Revelation 6:6 Wheat, Barley, Oil, Wine

[BiblicalLiteralist]

I've always read this passage literally, and wondered what was so special about oil and wine? I realized wheat and barley represented daily food requirements, but did not understand the significance of oil and wine. I now understand oil and wine to be luxuries, non necessities, the opposite of daily needs. They are always spoken of as such throughout scripture. Can they be anything else?
Anyone else come to this same conclusion?

 

[FollowingHim]

I don't think they necessarily represent luxuries, they're still commodities, but one step up from wheat and barley. Oil is a near-essential component of bread, so is a staple food. Wine to us appears to be a luxury item, but in the ancient world was more of a commodity, being the way nutrition was preserved through the year - when no fresh fruit & vegetables were available, your nutrients came from wine and other forms of preserved fruit. You can however survive for a time on wheat and barley alone without oil & wine or equivalents.

If we take the verse to mean that people will not have access to oil & wine (mid-level commodities), and only limited access to wheat and barley (the most basic commodities), we are looking at a very severe famine.

 

[BiblicalLiteralist]

I don't think they necessarily represent luxuries, they're still commodities, but one step up from wheat and barley. Oil is a near-essential component of bread, so is a staple food. Wine to us appears to be a luxury item, but in the ancient world was more of a commodity, being the way nutrition was preserved through the year - when no fresh fruit & vegetables were available, your nutrients came from wine and other forms of preserved fruit. You can however survive for a time on wheat and barley alone without oil & wine or equivalents.

If we take the verse to mean that people will not have access to oil & wine (mid-level commodities), and only limited access to wheat and barley (the most basic commodities), we are looking at a very severe famine.

But notice how it says not to hurt the oil and wine. These things are still accessible and unchanged.

 

[FollowingHim]

Interesting. I have always taken the word "hurt" to mean "damage / use / eat", and took it as a strange way of saying "don't touch". But you're right, that isn't what it says. It actually does say "hurt".

Maybe you're right - people will have access to luxuries but not basic food. You can imagine that happening in our crazy modern world.