Episode Transcript
Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and I hope you'll forgive me this episode for the slight repetition on themes and ideas that we're going to cover here in this episode. But I really just can't quite go on to the topic of the cup of wrath without a few more words.
[00:00:37] Now, I realize also that at least for some of you, the very concept and theme of alcohol is uncomfortable, and a lot of people have good reason for that, and I will address that a little bit more. And we will be touching, once again, on the potential of the curse of the ground from Genesis three being reversed by the flood and/ or Noah. And I'm going to be giving some more details about wine and its use in Israel, which will be useful for our future episodes anyway. And I'm going to mention a bit more about what happened with the incident of drunkenness and Noah in Genesis nine, and why I seem to be talking about it as if it's only about Noah being naked in his tent and nothing else.
[00:01:29] Now again, we will get to the cup of wrath, but before I do, we really need to understand the ground beneath both cups, so to speak. I'm gonna be talking about soil today, so it's going to be about wine and also dirt.
[00:01:46] But because I want this to lead into the cup of wrath episode, I first have a question for you, and I don't know your answer. I know what I would say, but I wanna ask you, do you think that the image of the cup of wrath is a strange one? Maybe you don't think it's strange at all, but is it your go-to image for the idea of God's wrath?
[00:02:14] I'm going to at least take a big leap and suggest it's probably not that, even if you don't think the metaphor is a strange one to begin with. But why isn't it your go-to image?
[00:02:26] I kind of think it should be at least a really major image because if this was just an image that was only brought up a couple of times, then okay, fair enough. But it really is quite frequently described this way. And to that line of thinking as to why it is described frequently as a cup of wrath, I don't think the reason behind that is obvious yet.
[00:02:55] Yes, you might understand now that alcohol is a symbol of joy and communion and togetherness, and even provision from God. And that's all well and good, but have you considered why a bad cup would be the opposite of that? How does that figure into what God's wrath is, what God's wrath looks like, and the dualism that we see in many places where we have two sides of some concept. Like the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.
[00:03:32] And in this case, I want to highlight the concept of justice and righteousness. That's not really what we're thinking of when we're taking of the cup, is it? Least, it isn't for me. And I haven't heard many people really dig into that connection between justice, righteousness, and partaking of wine. Now, I have mentioned before that justice has two sides to it. We have the punishment or the wrath side of things, and we have the other side, which we might call righteousness, healing, even salvation, or at least restitution.
[00:04:16] And the cup fulfills both of these functions. So my goal for this episode, aside from just expanding on what I've already said and helping lay out that table of the context of wine in the Bible and the ancient world, is for the image of wrath as a cup of wine to no longer seem like a strange or perplexing image to you.
[00:04:45] And to do that, I think we won't quite even have to talk very much about the idea of wrath just yet. We will be talking more about that cup of wrath in detail in future episodes, as I've said. But the image of the cup of wrath comes so strongly from the image of the cup of joy that if we don't understand the positive image, well, we don't grasp the significance of the negative one because it has some particular theological meaning that is being ascribed to that that is really helpful to us. I want to better connect some images for you so that we have a fuller conceptual domain here.
[00:05:29] Besides I managed to get my hands on entirely too good of a resource for you that we simply have to talk a little bit more about this side of things, especially since the resource that I'm mentioning is one that you are not likely to get for your bookshelf.
[00:05:48] Thanks, academic publishing and your great prices.
[00:05:52] Now, first I wanna touch a little bit on how and why some current traditions or people eshew alcohol and they don't accept it into their tradition. They don't accept it into their communion. And, you know, there's at least a couple of reasons for that, and I think we can appreciate that our culture today and the culture of the past are very, very different.
[00:06:20] Though we do have a little bit of honor shame society to what we do today, it is nowhere near what used to be the case. And so alcohol as part of a daily communal life in an honor, shame society is going to look very different from our society today. And I would suggest that the abuse of alcohol is something that happens today in our individualistic culture that didn't happen to the level that it does today in the past, right? Because most of us live apart from the production of the alcohol. We aren't there stomping grapes at harvest time, helping to create the wine so that we can then feast and celebrate after our hard work.
[00:07:12] We're not all doing that together as a group, and really, sadly, today, we are basically disjointed from each other in many ways-- and from the soil, which matters to what we're talking about.
[00:07:28] So I want to acknowledge that there's reasons that people don't want to include alcohol and don't wanna think about it positively. But even so, we need to wrestle with why it is this image that is so potent in the Bible, and if we don't understand it, then we're missing some really valuable things that we could be getting out of our reading of scripture.
[00:07:53] Now, we could ask, and I've kind of answered this, the question of why wine? Why not oil, milk, or honey? All of those are very potent images themselves. They're very prevalent in scripture, and those also have a lot of meaning. Oil, for instance, is not just used as something that's going to help people to thrive in a culture where they didn't eat a whole lot of meat and fat.
[00:08:26] But oil is used as a sign of abundance itself, right? It's used for anointing kings and priests, and there's deep meaning behind that itself. As we touched on a little bit before, milk and honey also have some deep meaning. A lot of that meaning is about nurture and luxury and provision from God in a very delightful way, right? A lot of people don't have or need milk or honey in their lives. It would be a lot harder to go without something like oil than it would be to go without something like milk or honey.
