Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 37:146 (Apr 1880)
Article: Do The Scriptures Prohibit The Use Of Alcoholic Beverages?
Author: A. B. Rich

BSac 37:146 (April 1880) p. 305

Do The Scriptures Prohibit The Use Of Alcoholic Beverages?

Rev. A. B. Rich

3. Passages in which the reference is obviously to an intoxicating beverage. Gen. 9:20, 21, 24. “Noah planted a vineyard, and he drank of the yayin, and was drunken. And Noah awoke from his yayin” or dead drunkenness caused by his wine.

In this first instance of the use of wine on record, two characteristic facts are referred to, — Noah had degraded himself before his children, and fallen asleep naked in his tent. The narcotic power of fermented drinks is asserted: “Noah awoke from his wine.” The same term is used in one of the Proverbs of Solomon. The drinker is represented as saying: “When shall I awake? “The reference in both is to the coma, or unnatural sleep produced by even a small quantity of alcohol, so strong is its affinity for the brain and nervous system.

In Gen. 19:32–35 the daughters of Lot are represented as saying: “Come let us make our father drink yayin, and we will lie with him.” The bare statement of these cases

BSac 37:146 (April 1880) p. 306

with the results imply sin on the part of Noah, Lot, and his daughters, and God’s displeasure. The narratives have stood out before all subsequent ages as warnings of the danger of using intoxicating drinks. It is safe to say, no candid reader has misunderstood this intent.

Deut. 32:33. Moses discriminates between the beverages of the Hebrews and those of their idolatrous enemies. “Their yayin is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” Was there ever a more appropriate description of the alcoholic and drugged wines of those who live for the indulgence of their appetites, and resign all self-control! The remark implies that the moral and pious among the Hebrews reprobated such wines.

Eli chided Hannah for having drunk (as he supposed), intoxicating wine (1 Sam. 1:14-15, “Put away thy yayin” etc. This term occurs again in the history of Nabal, who is represented as making himself “very drunken,” on the occasion of a feast in his house (1 Sam. 25:36-37. In a preceding verse, one of the servants calls him “a son of Belial;” here he is represented as a beastly drunkard, and in vs. 38 we read: “About ten days after, th...