INFLUENCE by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC
Introduction: It’s quite sad for me to watch that video of Mary Lou Retton. I remember the year 1984 – TV had just come to our hometown, and mom and dad had bought our first TV set. I was in 6th grade, and this was the year of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. In gymnastics, Mary Lou Retton of the United States represented the free world because on the other side were the Eastern Bloc communist countries. Some were boycotting the games, except Romania. Her victory was very important. Just five weeks prior she had a knee surgery. Amazingly, she scored perfect 10s. Her gold medal was also a victory against communism. Then, the world got to know the other side of this young girl – she was a Christian. Fast forward through getting married, raising a family, having a celebrity career, she went through many surgeries and then a divorce. Then, in 2023, she had a rare form of pneumonia, not Covid or anything. She didn’t have insurance because of her pre-existing conditions, and she almost died but by the grace of God. In an interview last year on the Today Show, she said, “But who would even know that this was going to happen to me?” Then, this video of her from two months ago. My prayer is that she will turn to her faith in Christ, and I truly believe that she will. What I want us to understand is that suffering in the Christian life is real. Some of it is caused by circumstances, some of it is by others, some of it is our own bad decisions, but we have to turn to the Holy Spirit of God to help us in these times. Unfortunately, the world and the Enemy has substitutes for us. A common substitute that people often turn to is alcohol. In today’s message, were going to see through the lens of Scriptures and history, how to understand the influence of alcohol. This is still part of our series through Romans. We are jumping ahead to Romans 13 and 14, but we will come back to Romans 9 right after.
Romans 13 (page #1749) 11 “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
Context: The word for “drunkenness” in Greek is “methe.” The idea behind that word is “strong drink.” From this, there was another Greek word “methusos” = drunkard. I know that at this point, some will say, “Pastor Shah, I’m not a drunkard. I drink once in a while. I may have a cold one after a hot day of cutting grass. I like the taste, or I drink just to get the edge off, but I’m not what you would consider an alcoholic or anything.” People have their idea of what represents them – Whiskey = hardcore; wine = refined; bottles = one of the guys; cans = hard working guy. Others may say, “Dr. Shah, the Bible does not forbid drinking. Doesn’t the Old Testament talk about God making “wine that makes glad the heart of man” (Psalm 104:15)? Didn’t Jesus turn water into wine (John 2)? Didn’t Paul instruct Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach (1 Timothy 5:23)? It only warns against excessive drinking. Everything is okay in moderation.” In today’s message, we will look at both ancient history and biblical passages to see what God has to say to us about alcohol.
First, some words of caution:
- To those who don’t drink – “This does not mean that those who drink are going to hell.”
- To those who drink – “This does not mean that those who don’t drink are legalistic and don’t know how to have a good time.”
I also realize that this is a sensitive subject, especially in our nation’s history. Even though slavery was the big issue that divided our nation resulting in a Civil War, drinking was the next big issue that also deeply divided our nation. With that said, let’s begin:
Wine drinking in Ancient Times:
1. Distilled alcohol (whiskey, brandy, rum, gin) were not known in biblical times. Yes, the Chinese were doing some distillation from rice beer in the 8th century BC, and yes there was arrack from sugarcane in Asia, but the Arabs were the first ones to distill alcohol from wine. The most that was available to people in biblical times (Old and New Testament) was natural wine with 11-12% alcohol. By the 1830s, the average American (15 years and older) drank 88 bottles of whiskey each year. That would be 3 times more than people do today. There’s a reason why the temperance movement was born. There’s a reason why prohibition and the 18th amendment were passed. I don’t think that was a good move because it was based on the premise that we could have a utopian society if we just got rid of alcohol. All it did was make criminals out of ordinary Americans.
2. Diluted wine was the normal way to drink in ancient times. For more information, see Robert Stein’s article “Wine-Drinking in New Testament Times” and Marvin R. Wilson, “Alcoholic Beverages” in Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity. The Egyptians warned against drinking too much, as a father named Any instructed his son – “Don’t indulge in drinking beer, lest you utter evil speech and don’t know what you’re saying. If you fall and hurt your body, none holds out a hand to you; your companions in drinking stand up saying, ‘Out with the drunk!’” It was considered barbaric (Scythian) to drink wine unmixed with water. The ancient Greeks would store wine in large jugs called amphorae. This was then poured out into large bowls called kraters and mixed with water. Then, they would take cups called kylix to drink from. When they drank it unmixed, it was called akratos. Menestheus of Athens said “In daily intercourse, to those who mix and drink it moderately, it gives good cheer; but if you overstep the bounds, it brings violence. Mix it half and half, and you get madness; unmixed, bodily collapse.” Xenophanes even gives the order of the mixture – “Nor would a man pour wine first into the cup when he mingled it, but water and thereafter the liquor.” Plutarch – “We call a mixture ‘wine,’ although the larger of the component parts is water.”
What is very important to understand is why the ancients drank this diluted wine. It was because water was not always safe to drink. Yes, there was water from a well or a spring, but that was not always easily available to the masses. Yes, water could be boiled but that was a lot of work and costly. Mixing it with wine made it safer to drink. They drank this wine/water mixture because there was no bacteria or other pathogens in it.
