18. Generic Words

Generic Words

Yayin

Professor M. Stuart, in his Letter to Rev. Dr. Nott, February 1, 1848, says, page 11: “There are in the Scriptures (Hebrew) but two generic words to designate such drinks as may be of an intoxicating nature when fermented and which are not so before fermentation. In the Hebrew Scriptures the word yayin, in its broadest meaning, designates grape-juice, or the liquid which the fruit of the vine yields. This may be new or old, sweet or sour, fermented or unfermented, intoxicating or unintoxicating. The simple idea of grape-juice or vine-liquor is the basis and essence of the word, in whatever connection it may stand. The specific sense which we must often assign to the word arises not from the word itself, but from the connection in which it stands.”

He justifies this statement by various examples which illustrate the comprehensive character of the word. In the London edition (1863) of President E. Nott’s Lectures, with an introduction by Tayler Lewis, LL.D., Professor of Greek in Union College, and several appendices by F.R. Lees, he says: “Yayin is a generic term, and, when not restricted in its meaning by some word or circumstance, comprehends vinous beverage of every sort, however produced. It is, however, as we have seen, often restricted to the fruit of the vine in its natural and unintoxicating state” (p. 68).

Kitto’s Cyclopaedia, article Wine: “Yayin in Bible use is a very general term, including every species of wine made from grapes (vinos ampelinos), though in later ages it became extended in its application to wine made from other substances.”

Rev. Dr. Murphy, Professor of Hebrew at Belfast, Ireland, says: “Yayin denotes all stages of the juice of the grape.”

“Yayin (sometimes written yin, yain, or ain) stands for the expressed juice of the grape—the context sometimes indicating whether the juice had undergone or not the process of fermentation. It is mentioned one hundred and forty-one times”—Bible Commentary, Appendix B, p. 412.

Shaker

Shaker, “the second, is of the like tenor,” says Professor Stuart, page 14, but applies wholly to a different liquor. The Hebrew name is shakar, which is usually translated strong drink in the Old Testament and in the New. The mere English reader, of course, invariably gets from this translation a wrong idea of the real meaning of the original Hebrew. He attaches to it the idea which the English phrase now conveys among us, viz., that of a strong, intoxicating drink, like our distilled liquors. As to distillation, by which alcoholic liquors are now principally obtained, it was utterly unknown to the Hebrews, and, indeed to all the world in ancient times.” “The true original idea of shakar is a liquor obtained from dates or other fruits (grapes excepted), or barley, millet, etc., which were dried, or scorched, and a decoction of them was mixed with honey, aromatics, etc.” On page 15 he adds: “Both words are generic. The first means vinous liquor of any and every kind; the second means a corresponding liquor from dates and other fruits, or from several grains. Both of the liquors have in them the saccharine principle; and therefore they may become alcoholic. But both may be kept and used in an unfermented state; when, of course, no quantity that a man could drink of them would intoxicate him in any perceptible degree.” “The two words which I have thus endeavored to define are the only two in the Old Testament which are generic, and which have reference to the subject now in question.”

“Shakar (sometimes written shechar, shekar) signifies ‘sweet drink’ expressed from fruits other than the grape, and drunk in an unfermented or fermented state. It occurs in the Old Testament twenty-three times”—Bible Commentary, p. 418. Kitto’s Cyclopaedia says: “Shakar is a generic term, including palm-wine and other saccharine beverages, except those prepared from the vine.” It is in this article defined “sweet drink.”

Dr. F.R. Lees, page xxxii. of his Preliminary Dissertation to the Bible Commentary, says shakar, “saccharine drink,” is related to the word for sugar in all the Indo-Germanic and Semitic languages, and is still applied throughout the East, from India to Abyssinia, to the palm sap, the shaggery made from it, to the date juice and syrup, as well as to sugar and to the fermented palm-wine. It has by usage grown into a generic term for ‘drinks,’ including fresh juices and inebriating liquors other than those coming from the grape. See under the heading, “Other Hebrew Words” for further illustrations, page 58.

Tirosh

Tirosh, in Kitto’s Cyclopedia, is defined “vintage fruit.” In Bible Commentary, p. 414: “Tirosh is a collective name for the natural produce of the vine.” Again, Bible Commentary, p. xxiv.: “Tirosh is not wine at all, but the fruit of the vineyard in its natural condition.” A learned Biblical scholar, in a volume on the wine question, published in London, 1841, holds that tirosh is not wine, but fruit. This doubtless may be its meaning in some passages, but in others it can only mean wine, as, for example, Proverbs 3:10 : “Thy presses shall burst out with new wine” (tirosh); Isaiah 62:8 : “The sons of the stranger shall not drink thy new wine” (tirosh).

“On the whole, it seems to me quite clear,” says Prof. Stuart, p. 28, “that tirosh is a species of wine, and not a genus, like yayin, which means grape-juice in any form, or of any quality, and in any state, and usually is made definite only by the context.”

“Tirosh is connected with corn and the fruit of the olive and the orchard nineteen times; with corn alone, eleven times; with the vine, three times; and is otherwise named five times: in all, thirty-eight times.” “It is translated in the Authorized Version twenty-six times by wine, eleven times by new wine (Nehemiah 10:39; Nehemiah 13:5; Nehemiah 13:12; Proverbs 3:10; Isaiah 24:7; Isaiah 65:8; Hosea 4:14; Hosea 9:2; Joel 1:10; Haggai 1:11; Zechariah 9:17), and once (Micah 6:15) by ‘sweet wine,’ where the margin has new wine”—Bible Commentary, p. 415. So uniform is the good use of this word that there is but one doubtful exception (Hosea 4:11): “Whoredom and wine (yayin), and new wine (tirosh), take away the heart.” Here are three different things, each of which is charged with taking away the heart. As whoredom is not the same as yayin, so yayin is not the same as tirosh. If physical intoxication is not a necessary attribute of the first, then why is it of the third, especially when the second is adequate for intoxication? If yayin and tirosh each means intoxicating wine, then why use both? It would then read, whoredom and yayin (intoxicating wine) and tirosh (intoxicating wine) take away the heart, which is tautological. The three terms are symbolical.

Whoredom is a common designation of idolatry, which the context particularly names. This steals the heart from God as really as does literal whoredom.

Yayin may represent drunkenness or debased sensuality. This certainly takes away the heart.

Tirosh may represent luxury, and, in this application, dishonesty, as tirosh formed a portion of the tithes, rapacity in exaction, and perversion in their use, is fitly charged with taking away the heart.

Certain interpreters imagine that only alcoholic drinks take away the heart; but we know from the Bible that pride, ambition, worldly pleasures, fullness of bread, Ezekiel 16:49, and other things, take away the heart.

G.H. Shanks, in his review of Dr. Laurie, says: “In vine-growing lands, grapes are to owners what wheat, corn, flax, etc., are to agriculturists, or what bales of cotton or bank-notes are to merchants. Do these never take away the heart of the possessor from God?”