Re: OINOS

From: Steven Cox (scox@ns1.chinaonline.com.cn.net)
Date: Sun Apr 19 1998 - 00:26:55 EDT


        I'd like to thank Edward for his well matured OINOS mail.
        As a winebibber looking for some justification I've
        archived it for future use and sharing. (Now Edward
        can you provide me with scriptural justification
        for cigars? ;-))

        On a more serious note after skimming through the 31
        NT uses it seems to me that OINOS is hyponymous with
        "alchoholic beverage"; the vast majority of NT uses
        context demands fermentation/alcohol be present or
        the sense disintegrates, starting from Mat9:17 on...

        For this reason I would think it legitimate in all 31
        uses (except perhaps the last Rev 19:15) to render by
        local cultural equivalents, such as rice-wine in regions
        where grapes are is unknown. Though the blood symbolism
        in wine is a problem - for example the Korean NT (1890)
        has Christ breaking ddok (pounded white rice paste) and
        sharing wine (the Koreans drank 10% proof rice-wine but
        the whiteness seems to have been a problem for the
        Presbyterian translators)
        
        Sorry ... get to the point Steven ... I was going to
        comment that OINOS and SIKERA seem to be differentiated
        in Luke 1:15, and BAGD notes Lev10:9 Num6:3 Dt29:5 Is29:9
        and TestReub1:10 in support but also notes Num 28:7 as
        inclusive of OINOS within SIKERA.

        Yet looking at Num 28:7 I can't see why it is an exception:
        EN TWi hAGIWi SPEISEIS SPONDHN SIKERA KURIWi
        No mention of OINOS, I can only think that Bauer is aware
        of some parallel description of the daily offerings that
        I am missing, or the argument is being made from the Hebrew.

        Shalom
        Steven

    PS Etymology has not come up in this thread but one of my favourite
        cautionary tales is the use of "little water" in Russian.
        (The best known brand of which is Stolichnaya).



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