20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.
21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.
There is some wierd stuff in this story, which is why I have quoted only a small part of it. Noah ends up cursing one of his sons, and all sorts of racist implications have been drawn from that verse, and we really don't want to go there.
What I am interested in here is the mention of wine. Noah is named as the first person in the history of the world to plant a vineyard, and make wine. This is not stated to say that Noah had done a bad thing. Remember that Noah, and his family, were judged to be the only righteous people on earth, and everyone else was killed in the great flood. Noah is the good guy in this story.
There is a caution in this story. Moderation is important. When Noah got drunk, the story suddenly gets wierd on us. I'm sure that bona fide theologians have deep things to say about this passage. I think that it's just about having too much of a good thing, and how getting smashed can allow people to take advantage of you.
Several of the people that I have spoken with in regard to their view of alcohol have made the statement that wine in biblical times was not like wine of modern times, in that it was not alcoholic, and so people did not become drunk on it. This, the first mention of wine in the Bible, shows that that is not the case.
[ Dr Bacchus | Wine in the Bible ]