Under the Influence: Trust and Risk in Biblical Family Drinking

Abstract

This article examines three family banquet scenes (those celebrating the weaning of a child [Gen. 21], sibling bonds [2 Sam. 13], and marriage arrangement [Gen. 29]) to demonstrate that the narrative function of intoxication in the Bible is a subtle one bound up with the social matrix of the drinker. More than a mere narrative means for duping certain characters in order to advance others, intoxication reflects something of the implied social dynamics of a banquet. Twists and turns often took place at banquets precisely because of the safety and goodwill that drinking engendered, but could not guaranteed. In biblical banquets, drinking remained an act of intimacy, because it signaled a trust that should be there, but was not always. But the betrayals of trust under the influence are no accidents. Instead, intoxication functions to correct, rather than destroy, a social boundary.