Theologische Nuggets IV (Genesis 34 - 44:26)

Genesis 40:9-11

Da erzählte der Oberste der Mundschenken Josef seinen Traum und sprach zu ihm: Mir hat geträumt, dass ein Weinstock vor mir wäre,

Der Mundschenk fängt also an und sein Traum bewegt sich im Kontext seines Berufes. Er sieht ein Weinstock vor sich. Deswegen ist es verständlich, dass er von seinem Traum erschüttert ist. Der Mundschenk, der dafür sorgen muss das der Wein zum Pharao gebracht werden muss wird jetzt mit einem Weinstock in seinem Traum konfrontiert. 

der hatte drei Reben, und er grünte, wuchs und blühte, und seine Trauben wurden reif.

Bis hierhin haben wir immer noch ein Traum, dass in der direkten Beziehung zu seiner Arbeit und seiner Stellung. Und dieser Traum scheint sehr positiv zu entwickeln.  

Und ich hatte den Becher des Pharao in meiner Hand und nahm die Beeren und zerdrückte sie in den Becher und gab den Becher dem Pharao in die Hand.

Nicht nur hat es im entferntesten mit dem Beruf des Obersten zu tun, es wird für ihn sehr persönlich. In diesem Traum ist er nicht nur der Überprüfer des Weins, er presst ihn höchstpersönlich mit seiner Hand und reicht ihm seinem Herrscher. Dieser Traum wird ihn höchstwahrscheinlich an seine Stellung erinnert haben und ihn bedrückt haben, denn er weiß dieser Traum ist jetzt erstmal keine Realität. 

The dream of a budding vine fits the cupbearer's occupation. The imagery is one of abundance and involves groups of threes: (1) "three branches," (2) which "budded," "blossomed," and "ripened" (v. 10), and (3) the cupbearer "took," "squeezed," and "placed" (v. 11). Additionally, there are three mentions of "Pharaoh" and "cup" (v. 11).

K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, Bd. 1B of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 747.

As J. Vergote points out, the dream-actions may symbolize rather than describe the cupbearer's duties, but they possibly throw light on the epithet 'clean of hands' which sometimes went with his title. His duties included opening and tasting the wine; i.e. he was responsible for the quality of what he presented.
Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, Bd. 1 of Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1967), 205.

That Pharaoh is represented as drinking the expressed juice of grapes is no proof that the Egyptians were not acquainted with fermentation, and did not drink fermented liquors. In numerous frescoes the process of fermentation is distinctly represented, and Herodotus testifies that though the use of grape wine was comparatively limited, the common people drank a wine made from barley:

H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Hrsg., Genesis, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 455.

Based on this verse, it has been suggested by some that the ancient Egyptians did not drink fermented wine, or that at least the Pharaoh's, who were believed to be gods, did not. It was evidently a part of the duty of Pharaoh's butler to press the grapes into the cup that the king might drink, perhaps that way to assure that the juice had not been poisoned—but it doesn't follow that because of this, no fermented wine was drunk in Egypt. There are old monuments that have representations of different articles employed in wine making, winepresses in operation, and what appears to be inebriated men and women.Wine was used for sacramental purposes in Egypt no later than the start of about 3000 B.C., but archaeological evidence indicates that it wasn't produced there for general consumption until about 1000 B.C. Since the name Pharaoh was not applied to the king until the beginning of the 18th Dynasty (1570–1293 B.C.), it's doubtful if there would have been any fermented wine for about 600 years after that.

James M. Freeman und Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 75.