Did jesus drink beer

Randy Mosher's book, Tasting Beer, mentions that the art of making beer was well established by 3000 BC. The Sumerians, Babylonians, and subsequent cultures had the ability to make different beer styles, including red, brown, and black beer, young and aged beer, strong and weak beer. However, hopped beers didn't appear until around 1000 AD. I've read somewhere else, not sure where, about gruit being used to flavor beer before hops became a common flavoring addition. This was a blend of herbs and spices, some even narcotic I think, but I believe this all came years after the time of Jesus.

If this is all true, I imagine the beer being produced in that area of the world around that time was probably more sweet than I care for. I've never tried an uhopped beer, but I can't imagine it tasting that great. I enjoy the flavor of dipping my finger in the mash and chewing on some of the grains, but I wouldn't be able to handle a pint of wort or bowl of mashed grains. I also don't care much for modern spiced beers, so I doubt I would like a gruit ale, but I haven't tried one.

Check out Biblical Archaeology Review Sept/Oct 2010 (Vol 36, No. 5) for an article showing that the Old Testament definitely recommends beer. Deut 14:26 commands as part of the worship of God the consumption of cattle, sheep, wine, or other fermented drink (beer) in the presence of the Lord as part of worship. Jesus would have taken part in this as well. I will try to find the reference, but in Northern Europe ale was used for the Eucharist until it was banned by the Church, who happened to control much of the wine production.

This thread made me think of this song:

I think Jesus would definitely make a mean homebrew...most likely that homebrew would not only taste like heaven but cure what ailed ya! :rockin:

Some scholars believe that the Romans had a hand in modifying, or clarifying, if you will, the bible to state that wine was drank, as opposed to whatever was implied by the original authors.

The reason is that Roman Scholars identified with wine having an elevated status among them. To them beer was a drink for the common person. In many places the original writings had a somewhat ambiguous word, so they substituted as they saw fit.

The fact was, wine was not nearly as common in the middle east as wine, while wine was very common in Italy. Only Kings and other royals had easy access to wine in biblical regions (for the most part).

That's the theory anyway. Most likely it was a simple fermentation from grain (bread) and was drank young and possibly without much flavoring to balance the sweetness. It was well known that fermented grain beverage was given to workers as sustenance building the pyramids and other things that had a written record.

Actually most theories of extreme redaction are easily disproven through basic textual criticism. We actually only have well founded reasons to doubt the original wording of about 5% of the New Testament. Wine was well known and attested as a drink in the first century AD among Jews and Gentiles of the eastern empire--much of the Eastern Empire had already decided for wine instead of beer, at least in public events and worship (see McGovern's Uncorking the Past). Its was even mandated in the ritual and practice of much of the Old Testament--including documents we know their form predates any supposed Roman redaction. Among the poorer classes--like soldiers--a common drink was wine vinegar watered down. We see this when the executioners dipped a sponge into wine vinegar for Jesus to drink on the cross. Beer had been reduced more to a home beverage created by the woman of the house to feed her family on a daily basis.

It would not be unreasonable to conclude that much of Jesus' childhood was spent consuming Mary's version of a small beer to slake his thirst and chase his bread and lentils.

cluckk said:

.... Among the poorer classes--like soldiers--a common drink was wine vinegar watered down. We see this when the executioners dipped a sponge into wine vinegar for Jesus to drink on the cross...

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But why would they give a man that that are executing anything more than water? That doesn't make any sense, give him something that takes time and is a usable food item or give him the scungy dirty water? Unless he was given wine vinegar as further torment during his last moments as I wouldn't like to drink it unless I was completely dehydrated.

mattd2 said:

But why would they give a man that that are executing anything more than water? That doesn't make any sense, give him something that takes time and is a usable food item or give him the scungy dirty water? Unless he was given wine vinegar as further torment during his last moments as I wouldn't like to drink it unless I was completely dehydrated.

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So that the prophetic words at Psalm 69:21 would be fulfilled.

