13,000 Yr History of Alcoholic Drinks.Plus: Demon Drink: Jesus was probably an habitual drinker
Posted by Jim_Carlucci on November 20, 2022, 7:44 pm
History of Alcoholic Drinks since 11,000 BC. Plus: Demon Drink- Jesus was probably an habitual drinker.
A little Sunday / Doomsday Tonic for ya'all. Cheers.
Speaking as a religious agnostic but devout imbiber..
If - like me - you're fed up of hearing from or about ex-alcoholic new-born Chistians who mostly blame the 'demon drink' for their earlier sinful life and now frown on heathen imbibers like myself...here are 13,000 years of fascinating alcoholic perspective from two sources - the second being Wikipedia's surprisingly intoxicating "History of Alcoholic Drinks".
Firstly though - an aperitif for the Sabbath - here's a religious source( https://www.gotquestions.org/did-Jesus-drink-wine.html ) which concludes - chapter and verse - that Jesus and his disciples/apostles were habitual drinkers not habitual drunkards:
"There is only one group of people who are explicitly told in the Bible to never drink wine/alcohol, and that is the Nazirites (Numbers 6:1–4). Jesus was not a Nazirite; He was a “Nazarene,” a native of the town of Nazareth (Luke 18:37). Jesus never took the Nazirite vow"
"Christ’s first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana almost certainly involved a fermented beverage. According to Jewish wedding tradition, fermented wine was always served at weddings. If Jesus had provided only grape juice, the master of the feast would have complained. Instead, he said the wine was better than what was previously served; it was apparently a “fine” wine (John 2:10–11)." "The Greek word for “drunk” in John 2:10 is methuo, which means “to be drunken” or intoxicated. It is the same word used in Acts 2:15 where Peter is defending the apostles against accusations of drunkenness. The testimony of the master of the feast is that the wine Christ produced was able to intoxicate."
"Of course, just because Jesus turned water into wine doesn’t prove that He drank the wine at the wedding, but it would have been normal for Him to do so. What it does prove is that Jesus doesn’t condemn drinking wine any more than He condemns eating bread. Sinful people abuse what is not inherently sinful. Bread and wine are not sinful, but gluttony and drunkenness are (Proverbs 23:2; Ephesians 5:18)."
"In Luke 7:33–34, Jesus said, “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” In verse 33 Jesus is making a contrast between John the Baptist’s “drinking no wine” and His own practice. Jesus goes on to say the religious leaders accused Him (falsely) of being a drunkard. Jesus was never a drunkard, any more than He was a glutton. " My own scriptural footnote: if Jesus had seen alcohol as demonic he'd have surely turned wine into water - not vice-versa.
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History of Alcoholic Drinks
Here's Wikipedia(link at end) on 13,000 years of eye-opening alcoholic history - or at least some choice inebriating extracts with refreshingly few sobering thoughts. Cheers:
"The oldest verifiable brewery has been found in a prehistoric burial site in a cave near Haifa in modern-day Israel. Researchers have found residue of 13,000-year-old beer that they think might have been used for ritual feasts to honor the dead. The traces of a wheatand-barley-based alcohol were found in stone mortars carved into the cave floor. Some have proposed that alcoholic drinks predated agriculture and it was the desire for alcoholic drinks that lead to agriculture and civilization."
"The medicinal use of alcohol was mentioned in Sumerian and Egyptian texts dating from about 2100 BC. The Hebrew Bible recommends giving alcoholic drinks to those who are dying or depressed, so that they can forget their misery (Proverbs 31:6–7)."
"In Europe during the Middle Ages was an everyday drink for all classes and ages of people. A document from that time mentions nuns having an allowance of six pints of ale each day.
"According to a post-conquest Aztec document, consumption of the local "wine" (pulque) was generally restricted to religious ceremonies but was freely allowed to those who were older than 70 years."
"The earliest evidence of wine was found in what is now China, where jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000 BC were discovered. This early rice wine was produced by fermenting rice, honey, and fruit. The Zhou attached great importance to alcohol... an edict ascribed to c. 1116 BC makes it clear that the use of alcohol in moderation was believed to be prescribed by heaven."
"Alcoholic beverages were widely used in all segments of Chinese society, were used as a source of inspiration, were important for hospitality, were considered an antidote for fatigue, and were sometimes misused. Laws against making wine were enacted and repealed forty-one times between 1100 BC and AD 1400. However, a commentator writing around 650 BC asserted that people "will not do without beer".
Ancient Egypt:
"Both beer and wine were deified and offered to gods. The ancient Egyptians made at least 17 types of beer and at least 24 varieties of wine. Beer was the drink of common laborers: Financial accounts report that the Giza pyramid builders were allotted a daily beer ration of one and one-third gallons. Alcoholic beverages were used for pleasure, nutrition, medicine, ritual, remuneration, and funerary purposes. The latter involved storing the beverages in tombs of the deceased for their use in the after-life."
Ancient Babylon: "Beer was the major beverage among the Babylonians, and as early as 2700 BC they worshiped a wine goddess and other wine deities."
Ancient India
"The Hindu Ayurvedic texts describe both the beneficent uses of consuming alcoholic beverages and the consequences of intoxication and alcoholic diseases. Ayurvedic texts concluded that alcohol was a medicine if consumed in moderation." Early Vedic literature suggests the use of alcohol by priestly classes."
Ancient Greece
"Alcohol, specifically wine, was considered so important to the Greeks that consumption was considered a defining characteristic of the Hellenic culture between their society and the rest of the world: those who did not drink were considered barbarians."
