Is this true that Jesus drank alcoholic wine as the lyrics, “Cause I heard Jesus, He drank wine”? Some question this. What kind of wine did Jesus drink? Did Jesus drink intoxicating amounts of wine?
The Definition of Biblical Wine
The word “wine” in the Bible is not always alcoholic or equivalent to modern wine. The Bible uses one Greek word for “wine” and “grape juice” which could mean alcoholic wine of varying amounts or non-alcoholic grape juice (1 Tim 3:8; Titus 2:3). The Hebrew word for “wine” is yayin and the Greek is oinos (MT; LXX). Biblical “wine” is grape juice that may or may not have fermented. However, the wine of today has considerably more alcohol than wine in the first century because of modified yeast. The Bible includes a number of examples of unfermented “wine”:
- “Wine” is the blood of the grape (Gen 49:11–12, Heb. yayin, Gr. oinos LXX; Deut 32:14, Heb. chemer; Gr. oinos LXX).
- The vineyard is the place of “red wine” (Isa 27:2, Heb. chemer).
- “Wine” refers to the grape juice from the grapes of the field (Deut 11:14; 2 Chr 31:5, Heb. tirosh; Gr. oinos LXX; Jer 40:10, 12, Heb. yayin; Gr. oinos LXX).
- Scripture describes “wine” that is in the grape (Isa 65:8, Heb. tirosh).
- The grape juice of the wine-press is “wine” (Prov 3:10, Heb. tirosh; Gr. oinos LXX; Isa 16:10; Jer 48:33, Heb. yayin; Gr. oinos LXX).
These references reveal that the word “wine” in Hebrew and Greek often refers to non-alcoholic grape juice in the Bible. Linguistics requires that one begin with the generic meaning and then determine other specific meanings of a word by its context and, or use.
In reading the Old Testament, Bible translations represent six different Hebrew words “wine” for which one word excludes alcohol. This word is asis meaning “sweet grape juice” or “new grape juice.” The word has no reference to alcohol, yet translators have interpreted it as “wine” to avoid interpreting the contexts with nuances and ambiguity. Therefore, the word “wine” does not necessarily mean alcoholic wine in the Bible.
The Bible does not appear to contain one positive statement about intoxicating wine or any such drink. The Bible does include positive words about generic “wine” that is grape juice (Gen 14:18; Num 15:5–10; Deut 14:26; Ps 104:15; Isa 55:1; Amos 9:14; John 2:1–11; 1 Tim 5:23). References to “strong drink” or “liquor” in the Bible refer to cider in biblical translations of sikera, σικερα, according to Danker and Gingrich’s Greek lexicon (cf. Deut 14:26; Luke 1:15; Wycliffe’s Bible).
Ancient Wine and Today’s Wine
In the Bible, alcoholic wine is not like wine today. The sugar of grape juice can only ferment to 3 or 4% alcohol with wild yeast — airborne yeast. For grape juice to exceed 4% alcohol, then the winemaker must add yeast. The yeast added to ancient wines produced between 4–11% alcohol. Alcohol kills these yeast cells and prevents levels of alcohol from exceeding ~10%. Today, wines average 12–20% alcohol due to modern fermentation by adding sulfur dioxide and Saccharomyces (a cultured GMO yeast) to a late harvest of ripened grapes with higher fructose (Winemaker Magazine, Wines & Vines, UC Davis, International Biblical Encyclopedia, “Alcohol in the Church,” Bible Wine). Today’s wine is not like biblical wine in regards to alcoholic content. Due to the later invention of distilling, strong drinks like liquor exceed 20% alcohol for which today’s wine is coming close to matching.
When reading the word “wine” in the Bible, the word may simply refer to grape juice or intoxicating wine not exceeding ~10% alcohol. The reader must interpret the word “wine” within its context to determine if it is alcoholic. However, biblical wine is certainly not like wine today.
Because of the use of the word “wine” in English Bibles, many presume that Jesus drank alcoholic wine. Jesus did not drink modern wine. The methods for fermenting highly-alcoholic wine had not yet been invented. Jesus’s opponents did accuse Him of being a “wine-drinker” from the Greek oinopoteis, because He came freely eating and also drinking grape juice unlike John the Baptist who restricted his eating and drinking (Matt 11:18–19; Luke 7:33–34). These antagonists appear to accuse Jesus of drinking alcoholic wine. However, when the reader considers the wedding that Jesus attended in Cana and Jesus’s institution of the Lord’s Supper, then His drinking of wine is not what many have presumed.
Water to Wine
What about Jesus turning water into wine? Upon reading John 2:1–11 in most English translations, many took the text as stating that Jesus turned water into intoxicating wine at the wedding in Cana, a small town in Galilee (John 2). These scriptures infer that the wedding guests “have well drunk” a large amount of oinos wine. The Greek word translated as “well drunk” is methuo meaning literally to fill or make full, and many times the word means “drunk” depending on the context. Translators correctly render methuo as “drunk” in contexts referring to drunkenness by drinking intoxicating wine or filling oneself with wine (Gingrich and Danker’s lexicon). John’s reference to the guests having “drunk well” and becoming full also implies that the wedding feast was relatively short especially if one takes this word in John 2:10 to mean that the guests were “drunk.”
