangelical mainstream about 10 years ago. Some of the members split in order to retain the cultish beliefs, but I don’t remember what they are calling themselves.

DaveBj

 

[Digitonomy]

Some of the [WCOG] members split in order to retain the cultish beliefs, but I don’t remember what they are calling themselves.DaveBj

Worldwide Church of God Splinter Groups

Back to the strong drink, I doubt mead would qualify - according to several websites, mead generally runs in the 12-14% alcohol range. This doesn’t meet the 15% threshhold, if we accept that Daniel Marsh’s standard was applied in those days.

 

[Liberian]

Dave,

That is EXCELLENT news about the WCOG. Maybe some day they will join the rest of the Protestants back in the Catholic fold.

Now back to the regularly-scheduled programming about strong drink.

• Liberian

 

[DaveBj]

Here is the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia article on strong drink:

DRINK, STRONG
Strong drink (shekhar; sikera; from shakhar, “to be or become drunk”; probably from the same root as sugar, saccharine): With the exception of Num 28:7, “strong drink” is always coupled with “wine.” The two terms are commonly used as mutually exclusive, and as together exhaustive of all kinds of intoxicants.

Originally shekhar seems to have been a general term for intoxicating drinks of all kinds, without reference to the material out of which they were made; and in that sense, it would include wine. Reminiscences of this older usage may be found in Num 28:7 (where shekhar is clearly equivalent to wine, as may be seen by comparing it with verse 14, and with Ex 29:40, where the material of the drink offering is expressly designated “wine”).

When the Hebrews were living a nomadic life, before their settlement in Canaan, the grape-wine was practically unknown to them, and there would be no need of a special term to describe it. But when they settled down to an agricultural life, and came to cultivate the vine, it would become necessary to distinguish it from the older kinds of intoxicants; hence, the borrowed word yayin (“wine”) was applied to the former, while the latter would be classed together under the old term shekhar, which would then come to mean all intoxicating beverages other than wine (Lev 10:9; Num 6:3; Deut 14:26; Prov 20:1; Isa 24:9). The exact nature of these drinks is not clearly indicated in the Bible itself. The only fermented beverage other than grape-wine specifically named is pomegranate-wine (Song 8:2: “the juice of my pomegranate,” the Revised Version, margin “sweet wine of my pomegranate”); but we may infer that other kinds of shekhar besides that obtained from pomegranates were in use, such as drinks made from dates, honey, raisins, barley, apples, etc. Probably Jerome (circa 400 AD) was near the mark when he wrote, “Sikera in the Hebrew tongue means every kind of drink which can intoxicate, whether made from grain or from the juice of apples, or when honeycombs are boiled down into a sweet and strange drink, or the fruit of palm oppressed into liquor, and when water is coloured and thickened from boiled herbs” (Ep. ad Nepotianum). Thus shekhar is a comprehensive term for all kinds of fermented drinks, excluding wine.

Probably the most common sort of shekhar used in Biblical times was palm or date-wine. This is not actually mentioned in the Bible, and we do not meet with its Hebrew name yen temarim (“wine of dates”) until the Talmudic period. But it is frequently referred to in the Assyrian-Babylonian contract tablets (cuneiform), and from this and other evidence we infer that it was very well known among the ancient Semitic peoples. Moreover, it is known that the palm tree flourished abundantly in Biblical lands, and the presumption is therefore very strong that wine made of the juice of dates was a common beverage. It must not be supposed, however, that the term shekhar refers exclusively to date-wine. It rather designates all intoxicating liquors other than grape-wine, while in few cases it probably includes even wine.

There can be no doubt that shekhar was intoxicating. This is proved (1) from the etymology of the word, it being derived from shakhar, “to be or become drunk” (Gen 9:21; Isa 29:9; Jer 25:27, etc.); compare the word for drunkard (shikkar), and for drunkenness (shikkaron) from the same root; (2) from descriptions of its effects: e.g. Isaiah graphically describes the stupefying effect of shekhar on those who drink it excessively (Isa 28:7-8). Hannah defended herself against the charge of being drunk by saying, “I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,” i.e. neither wine nor any other intoxicating liquor (1 Sam 1:15). The attempt made to prove that it was simply the unfermented juice of certain fruits is quite without foundation. Its immoderate use is strongly condemned (Isa 5:11-12; Prov 20:1; see DRUNKENNESS). It was forbidden to ministering priests (Lev 10:9), and to Nazirites (Num 6:3; Judg 13:4,7,14; compare Luke 1:15), but was used in the sacrificial meal as drink offering (Num 28:7), and could be bought with the tithe-money and consumed by the worshipper in the temple (Deut 14:26). It is commended to the weak and perishing as a means of deadening their pain; but not to princes, lest it might lead them to pervert justice (Prov 31:4-7).

D. MIALL EDWARDS

(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)

DaveBj