The intoxication of words

Noe's drunkenness. J-J Tissot. 1896-1902. The Jewish Collection online.

When comparing Challoner's Douay-Rheims Gospel of St Luke with the original version of 1582, I was surprised to come across an unusual English word:  ſicer (sicer):

15. For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

[Luc. i. 15, Challoner]

15. For he ſhal be great before our Lord; and wine and ſicer he ſhal not drinke ; and he ſhal be repleniſhed with the Holy Ghoſt euen from his mothers womb. [1582 version]

Here is the verse in the Latin Vulgate...

15. erit enim magnus coram Domino : et vinum et siceram non bibet, et Spiritu Sancto replebitur adhuc ex utero matris suæ :

and the Greek...

15. ἔσται γὰρ μέγας ἐνώπιον ⸀τοῦ κυρίου, καὶ οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ μὴ πίῃ, καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου πλησθήσεται ἔτι ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ,

The OED says of sicer:

a1400–1609. sicer, n. Intoxicating liquor, strong drink.A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin sicera.

Lewis Short (on Logeion) says:

sīcĕra, n., = σίκερα [from the Heb. ],a kind of spirituous, intoxicating drink (eccl. Lat.). There are seven instances of the word siceram in the Latin Vulgate, all from the Old testament except one, which is in chapter xv of St Luke's Gospel. The word is always written paired with vinum (wine). [See: Deuteronomy xiv. 26, Deuteronomy xxix. 6, Judges xiii. 4, Judges xiii. 7, [Judges xiii.14 & Luke i.15].

There are many Hebrew sources which explain sicer actually refers to beer... Here is one excerpt:

The importance of beer in the ancient Near East can be seen by the fact that, in time,

the word for beer came to designate the state of drunkenness. The word for beer

became synonymous with inebriation in Akkadian, Aramaic, Ugaritic and Arabic.

Similarly in the Egyptian language, “beer” (hnqt) was used for general drunkenness.

And in the Bible, shekhar is often a verb that means “to get drunk” (e.g., Genesis ix. 21;

Isaiah xxix.9), a parallel linguistic usage that furthers the case for shekhar as “beer.”

(This parallel usage has also survived in modern Hebrew: A drunk is a shekhor (שכור),

and shekhar (שכר) means beer, although beer is also commonly called simply beera.)

[Taken from Beer in the Bible, arranged by Rabbi Drew Kaplan]

It seems that this beer would have been much stronger and sweeter than the northern European variety, perhaps more akin to "amber nectar." 

For a selection of Jewish interpretations of the word shekar, see Shekhar: Is it Wine or Beer? by Dr.Elaine Goodfriend. 

+       +        +

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.