[00:09:07] So as I pointed out last time, all of those things have their particular uses and meanings, and the question is why wine?
[00:09:15] So today the recommendation I'm going to be talking about, and I use the word recommendation, but I don't expect any of you are ever going to have this on your shelves unless you're really lucky or you have a much bigger book budget than most of us have.
[00:09:33] This book is called Wine, Soil and Salvation in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. It's by Mark Scarlata, and it just came out this year, back in January. It's a really cool book, but you guys, you're not gonna go out and run and buy this because it is $111 on Kindle. Yeah, that's ridiculous. This is an artifact of academic publishing where they claim that, you know, we don't sell many books, so therefore the books we sell have to be really high in price.
[00:10:10] Probably a more legitimate reason, if we could call this a legitimate reason, is that they primarily sell to places like libraries and institutions where you know the markup is gonna be a little bit higher than if they're selling to your average person on the street. It's frustrating because this is a really good biblical theology of wine, and I think it would be really helpful for the church to have access.
[00:10:39] This is not a hard book to read by any means. It's got a lot of information and it's a really good book, but it doesn't have a whole lot of academia language and anything like that, so it's quite accessible, aside from the price. Thankfully, however, I was able to borrow a copy so I can share some information and I will probably have quite a few quotes from this book for our episode today.
[00:11:08] So under the question of why wine, towards the beginning of this book. He says, quote, " Of all the agricultural products produced by the ancient Israelites, wine functioned as a multi-layered sign and symbol of life, joy and celebration, but it also became a sign of judgment, punishment, and condemnation. But why wine? Why not milk, olive oil, honey dates, pomegranates, or some other fruit? What is it about the vine, the soil, grapes, and wine that carried the capacity to express so deeply the covenant relationship between God and his people, and the expression of his salvation on earth? One of the reasons why wine is so rich a symbol is that it comes from a simple harvest of grapes that, once crushed and fermented, can become a drink of profound depth, complexity and uniqueness.
[00:12:14] " The humble grape contains the mystery of the land, the soil, the weather, and the attributes of a particular location. As clusters of fruit grow on the vine, their character and composition are altered every time the sun shines, the rain falls, or the temperature rises and drops. This means that every vintage is distinct and even within particular vintages, there can be subtle differences. Vines that are grown on the lower part of a hill may produce different characteristics than vines on the upper part of the very same hill. The soil quality in one section of a vineyard may have better drainage than another section, which will also affect the characteristics of the grape. Even the yeast signatures on some grapes in the vineyard may differ from those on others.
[00:13:08] " There is a multiplicity of factors involved in growing a simple cluster of grapes, and all of them were attributed to the mercy of the God who, through his wisdom and grace, offered humanity a gift from the earth, unlike any other." End quote.
[00:13:25] A little bit later he goes on to say, quote, " Wine is also a diverse symbol because it can be made from hundreds of varieties of grapes. Some vines thrive in certain soil and weather conditions, but may not do so in other geographic locations." End quote.
[00:13:45] So you can see that wine, grapes, the vine, this whole conception of reality here has a unique connection to the land. And the land obviously being a very potent symbol in scripture, that makes this a very fascinating symbol for us here.
[00:14:07] And when we're talking about symbol, there's a lot we could say about that, right? Here in a minute, I'm actually going to be able to get a little bit into frame semantics. I know it's your favorite thing now, isn't it? Okay, maybe not yet. Might be in the future. I don't know. Maybe you don't care. But really, wine comes from a unique place in the land along with communal labor, agricultural cycles, and even joy and stress.
[00:14:39] In his preface, Scarlata says, quote, "Wine is used as a metaphor for human life, rootedness in the soil, pruning, bearing fruit, and bringing forth a vintage that brings life and joy to the world. Wine teaches us about place, hospitality, community, and being bound together in our families and in our worship. Wine is a symbol of God's salvation and the grace he gives to his people through the produce of the land."
[00:15:11] A little bit later, he says, "Wine is closely associated with the presence of God's kingdom on earth, whether through covenant relationships, marriage, blessings, communal bonding, feasting, or the land's fertility. Wine also becomes a symbol related to justice, righteousness, and judgment upon those who reject God's ways. And wine is used to represent the Messianic age and the time when God will return to redeem his creation and his people." End quote.
[00:15:47] Very interesting, isn't it, that we have the metaphor of grafting in the New Testament and grafting is something that is used quite frequently when you're producing a really good crop of grapes for wine. I also want to really emphasize the idea of a presence in all of this. That's going to matter when we try to understand the topic of wrath. Of course, presence, especially the presence of God, is a theme that matters very much in many places and in many ways in Scripture.
[00:16:20] Now, Scarlata does not talk about frame semantics, and he's not even talking about frames, but he does touch on the conceptual domains and how it's really, really necessary for us to understand the conceptual domain around wine in the ancient world in order to really understand it.
