“The ancient Near East was divided in its alcoholic beverages into two main regions, those whose geographical properties suited the growing of grapes and those unsuited for growing grapes”

The ancient Near East was divided in its alcoholic beverages into two main regions, those whose geographical properties suited the growing of grapes (e.g. Palestine, Greece) and those unsuited for growing grapes (e.g. Egypt and southern Mesopotamia). The historian Morton Smith once remarked that had Jesus been an Egyptian, beer would be consecrated in the Eucharist rather than wine.

Magen Broshi, “Date Beer and Date Wine in Antiquity”, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, vol. 139, no. 1 (2007), 55.