Day 58 of 75 · Parables and teaching
Ḥ-M-R
ḥamra: wine
חמרא
ܚܡܪܐ
The feel
Ḥamra is wine, grape juice fermented into a drink for meals and feasts. New wine is still fermenting and can burst an old skin. Ḥamra appears 25 times in the Gospels, from a wedding that runs out of wine to the critics who fault John for refusing it and Yeshua for drinking it.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| ḥamra | noun, emphatic | ḥamrā | חמרא ܚܡܪܐ | wine | wine (25 occurrences) |
| ḥamra ḥadta | noun + adjective | ḥamrā ḥadtā | חמרא חדתא ܚܡܪܐ ܚܕܬܐ | new wine | new wine (Matthew 9:17) |
In the Gospels this root appears only as the noun ḥamra.
In his voice
Matthew 9:17
And no one pours new wine into old skins. If they do, the skins burst, the wine spills, and the skins are ruined. No. New wine goes into fresh skins, and both are kept safe."
ḥamra ḥadta, "new wine." The wine is still fermenting and pushing outward. The saying expects its hearers to know from winemaking that such wine needs a skin that can stretch.
John 2:3
When the wine ran out, the mother of Yeshua said to him: "They have no wine."
ḥamra layt lhon, "they have no wine." The mother of Yeshua names a household problem. The first sign in John begins with this shortage at a village wedding.
Luke 7:33
For John the Immerser came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has an evil spirit.'
la shate ḥamra, "not drinking wine." John does not drink and is called possessed. A verse later the one who does drink is called a drunkard.
Practice
Name one new thing in your life that no longer fits its old arrangement, such as a schedule or a relationship, and ask whether that arrangement can still stretch. Then say ḥamra, wine, aloud.
Connections