BIBLE BUTTER by M. B. Lichtenstein

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 26, 1877

BIBLE BUTTER.

By M. B. Lichtenstein

Many persons who like to have their “bread well buttered” argue that butter must be healthful because the Bible mentions it as a special dish. Thus in Gen. 18:8, Abraham treated the angels with butter and milk; in Deut. 32:14, Moses, in describing how the Lord fed Israel, mentions butter of kine, and milk of sheep; in Judges 5:25, Jael gave Sisera butter instead of milk; in 2 Sam. 17:29, among the things that were brought to David and his people, butter was mentioned; in Job 20:17, Zophar speaks to Job about brooks of butter; in Isaiah 7:22, the prophet speaks of the righteous’ eating butter. Hence if butter was a healthful dish in Bible times, why not now?

But this argument can be refuted by one simple fact, viz., that the original word for butter in the above passages means cream, or cream and milk mixed together. The only word used in the above mentioned passages is chemah; the name being derived from the mode employed by the ancients in separating the cream from the milk. Aside from the self-separating process, they adopted two other modes, namely, either to put the milk into a leather bottle and shake it awhile, or to warm the milk, which last process gave rise to the name chemah. Chemah, signifying cream, or cream and milk mixed together, being derived from the verb cham, to be warm.

Now let us examine some of the above texts. In Judges 5:25, Jael gave Sisera butter instead of milk. In the preceding chapter, verse 19, to which chap. 5:25 has reference, we find that Sisera was thirsty, and asked Jael for a drink, upon which she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink. Could butter, the kind now in use, have quenched his thirst?

In 2 Sam. 17:29, where all the things that were brought to David and his people are mentioned, the verse concludes as follows: “for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.” Now among all the articles there enumerated, we find nothing that could have quenched thirst with the exception of butter. Could it have been like modern butter?

In Job 20:17, Zophar speaks to Job about brooks of butter. What kind of brooks could they have been, filled with solid butter as now in use? I will mention one more passage, and then let the reader judge for himself; that is, in Prov. 30:30, where it says, “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter.” Here, some butter-eater might say, “We even find they had a churning-machine to churn butter with.” But let me state, if the original should be rendered churning, it ought to read thus: “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the churning of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the churning of wrath bringeth forth strife;” for in the original the same term is used for churning, wringing, and forcing. It would be more like the original if it were rendered, “Surely the agitating of milk (for a short time, after the manner in which they were accustomed to do it, as described above) bringeth forth cream, and the agitating of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the agitating of wrath bringeth forth strife.”

M. B. LICHTENSTEIN.