Please help me understand the issue of alcohol. You say drinking alcohol for pleasure is condemned in the old testament. What about Deut. 14:26? Drink fermented drink?! or whatever your heart desires! In the New Testament- what about 1Cor. 11:21 ? Alcoholic wine is being served at the Lord’s Table not Welch’s grape juice. They are drunk! I would appreciate an explanation of these scriptures. It appears you are putting absolutes where God has not. Thankyou. Helyn Van Huffel
A series of articles relating to the pleasurable consumption of alcohol appear in the Archive of Gospel Gazette Online, one of which is entitled: “Beverage Alcohol, Biblical Considerations” (https://www.gospelgazette.com/gazette/2000/sep/page11.htm). Sufficient references to biblical passages where ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure’ is condemned are noted in both testaments of the Bible, along with definitions of original language words (Hebrew and Greek) for alcoholic consumption, plus biblical definitions of words like “drunkenness” to adequately portray the divine disapproval of the pleasurable consumption of alcohol. We are happy, though, to address attempts to find justification for ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure’ and getting ‘drunk’ from the following passages: Deuteronomy 14:26 and 1 Corinthians 11:21.
Deuteronomy 14:26
“And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household”
The Hebrew word “shekar” appears in Deuteronomy 14:26 for “strong drink.” It means, “an intoxicant, i.e. intensely alcoholic liquor”1 or “‘to inebriate,’ signifies any kind of fermented liquors.”2 The same Hebrew word is used numerous times in Old Testament condemnations for consuming alcohol:
“Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations” (Leviticus 10:9).
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).
“It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted” (Proverbs 31:4-5).
“But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment” (Isaiah 28:7).
It is not reasonable that God both condemns and praises mankind’s consumption of inebriating alcohol. What, then, can Deuteronomy 14:26 mean, without contradicting a multitude of passages in both testaments that regulate inebriation out of the child of God’s diet?
Most commentators ignore Deuteronomy 14:26 regarding whether the strong drink was consumed by the worshipper. Other commentators disagree as to whether the strong drink was consumed by the worshipper or poured out before the Lord. For instance, the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia states of strong drink that it, “…was used in the sacrificial meal as drink offering (Num 28:7), and could be bought with the tithe-money and consumed by the worshipper in the temple (Deut 14:26),” and the McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia agrees, “It was used as a drink-offering in the service of God (Num 28:7), and was, notwithstanding its highly intoxicating property, permitted to the Israelites (Deut 14:26),” as another resource also says: “allowable in sacrif. Meal.”3
On the other hand, others confidently affirm that the strong drink associated with worshipping under Judaism was not consumed by the worshipper.
(Heb. shekar’, an intoxicating liquor (Judg. 13:4; Luke 1:15; Isa. 5:11; Micah 2:11) distilled from corn, honey, or dates. The effects of the use of strong drink are referred to in Ps. 107:27; Isa. 24:20; 49:26; 51:1722. Its use prohibited, Prov. 20:1.4
The context in which Deuteronomy 14:26 appears (vss. 22-27) concerns traveling some distance to worship God, bringing tithes, at an appointed place (later, Jerusalem). To facilitate the transportation of the sacrificial animals, etc., the Israelites were permitted to exchange their sacrifices for money, which, upon arrival at the place of worship, they could exchange again for sacrificial animals, etc. Not everything brought or replaced with money was consumed by the worshipper, but some of it was dedicated to the Lord. The drink offering was poured out before the Lord.
“And the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hin for the one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the LORD for a drink offering” (Numbers 28:7).
A drink offering was a part of sacrificial offerings to God (Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:13; Numbers 15:5).
Regarding Deuteronomy 14:26, then, we conclude that for the Jewish worshipper to consume strong or inebriating drink in worship would not receive divine approval, in consideration of: (1) the ample warnings throughout the Old Testament prohibiting the consumption of intoxicants, except for medicinal purposes, (2) a plausible solution to the disposition of strong drink in worship without its consumption by the worshipper. If unable to convince the delighter in ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure” otherwise, then I expect integrity would demand that along with the alcoholic consumption that it be done strictly in Jewish worship, with the accompanying animal sacrifices, etc. characteristic of the context of Deuteronomy. However, even that scenario fails to accomplish the drinker’s goal as the Old Testament is not now the law of God by which we order our lives and by which we will be judged one day (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14; Romans 7:6).
1 Corinthians 11:21
“For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken” (1 Corinthians 11:21).
Though the Greek word for drunken here, “methuei,” can and may usually refer to inebriation, it is not always used in that sense and it is sometimes used figuratively. Strong’s first definition of the word is to “drink well.” The commentator Adam Clarke correctly reads the context in which “drunken” appears regarding the contrast posed in 1 Corinthians 11:21 between the haves and the have-nots. “One was hungry, and the other was drunken, methuei (NT:3184), was filled to the full; this is the sense of the word in many places of Scripture.” Even if, as some observe, that the Greek word often means intoxicated, remember the context in which 1 Corinthians 11:21 appears is one of condemnation and correction. A circumstance of condemnation and correction, even if alcohol is present, is hardly divine approval for ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure.’ If persons delighting in ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure’ cannot be dissuaded by the overabundance of facts to the contrary, I expect that they will out of integrity confine their alcoholic consumption to worshipping God, and in a manner improved over the condemnation of 1 Corinthians 11.
Interestingly, in both test cases above for ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure,’ the references pertained to worshiping God, rather than the beer joint, keg party and the ilk. Those intent on ‘drinking alcohol for pleasure’ demonstrate themselves little encumbered by what the Bible has to say about the subject in the first place!
For additional, timely as well as important medical information about alcohol consumption, please follow the link to Cassiobury Court at https://www.cassioburycourt.com/article/103/alcohol-and-breast-cancer-infographic
Endnotes
1 Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary, (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.) 1994.
2 Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database, (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft) 1996.
3 Whitaker, Richard, Editor, The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1997.
4 Easton, M. G., M. A. D. D., Easton’s Bible Dictionary, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1996.
