Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

shalom Hevre, 

While you are looking for yayin references to refer to `asis `anavim,
I thought you might like something from the other side. 

... Like metaphors that might be thought of as "grape juice" by those 
outside the culture, that in actual fact referred to 'wine'. 

"pri ha-gefen" 'fruit of the vine' was liturgically used in the blessing 
over wine. While it is only recorded in the Mishna, beraxot, c. 220CE, 
it is certainly considerably more ancient: the phrase turns up in the
gospels in 
the last supper setting, and other blessings are equally being used already
by 
the time the gospels were written: "she-ha-kol nihyah bidvaro" 'that 
everything has come into being through his word' cf. John 1.1-3, and the 
lack of ever spelling out the words of blessing of Jesus in the gospels 
likewise points to the reasonable expectation that everyone knew what he 
said. "barux ata ... ha-motsi leHem min ha-arets. 

blessings
shabbat shalom

Randall Buth