Freethought Nation

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelite God Yahweh drank a six-pack of beer each day (through ritual libation offerings) and even more on the Sabbath. So why doesn't the word "beer" appear in most English translations of the Bible? Author Michael M. Homan offers three explanations: (1) the Hebrew word for beer (shekhar) has been misunderstood and mistranslated; (2) there is a general snobbery among academics that causes them to scorn beer drinking as uncivilized and uncouth, preferring to paint the Israelites as sophisticated wine drinkers; (3) it is difficult to identify beer making in the archaeological record because the process so closely resembles bread production.

"At PT 468:905a-b, the Osiris receives bread and beer from Horus,5 like Jesus presenting the
disciples with bread and wine (Mt 26:26-28)."

- CIE page 288

The Lord of Wine and the Sacred Meal

"As in the gospel story, both wine and figs figure in the Egyptian religion, as in CT Sp. 516, in which the Osiris “shall eat figs and drink wine.”2 Also in the Pyramid Texts (PT 610:1723a-b/M 375) appears a reference to “the great bread and this wine-like water” given to the “chief of Letopolis” (Horus)3 who was “raised up,”4 a ritual resembling the Christian communion / eucharist with sacramental bread and wine. (Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:19) Another such passage—this time involving beer, rather than wine—occurs in BD 30B:

“Let there be given to him bread and beer which have been issued in the presence of Osiris, and he will be forever like the Followers of Horus.”

- CIE, page 291