Bronze Maenad
An Etruscan candelabrum stand, this artifact dates from 525-500 BC.
The Maenads are well-known from Greek and Roman (and Etruscan) archaeology and mythology, and the Etruscan renderings have exaggerated features, as this one does - check out the fingers and the feet. Meanads were female devotees of Dionysos that were consumed with pagan religious fervor and ecstacies, and even in pagan times were feared. In other works, they were drunk, as Dionysos (Romans called him Bacchus) was the god of wine.
It is just this kind of thing that led Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to write to the Ephesians, saying "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." In Christ we are called to far better.
But can we understand that injunctions against drunkenness no more imply a prohibition against drinking alcoholic beverages any more than injunctions against adultery imply a prohibition against sex?
Bronze Maenad
An Etruscan candelabrum stand, this artifact dates from 525-500 BC.
The Maenads are well-known from Greek and Roman (and Etruscan) archaeology and mythology, and the Etruscan renderings have exaggerated features, as this one does - check out the fingers and the feet. Meanads were female devotees of Dionysos that were consumed with pagan religious fervor and ecstacies, and even in pagan times were feared. In other works, they were drunk, as Dionysos (Romans called him Bacchus) was the god of wine.
It is just this kind of thing that led Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to write to the Ephesians, saying "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." In Christ we are called to far better.
But can we understand that injunctions against drunkenness no more imply a prohibition against drinking alcoholic beverages any more than injunctions against adultery imply a prohibition against sex?