Places & biblical world

Winepress

A facility where grapes were crushed and their juice collected for fermentation.

Also called · wine vat

What it means

Many presses used an upper treading floor connected to a lower collecting vat cut into rock or built in masonry.

The forceful crushing image also became a biblical metaphor for judgment.

Gideon threshes in a winepress for concealment, vineyard parables include one, and Revelation uses it symbolically.

Designs ranged from simple vats to larger installations.