IMPORTANCE OF WINE

WHY WAS WINE USED AS MEDICINE DURING BIBLE TIMES?

In one of his parables, Jesus spoke of a man who had been beaten by robbers. Jesus said that the man was helped by a Samaritan who bound up his wounds and poured "oil and wine upon them." (Luke 10:30-34) When writing to his friend Timothy, the apostle Paul advised him: "Do not drink water any longer, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent cases of sickness." (1 Timothy 5:23) Were both the practice Jesus described and the advice Paul gave medically sound?

The book Ancient Wine describes wine as "an analgesic, disinfectant, and general remedy all rolled into one." In ancient times wine had a central role in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Syrian health treatment. The Oxford Companion to Wine describes it as "man's oldest documented medicine." As for Paul's advice to Timothy, the book The Origins and Ancient History of Wine says: "It has been shown experimentally that living typhoid and other dangerous microbes rapidly die when mixed with wine." Modern research confirms that some of the more than 500 compounds found in wine have those and a number of other medicinal benefits.

Culled from THE WATCHTOWER (August 2012 Edition, Page 26).