An Offering of Wine - an Introductory Exploration of the Role of Wine in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism Through the Examination of the Semantics of Some Keywords

The significance of wine in ancient Palestine is demonstrated by the wine installations in archaeological sites and the role wine plays in the Hebrew Bible. However, there has been little or no thorough research as to which words and passages should be investigated to comprehensively examine wine in the Hebrew Bible. In addition, those studies which do exist do not demonstrate any in-depth knowledge of wine production and its implications in translating and interpreting the Hebrew Bible. This work aims to start to address these two issues. The work introduces the tools for examining wine words in ancient Hebrew: history of wine; agriculture and diet; linguistic tools; and the styles and production methods of alcoholic beverages in the ancient world. The core of this work is an examination of the key words related to wine: the likely members of the ancient Hebrew semantic field of wine; and the key words for grape, vine, vineyard and installations used in wine production. The book is addressed to those interested in Hebrew Bible, ancient Palestine, linguistics and wine history.