Here’s a chart of how ancient writers gave the ratio of water to wine:
| Name of the writer | Ratio of Water to Wine |
| Homer (Odyssey) | 20:1 |
| Pliny (Natural History) | 8:1 |
| Aristophanes | 2 or 3:1 |
| Eunos | 3:1 (“The best measure of wine is neither much nor very little; For ‘tis the cause of either grief or madness. It pleases the wine to be the fourth, mixed with three nymphs.”) |
| Hesiod | 3:1 |
| Alexis | 4:1 |
| Diocles | 2:1 |
| Ion | 3:1 |
| Nichochares | 5:2 |
| Anacreon | 2:1 |
Italy had plenty of vineyards and hence plenty of wine. The Romans followed the Greek and the Phoenicians in their drinking culture. Like the Greeks they diluted their wine or vinum with warm water. Just like the Greek “akratos,” the Romans called their unmixed wine merum (Latin for unmixed, this gives us “mere” in English, “mere speculation,” “mere pennies,” “mere Christianity”). Rome increasingly became a drinking culture for both the rich and the poor. Things would get out of control, especially during Bacchanalia, the feast to celebrate the god of wine, Bachus (Dionysus in Greece). The Senate had to pass laws to curb the festival because it got totally out of control. Listen to how some of them described the problem with alcohol in Rome:
- Cicero wrote about Marc Anthony – “You…drank such quantities of wine at the marriage of Hippia, that you were forced to vomit the next day in the sight of the Roman people. O action disgraceful not merely to see, but even to hear of! If this had happened to you at supper amid those vast drinking cups of yours, who would not have thought it scandalous? But in an assembly of the Roman people, a man holding a public office…”
- Pliny described the result of drinking – “the intoxicated never see the sunrise and so shorten their lives. This is the reason for pale faces, hanging jowls, sore eyes and trembling hands that spill the contents of full vessels; this the reason for swift retribution consisting of horrendous nightmares and for restless lust and pleasure in excess. The morning after, the breath reeks of the wine-jar and everything is forgotten – the memory is dead. This is what people call ‘enjoying life’; but while other men daily lose their yesterdays, these people also lose their tomorrows.”
A quick reference that our Digging Deep Great Britain folks would appreciate – Julius Caesar mentions something very interesting about the Germanic tribe of Suebi (modern day France) – “They do not let wine be imported to them, for they think it softens men for hard work and makes them womanly.” I guess the barbarians may not have been as barbaric after all!
Someone might say – “Well, that’s the pagan world, but how about the people of God?” “Doesn’t the Old Testament have references to wine being God’s gift to us?” Even in the Old Testament, a distinction is made between wine and strong drink. The Hebrew word for wine is “yayin” and for strong drink is “shakar.” Leviticus 10 8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying: 9 “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die…” Numbers 6 1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink…” Proverbs 31:4 “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, It is not for kings to drink wine, Nor for princes intoxicating drink.” Not only is there There was clearly a distinction between wine and strong drink. Proverbs 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” While God allowed the strong drink, he never condoned it. In fact, he even condemned wine. Proverbs 23 29 “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine. 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things. (Like the person complementing me on my preaching) 34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: 35 “They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?””
The Jewish Rabbis acknowledged the harmful effects of wine and specified the need to mix it. We see evidence of this in the Rabbinic period. In the Talmud (along with the Gemara, Rabbinic commentaries from 200 BC to AD 200 on the Mishnah), there are instructions on the ratio of the mixtures. Shabbath 77 clarifies that wine must have three parts of water. Pesahim 108 states that the 4 cups during the Passover must be mixed 3:1. Even in the OT Apocryphal work, 2 Maccabees 15:39, it states “It is harmful to drink wine alone, or again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one’s enjoyment.”
Although the New Testament doesn’t go into details about the dilution of the wine, we can see what the early church said to understand what was meant. Justin Martyr (AD 150) gave the following instructions about the Lord’s Supper – “Bread is brought, and wine and water, and the President sends up prayers and thanksgiving.” Hippolytus writes – “(Bless) first the bread into the representation of the Flesh of Christ; and the cup mixed with wine for the antitype of the Blood which was shed for all who have believed in him.” Clement of Alexandria said – “It is best for the wine to be mixed with as much water as possible…for both are works of God, and the mixing of the two, both of water and wine produces health, because life is composed of necessary element and a useful element.”
Based on this, the alcohol content of the NT wine was probably 2.75 to 3.0 percent.
| Drink | Alcohol content | Compared to the Bible |
| Distilled Alcohol (Whiskey, gin, rum, brandy) | 40% | 1330% |
| Wine | 15% | 600% |
| Budweiser | 5% | 66% |
| Bud Lite or Coors Lite or wine coolers | 4% | 40% |
Stein – “To consume the amount of alcohol that is in two martinis by drinking wine containing three parts water to one part wine, one would have to drink over 21 glasses. In other words, it is possible to become intoxicated from wine mixed with three parts water, but one’s drinking would probably affect the bladder long before it affected the mind.”
Bottom line: The NT alcohol content was very low compared to modern standards.
Someone might still say that the people in the biblical times drank at different amounts than what we have in a can or a bottle. The rabbis debated what was a generous portion for the Passover wine. Some said it was a quarter log (measuring unit of liquid, also mentioned in the Bible), which is the volume of one and a half eggs. Others said that each of the 4 cups was a quarter log. Based on that, here’s what the modern alcohol beverages would be equivalent to the biblical standard of alcoholic content:
| Drink | 4 cups together | Each of the 4 cups |
| Passover Wine | 4.23 oz. | 17 oz. (8 oz = 1 cup) |
| Whiskey | 1.82 teaspoons | 2.57 tablespoons |
| Wine | 1.35 tablespoons | .34 cups |
| Bud Lite | .25 cups | 1 cup |
When Paul was writing to the church in Rome, they were probably arguing over this matter. We know this because he mentions it explicitly. Some may be saying – “Paul, I know how to drink responsibly” or “Paul, I am free to drink since I am not under the Law.” Listen again to Romans 13 (page #1749) 11 “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
Application: What is alcohol doing in your life? Are you making provision for the flesh or are you putting on Jesus Christ? Are you turning to the Holy Spirit? Just like Mary Lou life sometimes happens, and it is tragic, but who are you turning to? Are you saved?