[00:16:41] In fact, he says, quote. " More recent studies in cognitive linguistics have turned the discussion to the cognitive force of metaphoric language that promotes the deeper thought processes, which help in understanding certain concepts. Metaphors enhance cognitive function and knowledge by linking abstract concepts with physical realities and bodily experience. They do not merely offer a comparison between two things, but extend to whole sets of corresponding experiences. For example, when the biblical authors use the soil, grapes, or wine as a metaphor, it naturally extends into an entire agrarian ecosystem and the physical experience one has in that domain. Agricultural metaphors use the concrete experience of working the land to explain more abstract theological concepts such as God's blessing or curse." End quote.
[00:17:45] This really hits this topic hard because there are those traditions that say that communion and the partaking of the Lord's supper is "only a symbol," right? And they really stress that "only a symbol." And some people, when they say that, they mean that it is somehow disconnected from a reality, right?
[00:18:10] There's a denial of certain things that other traditions affirm, right? The reality of God's presence in the elements, for instance. By saying it's only a symbol, and we're only doing this for remembrance, we're not really thinking about putting ourselves into that experiential domain and realizing how real of a reality that is. Metaphors are not "only symbols" in a sense of divorcing something from reality. In fact, a metaphor more rightly joins reality with abstract concepts.
[00:18:50] Going on, Scarlata says, quote, "To understand biblical metaphors, it is essential to grasp how the physical world, or, the domain, is being mapped onto the abstract. For example, if scripture says that God is the vintner, and Israel is the vine or the vineyard, like it says in Isaiah, then the impression of the metaphor will likely have the greatest impact on those who have the experience of planting and caring for a vineyard. The metaphor will have significantly less effect on the listener who is far removed from agricultural work because they do not have experience in that domain. In a similar manner, if one never drank wine or alcohol, it would be difficult to fully comprehend the meaning of the psalmist when he writes of God's judgment, 'you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.' The embodied experience provides the potential for the poetic metaphor to sharpen one's understanding of the theological concept of judgment. In the Psalm, the loss of balance and control that comes from drinking too much wine relates to being judged by the divine." End quote.
[00:20:08] Okay. One more quote about the conceptual domains and embodiment. He says, quote, "The psychiatrist and scholar Ian McGilchrist argues that metaphor is fundamental to our understanding of the world because it links language to the physical realities of life. In his analysis of the different functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, he contends that metaphor helps us understand one thing in terms of another, by grounding it in what we experience in the body. Metaphor embodies thought and places it in a living context. Metaphors, even the simple ones hidden in expressions like feeling 'down,' derive from our experiences of living as embodied creatures in the everyday world. Mc Gilchrist goes on to argue that metaphor is essential to human thought because it provides a bridge to connect abstract concepts to physical realities." end quote.
[00:21:10] Okay. I know I'm kind of pushing that point, but part of what Scarlata brings out about wine also is its unique ability to really kind of heighten our senses when we have it. And there is a unique experience when you're drinking wine as compared to other types of drinks. Wine has a unique sensory experience that connects to memory. So if you are partaking of wine in a situation of covenant and fellowship, then that sense of covenant and fellowship is going to be carried out every time you drink the wine, because it's going to be called up in your body in a real physical way.
[00:21:53] God is described as the vineyard owner, the one who is producing and caring and making these vines flourish in the world. Scarlata says, quote, " If we take one of the examples above, such as Israel, as vine, or vineyard, we see how the prophet brings together the theological realities of God's relationship to Israel with agrarian life. Rather than offering a propositional truth such as, God loves Israel, but the people have become corrupt and unfaithful, the prophet employs the metaphor of the vine or the vineyard to connect the neurological and physical experience of the vintner in order to reveal a deeper reality that expresses God's relationship with them. Vintners know well the exhausting work, patience and cost required to plant a vineyard that will produce the best grapes. They understand the mental resilience required to persevere during long hours of work in the hot sun and the fatigue that comes at the end of the day. They know the anxiety of changes in the weather, animals that might break in, or outbreaks of pests and diseases. The joys and hardships they experience mentally and physically, all to produce great wine, become the bridge to a theological understanding of how they relate to God. The metaphor of the Lord as vintner and Israel, as vine is brought to its tragic climax when the prophet writes that God went to look for fruit, but it produced only rancid grapes or wild grapes. The shock, frustration, and disgust would immediately resonate with the daily experience of the people. A crop of useless grapes would affect the entire family as it would severely damage the household economy. The harvest, even if crushed and fermented into wine, would be worthless because it would taste terrible and it would be fit for no good use." End quote.
[00:24:02] All right, so let's talk a little bit more about that metaphor of soil. Now, one thing that I really was tickled about when I was reading this book was the connections he was making with soil and wine. And he really goes into detail into explaining just why and how, and how deeply these things are connected.
[00:24:24] Have you ever heard of somebody explain that God is only concerned about people and creation is only kind of a backdrop or you know, it's just the place we have to live, so it is of much secondary importance. Now, I think that's still true, but it misses the deep connection that Genesis is making between humans and soil.
[00:24:50] It's such a deep connection that humans and soil are almost seen as the same thing. And that might be kind of obvious if we're thinking in terms of we were made from dust and we return to dust. But I think, at least for me, when I hear people talking about that, it's usually in the context of something that is, well, dirt is substandard, right? It's a downgrade and it's not something that's really all that positive or valuable.
