Wine v. Wine
In the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32), Moses says that the vine of Israel grew from a cutting from Sodom’s vine, from the vineyard of Gomorrah. Such vines produce only bitter fruit or worse - venom from dragons ( tanniyn ; vv. 32-33).
The image is picked up in Isaiah, who complains about the worthless grapes produced by the vineyard of Jerusalem (5:1-7). Not coincidentally, Isaiah has earlier charged that Jerusalem has become Sodom (1:9-10; 3:9). The wine of Jerusalem’s feasts is the poisonous wine of the serpent (cf. 5:11-12).
So there’s wine and there’s wine: There is the wine of the dragon, the serpent that poisons; and there is the wine of the one who was lifted like the Bronze Serpent, struck, and killed.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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