Biblical authors used wine as a potent symbol and metaphor of material blessing and salvation, as well as a sign of judgement. In this volume, Mark Scarlata provides a biblical theology of wine through exploration of texts in the Hebrew Bible, later Jewish writings, and the New Testament. He shows how, from the beginnings of creation and the story of Noah, wine is intimately connected to soil, humanity, and harmony between humans and the natural world. In the Prophets, wine functions both as a symbol of blessing and judgement through the metaphor of the cup of salvation and the cup of wrath. In other scriptures, wine is associated with wisdom, joy, love, celebration, and the expectations of the coming Messiah. In the New Testament wine becomes a critical sign for the presence of God's kingdom on earth and a symbol of Christian unity and life through the eucharistic cup. Scarlata's study also explores the connections between the biblical and modern worlds regarding ecology and technology, and why wine remains an important sign of salvation for humanity today.

‘Scarlata has offered a comprehensive and engaging treatment of an unexpected topic. He roots the central biblical and theological symbol of wine in the daily reality of Iron-Age Israelites, first-century Jews, and early Christians, and further, he shows its import in our own time of ecological crisis and fresh agrarian thinking. Viewed from the perspective of viticulture, texts that are perhaps overly familiar (e.g., ‘I am the vine’) sound as fresh and as surprising as they were meant to sound to Jesus’ contemporaries.’

Ellen F. Davis - Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School