[00:25:23] But really in Genesis and throughout the rest of Scripture, definitely very heavy in the Torah, dirt and land is really just such a connected thing to people, and again, we're missing that when we are not farmers ourselves and we're not living on the produce that we produce.
[00:25:46] Scarlata says quote, "Soil in Genesis is not sacrosanct, but rather it must be crafted, shaped, and cared for to play its role in the fulfillment of God's purposes for creation. Though God himself causes fruit bearing trees to grow and provides uncultivated fields for the wild animals, the cultivation of the soil is part of the divine commission for humanity. The charge to work, till, keep, serve, and care for the soil offers humanity the possibility to participate in the divine expression of creativity in the world in order to help bring forth fertility and life. Like an artist with the power to breathe life into his creation, God gives the first man his spirit so that the dust of the soil becomes a living being. The dust or its synonym, clay, is shaped by the potter who forms the material into the desired form. The image of the gods shaping humanity from the clay was widespread in the ancient Near East. Egyptian and Mesopotamian stories also reflect humanity's connection to the earth. Genesis offers a similar ontology of human beings and expresses the material connection between humans and the soil, as well as their status within the hierarchy of creation. Humans are made of the same stuff as the animal kingdom, but they're given the special task of guarding, keeping, and serving the soil from which they came." End quote.
[00:27:21] Now, Scarlata has some really interesting ideas as to why the ground was cursed. As we all know in Genesis three, the only things that are cursed directly are the serpent and the ground.
[00:27:34] Now the serpent is kind of a conscious being, right? He made choices, and so it makes sense that he's under judgment. But what's up with the land? Why is the land cursed?
[00:27:46] Well, Scarlata suggests that this curse is about the distorted relationship between man and the ground. Just like there's now a distorted relationship between man and woman, there is a distorted relationship between man and the ground. There's an alienation there.
[00:28:05] Scarlata goes on to suggest, however, that there is an additional layer of meaning here. He says quote, " Rather than actively cursing the soil, God is instead revealing the consequences of human transgression. Since humanity is enmeshed with the soil both physically and spiritually, the offense of eating from the tree corrupts both human nature and, by necessity, the soil. From this perspective, the curse upon the soil is the result of creation suffering from human inequity. Similar themes emerge later in the prophets where the land mourns and laments because of Israel's unfaithfulness and creatures perish because of the immorality of God's people. The soil is broken because humans are broken. This enmeshed physical/ spiritual symbiosis between humans and the soil will become critical to the continuation of life after the flood and to the beginnings of wine." End quote.
[00:29:07] Okay, I wanna talk about that for just a moment here. Now, for those of you who want to say that all of creation was cursed and was affected by the fall of man, I kind of think that's the direction he's going here with that. I think he's bringing forth this idea that when man fell, there was that element of: our sin and transgression affected everything else.
[00:29:34] Now, spoiler alert, he also disagrees with me and with Walter Brueggemann and others about how the flood or Noah removed the curse from the ground. He doesn't think the curse was removed. He thinks it remains in place. But it's going to play a very active role in what happens even after the flood. And that's why we have the episode with Noah and the vineyard.
[00:30:01] Even though Scarlata doesn't think that the curse was removed, he draws out the idea of Noah as being righteous. And this connection with the righteous one and the soil is a very necessary one. There's no continuing on with life, without some sort of restitution on some level there.
[00:30:22] I personally still think it is a better explanation that the ground was cleansed and that it is a true restart of humanity, but showing that restart in a different way and how even if we're righteous, we're still going to be in a situation where everything around us is not perfect and we have to deal with that fact.
[00:30:46] Now, Scarlata also makes an interesting connection between the concept and the domain of soil and the concept and the domain of wrath. I'm not sure how much we should be looking at these things because even though I do think the Torah and Genesis in particular is connected to prophetic readings, right? So there's no disconnect there as far as what the meaning is. I still think that there is a sense in which there is an intensification, and I don't really wanna call it a change necessarily, but a difference between what we have in the primeval history and what we see in the prophets. We don't see the concept of wrath in the way that we do in the prophets in the Torah.
[00:31:37] Now, that doesn't mean it's not there. Obviously we have blessings and cursings. We have a whole lot going on in Deuteronomy, for instance.
[00:31:48] But there is still a distinction, and if we try to load too much into the Genesis narrative, we end up with ideas like the garments of skin are like the atonement of Jesus where he had to die for our sins and he had to be punished. And there's all of the scales of balance. And I've talked about those things recently and we're gonna keep talking about those things because we need to really wrestle with this idea of how much do we put where, and what is the emphasis?
[00:32:23] Just because we see some animal skins, are we supposed to load those animal skins in with the concept of wrath and judgment, or do they mean something different? Because you can also, as I've explained, load those animal skins with the meaning of priesthood and God's presence and the commissioning of mankind.
[00:32:48] Those are two very different ideas. On the one hand, we have judgment, punishment, a reminder that you're going to die versus covenant and relationship and fellowship. Now, I say they're different. They're very related ideas though. Remember, we have different types of dualism in scripture. We have good and evil, glory and chaos, the two sides of justice where you have punishment and wrath and healing and restoration.
