Imbibing and the Bible: while the Good Book certainly does not advocate alcoholism, an awful lot of drinking was taking place during biblical times. Of course, the same can be said today

CATHOLICS DRINK, but Baptists do not. Episcopalians certainly drink, but Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons do not. Since all Christian groups turn to the Bible to justify their attitude towards alcohol, why are there such sharp divisions? As a guide for living, the Good Book has proven its worth over the millennia. The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount ring true but, when it comes to alcohol, all hell seems to break loose. Psalm 104 praises God for vegetation that mankind "may bring forth food from the earth, and wine that makes glad the heart of man." Yet, Ephesians 5:18 warns, "Do not be drank with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the spirit." What is a person to do when the Bible condones and condemns drinking?

The clearest negative comment on drinking is found in Proverbs 23: "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has redness of eyes? Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things."

The first mention of wine comes in Genesis 9. Noah was stuck in an ark with his family and a menagerie of every animal, bird, and creeping thing for several months while Earth flooded. When the ordeal ended, he planted a vineyard and made wine. When the wine was ready, Noah entered his tent, got drank, and fell asleep naked. His youngest son, Ham, saw his father's nude body and told his two brothers, who modestly entered the tent backwards to avoid the sight and covered their father with a garment. When Noah awoke and discovered what had happened, he--for reasons unknown--cursed Ham's son, whose name was Canaan. Over the centuries, Ham and his son came to be regarded as black. Since all Africans supposedly descended from Canaan's loins, they became an accursed race. Such an ugly belief, held by many God-fearing Christians, was used to justify slavery and discrimination. All this because Noah had too much to drink.

Another sorry story concerns Lot, who escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fleeing to a mountain cave with his two daughters. The daughters became worried because "there is no man to come into us as is the custom of all the earth." To remedy the situation, they got their father drank with wine and then seduced him. Both daughters became pregnant and gave birth to sons.

Among the prophets, Isaiah described Egypt as akin to a drunken man who stumbles in his vomit. Joel, meanwhile, called for repentance: "Awake, you drunkards and weep, and wall, all you drinkers of wine." The Book of Lamentations says that, when Zion is degraded, then people will cook their own children for food and get drank. Jesus warned about being drunk at the time of his second coming, while Paul advised that, "It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak."

Incest, vomit, and cannibalism--these are the legacies of alcohol. There is another side to the story, however. Wine often is counted as a staple of life and a blessing from God. Isaac said to his son, "May God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine." The prophets Amos and Joel yearn for the restoration of Israel when "the mountains will drip with wine." The Song of Solomon extols the sensuousness of wine when The Beloved says, "Let now your breasts be like clusters of the vine ... and the roof of your mouth like the best wine." The Book of Judges refers to wine "which cheers both God and men." Proverbs urges giving wine to persons who are bitter at heart so that they will forget their misery and poverty. Timothy encourages the medicinal use of wine "for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments."

Wine was an everyday drink in biblical times. Then, as now, the water supply was neither abundant nor always pure enough for drinking. The Bible sometimes mentions "new wine," which originally meant unfermented grape juice but, except for a few clear instances, refers to regular wine. The alcoholic content of the wine probably was between nine-14%. It usually was drank alone or mixed with spices. In addition to its ordinary nature, wine was loved and feared for its ability to tap into the extremes of the human condition. It may bring woe or gladden the heart. The Bible refers to wine as "the blood of the grape" and, in its most glorious transformation, it became the very blood of Jesus.

At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice when he offered to his disciples bread and wine that he declared to be his body and blood. Some Christians understand this to be a symbolic statement while many others, including Catholics, consider it fact. The 16th-century Council of Trent reaffirmed the Church's position that, in the process of consecration, the bread becomes the body of Jesus and the wine becomes his blood: "The same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner." Through ingestion of the consecrated communion wafer and wine, individuals devour what the Church calls "the medicine of immortality" to form a single body with Christ. In the 1960s, Vatican Council II declared that the Eucharist "is the source and summit of Christian life ... in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us."