The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1905-04-07
A NEW BRITAIN BROTHER
QUOTES GREEK AND DIsAGREES WITH
o. O. w.

u
o. O. w.
have just been reading from the
columns Of The BEE, "Prohibition,
by O. O. Wright. He is not the first
one who has tried to set up Bill lie
standard that to make man strong to
resist evil he must be forever dallying
with tempta zion, overlooking the fact
that from beginning to end, from Gen.
e>iS to Revelations, the whole Bible is
bristling with prohibition. From the
law as given amidst the thunders Of
Mt Sinai to the gentle teaching of the
Christ Of the New Testament, sThou
shalt not" is the mandate of a God
that countenances no dalliance with
temptation or doing evil that good
may come. In regard to the indul-
gence in drinks that intoxicate, either
the Bible countenances it or it does
not. There can be no middle ground
unless we are willing to acknowledge
that the bible fatty contradicts itself.
1t is not enough tOaay that Jesus made
wine at the wedding feast and that
Paul said to Timothy, "take a little
wine for thy stomach sake" the same
bible also says 'be not amongst wine
bibbers," 'wine is mocker," "look
not upon the wine" The only conclu-
sion is that in the matter of the
theory Of the Bible wine we must use
some common sense, and that would
certainly teach that there are two
good wine and a bad, and that one is
commended and the other is uncom-
promisingly condemned. But the
question will be asked, why is not the
distinction between the two made
more plain? That is question that
only the translatorS Of the Bible could
satisfactorily answer. The facts are
something like this. In the original
Hebrew there are some thirteen words
representing the different products of
the grape and all translated into the
"vinum" and into the English wine"
and ''strong drink" Query: Do all
thirteen of those Hebrew words rep
resent one kind of drink and is that
drink Intoxicating or otherwise? Here
is fine opportunity to use little
common sense as we'll as good deal of
learning, for what the different shades
of meaning are which those Hebrew
words separately represent no scholar
can give you any proof outside of his
own opinion or the opinion of some
other Hebrew scholar. But does the
Bible speak of two kinds of wine, good
and bad? Again common sense must
dictate the answer. There seems to
more especially to represent the
wine used for drinking purposes,
"yayur, "tirosh" and ''shekar," all of
course translated wine. "Yayin" is
used al times in the Bible, sometimes
seeming to represent a wine that is
commended and sometimes con-
demned. Why is that unless "yayin"
is general term used to designate
the general product of the grape as
wine, both in the fermented and the
unfermented state. "TiroSh" is used
80 times in the Bible and in every IN
stance as representing drink that is
praised or commended. Query: Does
"tirosh" represent good wine or a
always as representing drink which
is condemned. "Shekar" is the wine
which is represented in Proverbs as a
"mOcker" and strong drink which is
''raging." Mr. Wright says the tenn
perate use of Intoxicating wine is COM
mended. But one place at least he
will come up against tetotal prohibit
tion, LOOK not upon the wine
(shekar) when it is red," for at the
last sit biteth like serpent and
stingeth like an adder" I am we'll
aware GnaG MI Virgin may say even IN
this matter, that "a little learning is a
dangerous thing" but commend me to
almost any theory except this, that, at
the end of the marriage feast when, as
the master of the feast said, the guests
had "well drunken" that they had
been drinking Intoxicating wine and
that then Jesus himself made at least
hundred and twenty gallons more Of
the wine that is represented by the
Spirit as "a mocker" and ''strong
drink that is raging" for that is just
what they ask us to believe. Mr.
Wright says that "when all evil doing
and all evil rule is put down it will be
because men no longer abuse anything
but use all things temporarily and
gratefully" Paul says, eff eating
meat cause my broth her to offend will
eat no more meat while the world
stands" No temperate use of any
thing for Paul that was proving a
curse to his brother even though to
himself it might be harmless. Mr.
Wright quotes ''give wine to him that
is heavy of heart" but the same book
says 'cursed is he that putteth the
bottle to his neighbours lips."- F.
Sheldon.
February 81, 1905.