[00:33:25] So there's a sense in which we can bring these ideas together, but there's always going to be an emphasis and a point behind that. What is that point? Is the point, oh, you're so wicked and you really deserve to die and you're gonna die, or is the point, God is with you and he is providing mercy.
[00:33:49] And I bring all of that up because remember, we're setting up the table to look at the idea of wrath. And as I said, the idea of God's presence is a big deal. Adam and Eve get kicked out of sacred space, but there's still a sense where God is with the people, right? He doesn't just kick them out and there's no longer any presence at all. That presence seems to have changed a little bit, but it's not gone, and I think that's quite instructive.
[00:34:22] Scarlata says, quote, "Just as Adam and Eve were driven from Eden, so too Cain will be driven from the face of the earth, but he will also be hidden from the face of God. The dual and more extreme punishment possibly alludes to the later experience of Israel's exile from the holy land. Not only were the Israelites banished from the land, but they were separated from the holiness of God and his temple." End quote.
[00:34:55] Here's another interesting aspect of wine and grapes and the growing of a vineyard. And while I want to be really careful to not say that everything going on with growing a vineyard should be just plopped straight into Scripture in theological ways, unless Scripture itself is producing that image, I do wanna talk a little bit about how grapes are actually grown, stored, and all of that. And stress is actually a really integral part of grape production if you wanna produce a good crop. Stress of the vine actually equals better grapes. If they're too comfortable, the fruit is bland, but on the other hand, if it's too stressed, the fruit will die. This does seem to become a model of covenant faithfulness, and that will probably be drawn out a little bit more in particular when we actually get to the passages about wine as wrath.
[00:35:55] But Scarlata says, quote, " Contrary to what one normally might think of as good gardening practice, grape vines will produce better, more concentrated grapes if they are pruned and deprived of too much water. If a vine is given enough sun, water, and nutrients without being pruned, it will happily grow and grow, but it will produce very few grapes. If a vine is stressed, however, it will extend its roots deep into the earth in search of water and will concentrate its energy to produce more grapes in order to reproduce itself. The deeper its roots go, the more diverse minerals and nutrients the vine draws out from the soil. If there is too much stress, however, the vine will wither. Too little stress and the vine will not produce quality grapes." End quote.
[00:36:51] Now, because I think this is instructive and is useful to the idea at large, let's talk a little bit about specifics of wine in the ancient world, especially for the Israelites.
[00:37:03] Scarlata says, quote, "The ancient Israelites were primarily an agrarian and pastoral people that lived with deep connections to the land. Almost all families operated within the structures of small farms, which provided their subsistence and possibly some extra to be used for trade.
[00:37:23] " Agricultural products included grains, olives, and grapes along with livestock. Rosen estimates that a family of five around Iron Age I could have supported a farm of around 14 acres. This would allow the family to use one to two acres for a small vineyard. Even a smaller vineyard of half an acre could produce enough wine for consumption throughout the year.
[00:37:51] " Walsh estimates that if a plot of such size were planted with vines according to modern practice, it could hold up to 275 vines. If one vine yields approximately 3.6 kilograms or eight pounds of grapes, then this would result in a harvest of 990 kilograms or 2,200 pounds. If it normally takes 5.4 kilograms or 12 pounds of grapes to produce 3.8 liters or one gallon, then a half acre farm could produce approximately 183 gallons of wine per year, which in typical modern packaging would equate to 924 bottles. This means that a family would have around 2.5 bottles to drink daily during the year. Depending on their location, many Israelites would have planted their vineyard in rocky soils that were not suitable for growing grains." End quote.
[00:38:57] Now, usually wine was stored in large clay jars and these jars that have been found in excavations hold up to about 12 gallons. They also used clay jars for general food storage and would take up a really big portion of the living space in the home. Of course, bread, wine, and oil were staples of the diet and absolutely essential for keeping the people throughout the year.
[00:39:27] Some interesting points about the calendar, Scarlata says, quote, " We gain an insight into the rhythm of life for the ancient Israelite farmer through the oldest calendar, which comes from an inscription found in the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer, about 20 miles west of Jerusalem. It details the yearly cycles of harvest and dates to around the 10th century BC.
[00:39:55] " Two months gathering, two months sowing, two months late planting, one month cutting flax, one month barley reaping, one month, end of reaping, two months pruning, one month summer fruit.
[00:40:11] " This may have been a folk song or an exercise for writing practice, but it reveals the rhythm of ancient Israel around the yearly cycles of seed time and harvest in the land. The understanding of time in an ancient agrarian society is something that is foreign to modern, urban, and suburban dwellers in today's world. Kineram rightly argues that Israel's conception of time was not primarily linear with a view toward an end. Instead, the ancient Israelites viewed the time as cyclical and repetitive within a linear framework.
[00:40:49] " In other words, the cycles of time and seasons were central to agrarian life and food production. These continuous cycles laid the foundation for particular events throughout time. Time, however, was a continuous cycle that flowed from the natural life cycles of the earth. The Israelites understood their lives as taking place within the patterns dictated by the seasons and harvests, which shaped their yearly work and festivals.
