\~'n homcz, or vinegar, is sour wine, the common refreshing drink for labourers, forbidden to the Nazirite while under his vow (Nu 6"), used in the harvest field (Ru 2"), and prophetically mentioned in Ps 69-'. In Pr 10-" LXX renders it «M0a?, an unripe grape.
In NT tlie word commonly vised is orcos, as at the marriage feast at Cana. This wine in excess produced /xeSiio-is (Jn 2'°). New wine was regarded as inferior to old (Lk 5^). rXcvKoi, 'new sweet wine,' is mentioned in Ac 2" as that by which the Jews thought the apostles were intoxicated at Pentecost. It cannot have been unfermented, as that would not have produced the oflTect, and Pentecost was eight months after the vintage.
The collecting of juice from the grapes, which the chief butler in his dream squeezed into the cup, was plainly only a symbol, as in the dream he .saw the whole process of budding, blossoming, and fruiting taking place. There is no evidence of any such custom as squeezing grapes into a cup for royal or guest refreshment. There are several figurative names for wine : ' the fruit of the vine ' (Lk 22'8), 'the blood of the grape' (Dt 32") ; the former reminds us of Pindar's dpicroi dfnrf\ov (vii. 3), or of the name of the vine otvov ii^tt^p in iiischjlus (Persce, 614).
The study of the names applied to wine shows that they are, for the most part, evidently syn- onyms, and that the substance indicated by them all was one which. If used to excess, was liable to cause intoxication. An attempt has been made to obtain a textual support for total abstinence by differentiating intoxicating from unfermented wine in the biblical terminology ; but it is only special pleading without adequate foundation. "The teaching of Scripture as to the pernicious effects of intemperance in any form is clear and explicit, and the Apostle Paul has stated the case for total abstinence in Ro 14 in a way which does not require the treacherous aid of doubtful exegesis for its support.
The wine stored in the large skins in the cellar was dra>\Ti for use into smaller skins, the bottles of Scripture, called n-n hcmeth in Gn 21"''-, hzi nebel, 1 S 1^ 10', 2 S 16' (this word is used figura- tively for the clouds in Job 38"), or iiij norl, Jos 9*"", Jg 4", 1 S 16-". This word is also used figura- tively in Ps 56' in alliteration with nod, 'wander- ing,' for there is no evidence of the use of lacry- matories among the Jews. The nod was liable to shrivel if hung up in the heat (Ps 1 19«3). In LXX and NT bottle is affxAs. These were made of goat- skins, prepared by cutting off' the head, tail, and feet, and then drawing off the skin from the body without other cutting, and stuffing it with straw, into which wooden wedges were then driven, to stretch it to its fullest capacity. 'The hair was
left on the outer surface, the tail and limb holes were closely sewn up, ami the neck hole left open. The skin was thereafter tanned with oak or acacia bark. These skins are prepared in this manner at the present day, and are called zumzaiiiinim. or mattani. When filled, the nock hole is tied round with a thong. Robinson saw about 500 of these bottles in one tanvnrd (ii. 75). The larger bottles are of he-goat skins, the smallest of the skins of kids. This variety of size is alluded to in Is '22-'''. When active fermentation is in progress these skins become much distended, and are liable to burst. Tliis is especially liable to occur with new skins of j'oung animals, which are called nix, as in Job 32"'. These are called in Vulg. larjunculrr. Skins which are old are liable to crack, and cannot bear the tension of the carbonic acid pro- duced during fermentation. This is referred to in lit 9", Mk 2:-\ Lk 5". The preservation of the wine did not mean keeping it from fermentation, — for, with the total absence of antiseptic precautions characteristic of Orientals, it would have been im- possible to do so, — but the storing of it in a bottle which could resist the strain. One of these bottles was a load for a man (1 S 10').
Wine was largely used in Egypt, and the figures of drinking feasts, and the painting of an inebri- ated female from a tomb of the New Empire, are well kno>\Ti (see Wilkinson, i. 392, 424, etc. ). There is an interesting letter written by the scribe Amen- em-apt to Penta-ur, in which the evils of intem- perance are graphically described(Po^.S«/^(er, I. ix. 9, etc.). The commonest beverage in Egypt was beer, made from barley, and called helc. Tlic wine made from the grape, also commonly used, was called arp, and date wine was called bak. Among the presents to Ptah enumerated in the Harris Papijrns were 2366 wine vessels of one form and 820 of another ; and in the inventory of presents on pi. 72 of that papyrus are 486,303 vessels of boer. The Persians were also much addicted to wine (Herod, i. 133), and the royal wine of Est 1' is re- ferred to by Athenreus [Deipnos. i. 51) ; it was called Chalybonian, and Posidonius says that it is made in Damascus. Figuratively, the washing of garments in wine means plenty and prosperity (Gn 49"). Wine of astonishment, Ps 60* (RV stagger- ing), is a figure of God's judjjraent on sin, makin" its objects helpless, as if intoxicated. This is called the cup of staggering in Is 51".