"While habitual drunkenness was rare, intoxication at banquets and festivals was not unusual. In fact, the symposium, a gathering of men for an evening of conversation, entertainment and drinking typically ended in intoxication." Hippocrates (cir. 460–370 BC) identified numerous medicinal properties of wine, which had long been used for its therapeutic value."
"The Macedonians viewed intemperance as a sign of masculinity and were well known for their drunkenness. Their king, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), whose mother adhered to the Dionysian cult, developed a reputation for inebriety."
Ancient Rome: "Bacchus, the god of wine - for the Greeks, Dionysus - is the patron deity of agriculture and the theater. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine. The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the aulos and to bring an end to care and worry. The Romans would hold dinner parties where wine was served to the guest all day along with a three course feast. Scholars have discussed Dionysus' relationship to the "cult of the souls" and his ability to preside over communication between the living and the dead. The Roman belief that wine was a daily necessity made the drink "democratic" and ubiquitous: wine was available to slaves, peasants, women and aristocrats alike. To ensure the steady supply of wine to Roman soldiers and colonists, viticulture and wine production spread to every part of the empire. The Romans diluted their wine before drinking. Wine was also used for religious purposes, in the pouring of libations to deities."
"If - like me - you're fed up of hearing from or about ex-alcoholic new-born Chistians who mostly blame the 'demon drink' for their earlier sinful life and now frown on heathen imbibers like myself..."
Christianity is a fungal cult...the eucharist is the blood and flesh of Christ: that "fruit of the vine"is a "New Covenant in [his] blood, "wine and bread...blood and flesh... and of course the commonality between the two is fermentation- long know to be caused by the lower fungal yeast.
-Mushrooms were actually known in early Greek as a "fermentation" of the earth and the link was long recognised. Of course religion is replete with symbolism... even in Islam amongst the Sufis the tavern and drunkenness and the intoxification in the divine were not strictly literal.
Wine though brought its hazards. The elite of the Shang dynasty were poisoned by the early prestige vessels they used to imbibe, as the bronze of the admittedly beautiful vessels was widely contaminated with large amounts of lead. Likewise in Rome where wine was habitually sweetened with "sapa": grape juice boiled in lead vats...and again drunk from pewter containing much lead. Of course Greek wine was something else as it was regularly infused with herbal and other intoxicants so that one undiluted glass of a particular wine was reputed to create madness.
On the apparently large amounts of beer consumed by the ordinary people in day to day life its wise to remember that most of it was what we would call today "small beer": ie. low alcohol beer equivalent to "ginger beers" of today.
I once saw an episode of That's Life! where a lad getting ready for school had a pint of beer with his breakfast. Luxury!Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: 13,000 Yr History of Alcoholic Drinks.Plus: Demon Drink: Jesus was probably an habitual drinker
(I like the idea (from a telly series I watched recently) that Jesus was actually a vampire and the eucharist an echo of the initiation ceremony - 'whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall live forever more' - sounds pretty nosferatu to me - maybe they don't like seeing crosses as it brings back bad memories (like that bill hicks skit))
And while we're at it, don't forget hindu/avestan soma - often identified with some cool psychedelic or other, but the most convincing case I've heard leaned towards Ma Huang/Ephedra (containing ephedrine, a stimulant often used by bodybuilders) - not quite so cosmic as a moksha medicine ('Here and now boys, no pain no gain!')
Now when I makes the workers' beer, I puts in strychinine, Some methylated spirits And a drop of paraffin But since a brew so terribly strong Might make them terribly queer, I reaches my hand for the water tap, And I waters the workers' beer. Now ladies fair beyond compare, And be ye maid or wife, O, sometimes lend a thought for one Who leads a sorry life The water rates are shockingly high, And malt is shockingly dear, And there isn't the profit there used to be In wat'ring the workers' beer. Now a drop of good beer is good for a man Who's thirsty and tired and hot, And I sometimes has a drop for myself From a very special lot But a fat and healthy working class Is the thing that I most fear, So I reaches my hand for the water tap, And I waters the workers' beer.
Re: 13,000 Yr History of Alcoholic Drinks.Plus: Demon Drink: Jesus was probably an habitual drinker
"John allegro said the word Jesus Christ translates from the original 'sky penis/mushroom' or something (though he said that about most of the words in the bible I seem to remember, which sort of reduced the point). "
Yes... My own impression from reading his book was that being among a mere handful of people capable of understanding these ancient proto languages did make for a unassailable argument on the grounds that the author may be completely right or completely wrong but who on earth (literally...) was qualified to argue? I think this particular theory has its origins with Robert Graves. Factually its best to stick to the yeast.
"...and while we're at it, don't forget hindu/avestan soma - often identified with some cool psychedelic or other, but the most convincing case I've heard leaned towards Ma Huang/Ephedra"
On Wasson and Soma on the other hand I found additional evidence that proposes Wasson was indeed correct.
Re: 13,000 Yr History of Alcoholic Drinks.Plus: Demon Drink: Jesus was probably an habitual drinker
'On Wasson and Soma on the other hand I found additional evidence that proposes Wasson was indeed correct'
Interested in that evidence (I might have read it and forgotten it). From memory what I was reading about it was saying there's very likely to have been various versions of soma as people migrated away from their original places and replaced it with what they had locally, so maybe everyone's right - but I seem to remember there being some detail from the vedas/avestas about the plant that suggested ephedra more than fungus (I forget where I read this now, typically) - and that the name for ephedra in Central European languages is similar to soma. Also, a brute force stimulant along berserker lines might have fit better with the old school Vedic types, who were all about Indra, and seemed (to this idiot) more interested in cattle raiding and fighting than the more spiritual aspects that later developed out of their culture.
on November 20, 2022, 7:44 pm
- maybe they don't like seeing crosses as it brings back bad memories (like that bill hicks skit))