[00:41:17] " The first crops of barley would've been gathered around April or the spring Equinox, near the Passover feast, which was followed by the wheat harvest a month later, or near the time of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover. After reaping the harvest of grains, the Israelite farmers turned their attention to the work of the vineyard. Two months pruning likely indicates that the grape vines were tended in harvest from June to July with other summer fruits being gathered afterward.
[00:41:50] " The Israelites used pruning hooks to cut the grapes from the vine. This is why the prophets looked forward to a time of peace when Israel would beat their spears into pruning hooks so that they could tend their vines rather than go to war.
[00:42:06] " The end of the agricultural cycle came with the harvest of olives and other late fruit from September to October, which was followed by the festival of Booths, or ingathering. Once the grapes were harvested, the wine making process began with grapes being crushed by foot in a wine press. This was often located near the vineyard and would have been used communally. Wine presses were typically simple, rectangular shaped installations carved in the rock. The upper portion was sloping so that the grape juice could flow downward into a channel or bore in the stone. Below, it was collected into a lower vat where it could be filtered and poured into containers. After the grapes had been pressed and stored, they would ferment for several days before the storage jars were sealed." End quote.
[00:42:58] All right, so we've talked a lot about Noah and the flood and the cleansing, or not cleansing and all of that kind of thing quite a bit. So I have a few fun quotes here.
[00:43:08] I mentioned this previously, but I didn't give a quote for it. Scarlata says, quote, " A medieval Jewish midrash retells the story of when the ark landed.
[00:43:20] " It says, 'Noah found a vine which was laying there, which had come out of the Garden of Eden. It had its clusters with it, and he took of its fruit and ate and rejoiced in his heart, as it is said, "My wine, which cheereth God and man."-- That's the quote from Judges nine. -- ' He planted a vineyard with it. On the self-same day, it produced and became ripe with its fruits, as it is said," In the day of thy planting, thou just make it grow. And in the morning, thou makest thy seed to blossom." End quote of the mid rash.
[00:43:57] Scarlata says, "The connections between vine, wine, and Eden were common in Jewish traditions, but the biblical text relates only the fact that Noah planted vines." End quote.
[00:44:11] So it's pretty funny that Jewish midrash is taking Scriptures out and using them as proof texts to say that the vine that Noah planted grew within one day miraculously. But in reality, if you plant vines, you have to wait at least three years for them to produce grapes. In addition, it's really important to find the proper species of vine to make the right kind of wine.
[00:44:39] And in fact, Scarlata brings out all of this really interesting information. The wild grape has a separate male and female individual, which means that you need both in order for the vine to produce and be fertilized. But the domesticated vine has been turned into a hermaphroditic crop, which then can pollinate itself without outside pollination from other plants. The domestic vine also carries particular yeasts, which allow for a better, natural fermentation when they're crushed and contained into a vessel. Then you have the concept of grafting, as I've mentioned before. Grafting allows a vineyard owner to select the best varieties and basically produce identical plants with it.
[00:45:31] So probably we are to see Noah with all of this amazing information in order to understand how to grow a vine properly in order to produce good grapes, in order to produce wine that you're even gonna want to get drunk on.
[00:45:48] And it's quite interesting also that the Bible portrays wine as coming after the flood, whereas other near Eastern mythologies have wine come before the flood. In Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim, gives wine to the people who are building the vessel before the flood. And in Egypt, we see Osiris give the cultivated vine to the people. And we have a similar story in Greek with a Dionysus.
[00:46:17] But in Genesis, the vine is produced by Noah. It's not described explicitly as a gift from God. Of course, we should presume that it is, but the silence on that fact is quite interesting in comparison with other ancient near Eastern literature.
[00:46:36] Oh, another funny little bit of a rabbinic story about Satan and Noah and wine. Scarlata says, quote, " Later rabbinic commentators offer a colorful scene before Noah gets drunk, as he is confronted by Satan when planting the first vine.
[00:46:55] " Satan thereon slaughtered a lamb, and then in succession, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. The blood of each as it was killed, he made it to flow under the vine. Thus he conveyed to Noah what the qualities of wine are. Before a man drinks of it, he is innocent as a lamb. If he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strong as a lion. If he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles a pig. And if he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey. He dances around, sings, talks obscenely, and knows not what he is doing.
[00:47:37] Scarlata says, " Noah, however, drinks so much that he passes out." End quote
[00:47:45] Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about this incident of Noah. Because last time I basically only talked about it in a very straightforward way, where we have Noah being naked in the tent, he's drunk, Ham comes in, sees the nakedness, and you know, this very straightforward reading of the story in a plain type of a way.
[00:48:10] Now, I didn't mean to do that in a way that suggests that other descriptions of what's going on in the story are invalid or not in fact actually what's going on. I think the description that Dr. Heiser and many others have brought out here about this incident is actually very on point.
[00:48:32] But there's reasons why I was talking about it in that straightforward way, because we have the idiom here, right? The uncovering of the nakedness that is brought out as a sexual euphemism in Leviticus. It's described and explained as having intercourse with your mother, or at least his wife. And I do think that's what is going on in the story here.
