Wine and the Bible

“…for your love is better than wine.”

So goes the famous opening of the (Hebrew) Bible’s “holy of holies,” the Song of Songs. At the heart of this metaphorical text is a play on the image of the very best wine (lit. yên haṭṭôb “good wine,” Song 7:10) and the pleasure that its drinking brings.

This six-week course will be held on Thursday evenings (with the exception of October 12), starting on September 8, 2022. Participants may register for a portion or all of the sessions (see details below). This course explores the history of wine (and wine production) and its place in ancient and Biblical texts. The historical and literary-critical aspects of the topic will be explored through lectures including the archaeology of wine, a survey of inscriptional evidence about wine from the pre-Hellenistic Levant, and readings of various biblical texts in which wine plays a prominent role (e.g., Gen 9:6; Isa 5:1-7; Song of Songs).

Each lecture is then followed by a two-hour wine tasting. The tastings aim to introduce participants to the rich variety of wine currently being made around the world, with each tasting featuring four to six wines from a particular wine producing region.

Lectures and tastings will take place at The Farminary, the seminary’s 21-acre farm in Lawrence Township. Participants will connect with master’s degree students at Princeton Theological Seminary, who are taking the course for credit.

Register for one or both sessions which includes tastings.

Session 1 (Sept. 8, 15, and 22): $125
Session 2 (Sept. 29, Oct. 6, and 12) $125
Full Course (Session 1 and 2): $200

Space is limited. Register early.

Session 1

Sept. 8

• 6 p.m. - Lecture: Chip Dobbs-Allsopp, “Wine and the Bible”
• 7–9 p.m. - Wine Tasting (France)

Sept. 15

• 6 p.m. - Lecture: John Dunne (Bethel Seminary)
• 7–9 p.m. - Wine Tasting (Italy)

Sept. 22

• 6 p.m. - Lecture: Caroline Cheung (Princeton University)
• 7–9 p.m. - Wine Tasting (California)

Session 2

Sept. 27

• 6 p.m. - Lecture: Chip Dobbs-Allsopp, “The Epigraphy of Wine”
• 7–9 p.m. - Wine Tasting (France II)

Oct. 6

• 6 p.m. -Lecture: Eric Barreto, “A Glutton and a Drunkard: Jesus and Wine, Belonging and Judgment in the New Testament”
• 7–9 p.m. - Wine Tasting (Spain)

Oct. 12

• 6 p.m. - Lecture: Nate Stucky, “Wine: On Farming and Formation” (Farminary)
• 7–9 p.m. - Wine Tasting (New World Wines)

F. W. “Chip” Dobbs-Allsopp is the James Lenox Librarian and professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. He holds a BA from Furman University (1984), an MDiv from the Seminary, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University (1992). He joined the faculty of the Seminary in 1999 after spending five years teaching at Yale University (1994-99). He loves sailing and poetry and has been known to enjoy a glass of wine. His research interests include the historical, philological, and literary study of biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature (with special focus on poetry and Northwest Semitic inscriptions). Dobbs-Allsopp’s most recent book is On Biblical Poetry (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). He is currently working on a monograph-length study of the poetry of Walt Whitman, provisionally titled, Divine Style: Walt Whitman and the King James Bible, a Biblical Scholar’s Perspective.

Nathan Stucky serves as director of the Farminary Project at Princeton Theological Seminary. He grew up on a farm in Kansas where his love for Christian faith and agriculture first took root. After earning a BA in music from Bethel College (KS), Stucky spent six years doing ecumenical youth ministry on the eastern shore of Maryland, and two years farming back in Kansas. After farming, Stucky earned an MDiv and a PhD (Practical Theology, Christian Education and Formation) from Princeton Theological Seminary. His scholarship explores questions of land, ecology, theology, agriculture, justice, joy, and Sabbath as they relate to theological education. He is the author of Wrestling with Rest: Inviting Youth to Discover the Gift of Sabbath. Ordained in the Mennonite Church (USA), Stucky engages Farminary work as integral to his calling to teaching ministry. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his spouse and three children.

Eric D. Barreto is the Frederick and Margaret L. Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament. He earned a BA in religion from Oklahoma Baptist University, an MDiv from Princeton Seminary, and a PhD in New Testament from Emory University. Prior to coming to Princeton Seminary, he served as associate professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, and taught as an adjunct professor at the Candler School of Theology and McAfee School of Theology.

As a Baptist minister, Barreto has pursued scholarship for the sake of the church, and he regularly writes for and teaches in faith communities around the country. He has also been a leader in the Hispanic Theological Initiative Consortium, a national, ecumenical, and inter-constitutional consortium comprised of some of the top seminaries, theological schools, and religion departments in the country. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.

John Dunne was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dunne had no intention of pursuing Biblical Studies or even a life in academia. Truth be told, all he wanted to do was to be a guitar player in a heavy metal band. Of course, God had other things in mind (Prov. 19.21). His original plans were to stay in Las Vegas and pursue music, but then God began to draw him to the idea of going to a Christian University in southern California. At the time he was very involved in international missions, but had never considered studying theology directly. It was ultimately through joining an interfaith dialogue ministry on Biola's campus that he discerned the Lord's calling to study theology. The interfaith group was dedicated to dialoguing about matters of faith and doctrine with Latter-day Saints (Mormons), which meant he ended up spending all of his long weekends and term breaks in Utah. As part of this he worked at a church in American Fork, Utah and even enrolled as a student at Brigham Young University during his summer breaks. Dunne's experiences in Utah were what God ultimately used to convince him that he needed to declare his major for biblical studies. From there he continued on at Talbot School of Theology, studying both New and Old Testaments. Afterward he went to the east coast of Scotland to work with Prof. N. T. Wright at the University of St Andrews. His main passion is to teach and to invest in people's lives, and he is thrilled that he gets to do that at Bethel! His hobbies include road-tripping, traveling internationally, playing guitar, snowboarding, cheering on the Vegas Golden Knights, reading Harry Potter, and watching and discussing great films and TV shows.

Caroline Cheung earned a BS in biochemistry, a BA in classical civilization, and a post-baccalaureate certificate in classics, all from the University of California, Los Angeles. For graduate school, she moved across the country to study classical archaeology in the masters program at Florida State University, and then moved back to California to earn her PhD from the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Department of Classics at Princeton University in fall 2018, she was a fellow of the American Academy in Rome and lived in Rome for two years.

Cheung's research focuses on the history of the Roman Empire and draws on material and textual evidence to study the socioeconomic history of non-elites under Roman rule, ancient food and agriculture, and craft production. She is a field archaeologist and has participated in various projects in Italy, including the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project, Cosa Excavations, and Contrada Agnese Project in Morgantina, and has also been trained in Greek papyrology. Her current book project examines the dolium, a particular type of ceramic storage container that has never been studied systematically, to provide insights into storage technologies, various types of craft production, and the workforces behind one of the largest food systems of the pre-modern world. Much of her work has been in Roman and pre-Roman Italy, but her interests have been expanding to other areas of the ancient Mediterranean. As a result, she been working on several papyri and objects from Greco-Roman Egypt.

I teach undergraduate courses on Roman history, material culture, and Latin literature and graduate seminars on Roman history and material culture.

All guests are expected to adhere to the Seminary’s current health and wellness guidelines, including being fully vaccinated and boosted, if eligible. Our health and wellness protocols regarding COVID-19 change based on the guidance of our local health departments officials and numbers of cases in our region. As a result, protocols are fluid and requirements regarding the use of face coverings, distance, and testing may change. For the latest guidelines, click here.