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Strong Drinks Were Good for the Body
This news article from National Geographic describes findings that suggest that ancient beer had a very modern benefit--antibiotics.
The [human] bones, the researchers say, contain traces of the antibiotic tetracycline. Today tetracycline is used to treat ailments ranging from acne flare-ups to urinary-tract infections. But the antibiotic only came into commercial use half a century ago. So how did tetracycline get into the Nubian bones?
Armelagos and his team say they found an answer in ancient beer. The brew was made from grain contaminated with the bacteria streptomycedes, which produces tetracycline.
Read the rest, if you are interested. As a side note, I think it is a mistake to retroactively apply the prohibitions of the Word of Wisdom on ancient civilizations. We don't need to make excuses for the ancients and their wine/strong drinks. The Word of Wisdom is particularly for our dispensation.
3 comments:
I think ancient beer would actually fall under the 'mild drink' category since it certainly wasn't distilled.
So, let's drink wine for healthier hearts and smoke weed for medicinal purposes. The Word of Wisdom applies to all dispensations.
Well Anonymous, I would agree that the principles behind the WofW apply through all time, but I would not agree that the application would necessarily be uniform.
Expanding on what I said before, I don't think we have to make all kinds of excuses for why Biblical figures drank wine. Maybe it was watered down and equivalent to grape juice, or maybe it wasn't. I don't think it matters because we don't know of any commandment back then that prohibited alcohol (though drunkeness was frowned upon). The WofW itself hints that it was given to us for unique challenges that would face us.
Given their limited choices of pharmacological substances, it would not hurt my feelings if ancient prophets ever used cannabis, or anything else, for medicinal purposes, as long as it was done in the spirit of the WofW. I don't believe that any drug is inherently bad--it is the application that determines good or bad.
None of what I have said should be interpreted as an attack on the WofW, or encouraging people to disregard the prohibitions modern prophets have laid out. Nor am I supporting the legalization of marijuana.
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