[00:49:01] Because the people who are reading the story have the Torah at least, right? And because they have the Torah, they understand what this phrase means in Leviticus, and they're not gonna suddenly think it means something different in the book of Genesis. They're gonna read the phrase and go, oh, okay. We know what's going on. And it's not explicitly drawn out in any more detail.
[00:49:29] So the reason that I was talking very specifically about it in this plain language is because I do think there's a reason it's not given any more explicit data. I expect that if it was, there would be a more strong emphasis on blame for Noah, because Noah didn't stop it. Noah was incapable of stopping it because he was, in fact, passed out drunk at the time. And so if we understand all of the layered meaning there we're like, well, Noah does have some blame there, doesn't he?
[00:50:06] He didn't protect his wife from what's going on. The story doesn't bring out that detail because it's not trying to blame Noah. As I've said many times already, and I'm sorry to keep harping on the point, but Noah isn't suffering the consequences here, which means Noah is not being blamed for anything.
[00:50:27] So I think from the literary perspective, we can just look at it as the connection of the nakedness with what we have going on in earlier in Genesis and all of these connections. Right. So you have different things going on. You have the literary design, the reason that certain words are used in the story. Because it could have been described differently, right?
[00:50:53] No matter what's going on here in literal terms, which I do think there's something literal going on here, the writer could have described it in many ways. The writer could have added more detail. The writer could have said things this way or that way. The reason that they said things in a certain way was for narrative and meaning purposes.
[00:51:18] So yes, we have this thing going on and that explains the reason why Canaan was cursed. And this whole story is setting up what's going on with the people who are entering back into the land after the exodus. Why are these Canaanites all wicked and evil? And why do they not obey Yahweh? And why are we going to have to fight them if they're still in the land?
[00:51:44] Well, it all goes back to the patriarch, and that's how their stories worked, right? Like if a whole people group or a whole tribe is a certain way, well there is some blame on it for either the patriarch or an ancestor. So that's what's going on is this explanation for why the Canaanites are evil and it has to do with sexual sin.
[00:52:10] And I think that's quite clear to the ancient reader. It's a little bit less clear for us because we don't have the idioms in our heads. We don't have these conceptual frames and domains. Okay? So you have those things going on, but you also just have the plain reading of the text, which is also, itself, communicating something because the plain reading of the text is the words. And the words are calling up particular things and hyperlinks to other texts.
[00:52:42] So I hope that kind of explains why I didn't really get into the explicit details of what's going on with Noah's drunkenness, because yes, that's a thing, and yes, it matters very much, but there's a reason why the author himself was not describing it in those explicit ways.
[00:53:01] All right, so I'm going to bring out a few more points here before we wrap up this episode, and I hope it's a really complete picture for you to then go into the negative version of the cup . And I can't help myself but read this section here from Scarlata because he's talking about donkeys. And the donkey is related to royalty. And there's also the theme of wine here, which is all of that. That whole package is really interesting to me.
[00:53:34] So I'm going to read about the blessing of Jacob and his sons. This is what Scarlata says. Quote, " Jacob begins by stating that he will tell of what will happen in days to come and proceeds to offer negative predictions for the first three sons, Reuben, Simeon and Levi, which reflect their previous wrongful acts. When we come to Judah, however, Jacob's words turn positive as this son will have the strength of a lion and will rule over his enemies as they bring him tribute. The image of sovereignty and power over others is followed by lavish descriptions of vineyards and wine.
[00:54:15] " Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk.
[00:54:29] " Not only will Judas' enemies bring offerings to lay at his feet, but the soil and the vine will equally provide in abundance. The poetic parallelism of binding a foal to the vine and a donkeys colt to the choice vine offers an agricultural image that represents the excess of grapes produced from the vineyard. No right-minded vintner would bind a donkey to their vines because the animal would eat the fruit and potentially destroy the vines. The foal or colt would've been used to transport the grapes from the vineyard to the wine press, but it would've been bound away from the vines to protect the grapes.
[00:55:10] " Judah, however, will receive such a bountiful harvest that he can afford to let the donkey eat as it pleases. His reign among his brothers and sovereignty over his enemies will correspondingly result in the fertility of his vineyards. The hyperbole of the passage is magnified because the colt will be allowed to eat even from the choice vine. The distinctive vine is associated with a place in the region of Judah, the Valley of Sorek, which is first mentioned in Judges as the place where Samson fell in love with Delilah. This area was known for its fertility and possibly for a particular grape variety that was considered to be among the best in the region.
[00:55:56] " The alternate form of the word occurs in only two other passages where it refers to Israel as the choice vine that God plants. Jeremiah used the metaphor to indicate the highest quality of vine that should produce the highest quality grapes. In the case of Judah, the fertility and blessing of the land will be so great that even the superior vines can be used as food for donkeys." End quote.
[00:56:24] Scarlata continues by saying quote, "The blessing continues with the theme of excessive abundance by bringing out the richness of the color it produces for Judah and how it enhances his beauty. He washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk.