I just heard that the pope is getting a Twitter account. I think I'm going to ask him directly.

tonyc318 said:

I have always loved that the first miracle recorded in the Book of John is Jesus making wine. Lots of it. At least 120 gallons of it. And it was awesome. And it was after people had been drinking.

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I love this. The best part is that it was good stuff! What I have heard is that the duration of the wedding was proportional to the amount of wine. When the wine ran out, so did the guests! Jesus comes along and delivers 100 gallons plus of wine to the folks who have already drank everything else. I can't imagine the party!

For my money, if he was ever offered a pint, he would have taken it.

Thanks for this thread. I enjoyed it.

Sir Humpsalot said:

I just heard that the pope is getting a Twitter account. I think I'm going to ask him directly.

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I would love for the Pope to answer the Question " what is considered a 'Strong Drink' in the time of Jesus?". And what was more common/ likely for Jesus to drink?

tonyc318 said:

Either way, beer or wine, it's obvious that Jesus was ok with alcohol. Alcohol in and of itself is amoral.

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i don't think i get this... the ultimate morality is ok with something innately immoral?

lumpher said:

i don't think i get this... the ultimate morality is ok with something innately immoral?

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Alcohol isn't immoral. The overindulgence in alcohol is immoral.

pale_male said:

Id say he only drank beer since grains were alot more common than grapes ..im sure it just got lost in translation

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But Jesus's time would have fallen under Roman rules, and the ME was greatly influenced by the Greeks. Both of whom love their wine. So I don't think having wine shipped in would be an irregularity.

as far as drinking in the bible, it's all translation shenanigans. Any form of pressed grape in hebrew or greek has the same word. So Grape Juice and Wine are the same. So were they actually drinking wine as we know it? Or Grape Juice?

I mean in the end who cares, but I'd like to think that Jesus wouldn't mind sitting down and enjoying a good beer.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

as far as drinking in the bible, it's all translation shenanigans. Any form of pressed grape in hebrew or greek has the same word. So Grape Juice and Wine are the same. So were they actually drinking wine as we know it? Or Grape Juice?

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Most wine was fermented in Jesus' time, though you are correct that the Greek and Hebrew make no distinction. However, in one parable Jesus explains you don't put new wine into old wineskins because they will burst. That is undoubtedly from fermentation, most likely from wild yeast on the grape skins when they were pressed.

goodsuds said:

Most wine was fermented in Jesus' time, though you are correct that the Greek and Hebrew make no distinction. However, in one parable Jesus explains you don't put new wine into old wineskins because they will burst. That is undoubtedly from fermentation, most likely from wild yeast on the grape skins when they were pressed.

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Very true. I think at the time what they drank both. It was kind of like drink what you could to stay alive.

If there actually was a Jesus character, pretty sure he'd have been fine with drinking beer.... Numerous passages in the Bible written by a variety of people on the issue of people drinking wine to excess... good and bad.... Based on years of studying the Bible, pretty sure he'd be an IPA kind of guy...

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

But Jesus's time would have fallen under Roman rules, and the ME was greatly influenced by the Greeks. Both of whom love their wine. So I don't think having wine shipped in would be an irregularity.

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No need to have it shipped in, the ME was making plenty of their own wine at the time, if anything, they were the ones exporting the stuff. Back then, they were the agricultural center of the ancient world.

There is not doubt the ancients loved a good drink. Pliny has an entire chapter of his Encyclopedia dedicated to 'wine' and it's not a short chapter. Those guys were fermenting anything and everything with sugar in it.

Anyone have a clone for Jesus's '5 minute wedding wine' ?

Just use some common sense. There weren't many preservatives used during the era (except maybe salt curing) so pretty much as soon as grape juice was pressed, it started gradual fermentation. The same for beer or any other grain beverage, i'm sure the originators in several world cultures discovered that boiling some partially sprouted grains created a nice sweet drink, and not long after that, the wild yeasts turned it into a nice alcoholic drink. I would also tend to believe that, while grapes weren't accessible to the common man, that grains were. So, I would deduce that grain beverages would have been much much more common than wine.