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Nazoreans & Wine
The early Nazorean Christians drank alcohol, but never unto
drunkenness. Preserved wine is mentioned in the Qulasta hymns in a very positive fashion and in the
ancient Aramaic Nazorean Prophets scroll we read:
"Do not drink immoderately and do not forget your
Lord from your thoughts."
This early Nazorean text would not admonish one to not over drink
if there had been a ban on all drinking. The verse is very exacting,
admonishing us not to over drink! We are also warned in the Ginza Scroll that over drinking puts us into the
power of the hostile planets:
"They practice on him the magic of drunkenness,
by which all the worlds are made drunken. . . The worlds are made drunk by it
and turn their faces to the Suf-Sea."
Some later Gnostics and Jewish
Christians were known to have abstained from wine, but this appears to have
been a later alteration to the original tradition. It may also be partly based
on the fact that Catholics only used wine in their public masses, but the
Aramaic Yeshu
followers used only water in theirs. They did, however, use the grape in their
Masqithas, and these masqithas were the original inspiration for the Catholic
masses. That is why the Catholic Mass has this name based on the longer Aramaic word
and includes wine.
Reduced wine was used in first century Palestine
as a sweetener as well as a preservative, and ancient techniques were known
that allowed grape juice to remain unfermented all year:
“If you want to have grape juice all year, put must in
an amphora and seal the cork with pitch. Submerge in the fish-pond. Take out
after 30 days. It will remain unfermented all year.”
We could also quote the passage
in the Gospel of John that has Jesus turning water into wine, but this is not an authentic
event, but rather one taken from a pagan legend of Dionysus, the Greek god of
wine. In the pre-Christian Dionysus version of this miracle, priests at
Dionysus’ wedding to Ariadne bring vessels of water to a building, which is
sealed and later opened only to find that the water has been turned to wine. This
story was copied into the Gospel of John in an attempt to make Jesus outshine
Dionysus. The miracle did not occur.
So yes, Nazoreans can drink alcohol if they do so with wisdom.
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