[00:56:45] " To use wine as if it were like water for washing clothes might be comparable to someone lighting an expensive cigar with a dollar bill. The extravagance is amplified through the parallel description of wine as the blood of grapes, which conjures up images of a king dressed in the finest scarlet robes. The physical appearance of Judah with eyes darker than wine and teeth whiter than milk echoes later descriptions of King David who had beautiful eyes and a beautiful appearance. The ruler of the people embodies the beauty and blessing of God, which are highlighted by the excess of wine and the physical appearance of Judah." End quote.
[00:57:28] All right. Now I'm going to wrap up this episode by a few quotes about sacredness and the vine. We tend to think of sacred things as being associated with the temple and sacred space, and indeed they are. That's why the temple is decorated like a lush garden.
[00:57:50] It's about fertility of the land, provision of God and God's presence. And likewise, a vineyard was seen as being sacred in some sense. Now there is a description of profaning the harvest, and we have to keep in mind that profane doesn't mean a negative moral thing. Just means the opposite of sacred.
[00:58:16] This is also connected to just trees in general. Scarlata says, quote, "Scholars rightly point out that there is a sacredness that surrounds a newly planted vineyard, and that to profane the harvest is the right of the person who has labored to create it. There may also be a connection between the sacred and the timing of the first harvest. We noted that a vineyard usually takes at least three years from the time it is planted to when it yields its first fruits. In Leviticus, we find agricultural commands that convey similar timings around the planting of fruit trees when Israel enters the land.
[00:58:57] " When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall regard their fruit as forbidden. Three years. It shall be forbidden to you. It must not be eaten. A more literal translation for, ' you shall regard their fruit as forbidden' would read, 'you shall keep its foreskin uncircumcised.' The unusual language of circumcision regarding a fruit tree likely meant that farmers were to remove the fruit from the tree or vine when it blossomed for the first three years. i the fourth year that the tree is allowed to bear fruit for rejoicing in the Lord. And in the fifth year, the family may use it for their own household." End quote.
[00:59:41] Oh, forbidden trees. How interesting.
[00:59:46] One more quote from Scarlata to wrap up this episode. He says, quote, " The language of Leviticus differs from the command in Deuteronomy, but we hear a similar resonance in themes that emerge around newly planted fruit bearing trees or vines. With the understanding that new fertility in the land is acknowledged as holy. For Leviticus, an uncircumcised fruit tree is forbidden to eat from because until the first fruits are offered in the fourth year, it has not been properly dedicated to the Lord. Then the trees may be profaned by bringing the fruit into the home for consumption.
[01:00:24] " For Deuteronomy, there is no stipulation that the harvest should be dedicated in the fourth year, but the first fruits of the vine must be offered to God. After three years of waiting and working, the first harvest of grapes is profaned by the vintner as they are gathered, pressed, made into wine, and consumed in the home.
[01:00:44] " Both Leviticus and Deuteronomy acknowledge that there is something sacred that occurs in the planting of an orchard or vineyard. The laborer works the land, plants waters, and then must be patient for a certain amount of time before its produce is dedicated to God and used by the family. To violate such a relationship between the farmer and the land by sending someone off to war would be unjust, and so the Mosaic laws provide exemption in certain circumstances.
[01:01:15] " The sacredness of the vine and its associations with moral law in Deuteronomy are later captured through the story of Ahab's coveting of Naboth's vineyard in one Kings 21. Not even kings in Israel could legally confiscate land, and yet Ahab, driven by his desire for land around his palace, permits subsequent acts of lying, the unjust murder of Naboth, and royal confiscation of the land amounting to theft.
[01:01:45] " The Biblical historian highlights Ahab's breaking nearly half the 10 commandments through murder, theft, perjury, and coveting. Not only do we see the tragic death of the innocent Naboth, but Ahab only wanted his land so that he could tear up the vineyard and plant a garden. Though the narrative is primarily about monarchial power and inheritance rights in the land, the vineyard and wine become a symbol of longstanding heritage and the social expectation that one receive the fruits of one's ancestry." End quote.
[01:02:20] Okay. So I really hope that all of that helps to set the table for the cup of wrath that will be to come. The same process that brings joy, also produces a fermented symbol of judgment. And soil participates in wrath, not arbitrarily, but in a deeply relational way with humanity.
[01:02:44] I'm hoping that this will help to frame wrath as being something about relational situations and covenant rather than some mechanical or merely penal aspect of judgment.
[01:03:02] Both the cup of joy and the cup of wrath come from the same vineyard, but before we even go to the concept of wrath, we need to remember where wine comes from and what its normal and healthy purpose is.
[01:03:20] All right, I'm going to stop there for today. I hope that was useful and instructive. I hope it wasn't overly repetitive to things that we've talked about before. If you guys have any further questions, please do let me know. You can find me on Facebook or through my website at genesis marks the spot.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter. You can find blog posts of which I have several new ones lately. So go check that out.
[01:03:50] And you can find ways to help support me if you are so inclined and thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who do. Really appreciate that. It is such a blessing to me, and thank you guys for sharing the episodes and for listening to the podcast in general. You guys help make this be what it is, and I really appreciate that. All right, we will pause here and we will be continuing next time about the cup of wrath. Until then, I wish you a blessed week and we will see you later.