In this case, Jesus either made more alcoholic wine for those who were drunk or He made more grape juice for those who would have their fill. Which is plausible: that Jesus created intoxicating wine for those who were drunk or that He made fresh “new wine,” grape juice, for those who had drunk well of the previous supply? If one interprets this passage as Jesus making alcoholic wine, then Jesus created more intoxicating wine for those who were already drunk or filled. If one perceives that the wedding guests were simply full of non-alcoholic wine, then Jesus made “new wine” with minimal to no alcohol.
Furthermore, “good wine” was limited late in winter and just before Passover when the wine had aged throughout the year (John 2:13). Jesus providing more aged and intoxicating wine would not have been an apparent miraculous sign. Jesus provided them with “good wine.” Was it “good wine” as though received from the grape press? The making of new wine would magnify Jesus’s sign because this was just before the Passover and before the first harvest of grapes. Therefore, Jesus’s production of fresh grape juice would have been an evident miraculous wonder of God.
The master of the feast depicted the situation that which the guests had filled themselves with wine from the meaning of “filled” of the Greek word methuo in John 2:9–10. A wedding feast may last a day and sometimes more (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah). John depicted that many would have drunk well of the wine so the guests were full as implied by the Greek word methuo. Being filled with wine tells that this drinking of the wedding feast occurred in a short amount of time within a few hours. The guests would immediately drink the wine that Jesus made. If Jesus made alcoholic wine, Jesus would have made more intoxicating wine amounting to between 120 to 180 gallons of additional alcoholic wine. What would happen if three hundred guests “have well drunk” and then drank an additional 150 gallons of alcoholic wine? Jesus would have given each guest an additional 64 ounces of alcoholic wine. The average person would have drunk another 6–12 drinks of alcoholic wine if there were 300 guests. However, the abundance was part of the miracle like the 12 baskets of bread left over from feeding the 5,000. Maybe the wine was not meant to be consumed immediately.
Even considering a wedding party of a thousand guests who have well drunk, each person would have consumed about 19 ounces of wine. Presuming that this wine contained 10% alcohol because the scenario includes fermented wine and the guests drank it all in one day, Jesus would have aided a thousand people in binge drinking having intoxicated the guests with three additional drinks who were already intoxicated as indicated by the Greek methuo for having “well drunk.” For each guest to have had simply two more drinks, then the wedding would have had at least 1,600 attendees. Despite the number in attendance, Jesus would have presumably contributed a considerable amount of alcohol to those who were already filled with wine. For those proposing that Jesus made highly intoxicating wine like today’s wine, 16–24 ounces would intoxicate anyone at an alcoholic level of 12–15% according to the CDC. Either today’s intoxicating wine or first-century fermented wine appears to be an absurdity at this wedding.
To assume that Jesus made alcoholic wine is to assume that after everyone had drunk all the other wine, then Jesus made more intoxicating wine for all of those who had their fill. The scenario of Jesus producing alcoholic wine appears implausible and uncharacteristic of biblical commands to refrain from drunkenness. If Jesus did make a great amount of fermented wine, He would have aided the sin of drunkenness and excessive drinking and would have participated in a drinking party, which are all condemned by His disciple and apostle Peter in the Scriptures (1 Pet 4:3).
Wine and the Lord’s Supper
Did Jesus use alcoholic wine in the Lord’s Supper? What kind of wine would someone drink at a feast where yeast was thrown out? Many have assumed that Jesus drank wine because many churches have made alcoholic wine a part of the “Eucharist,” the Lord’s Supper. Did Jesus use highly alcoholic wine when He instituted the Lord’s Supper? First, the Scriptures never use the word “wine” in any of the four accounts of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. Jesus mentioned the specific content of the cup containing “the fruit of the grapevine.” The passages about the Lord’s Supper make no reference to alcoholic wine. The Greek word for “wine” is never used in Scripture to describe any part of the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper during the Passover Feast. What kind of wine did the Jews use during Passover? Jesus used unleavened bread in the Passover because this is also the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Israel threw out all leaven by God’s command including the leavened bread (Exod 13:6–7). The throwing out of the yeast implies that Israel removed the grape juice fermented by the leavening of yeast. Fermented wine was not likely a part of the Passover taught by Moses. Furthermore, Jesus referred to the contents of the cup as “fruit of the grapevine” in the Lord’s Supper indicating minimal to no fermentation even from wild yeast. The intent of the cup of the Lord was not to intoxicate.
What about those who got drunk by drinking the Lord’s Supper? Getting drunk by bringing intoxicating wine to the Lord’s Supper does not mean that Jesus gave the disciples alcoholic wine in the Lord’s Supper. First Corinthians 11:21–22 depicts, “Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk [methuo]” (ESV). This passage also uses the Greek word methuo, which can mean drunk or filled (cf. John 2:10). Some ate the Lord’s Supper as a meal so that they were filled and those who drank were also filled not necessarily drunk. However, Paul could have been correcting such intoxication as well. If one assumes that these Christians became drunk in the assembly using the grape juice for the Lord’s Supper, then they must also presume that those drinking brought enough intoxicating wine to get drunk and intended to use such for the Lord’s Supper. The use of alcoholic wine implies that some of these Christians brought intoxicating wine for the church to drink together for the Lord’s Supper. They would also have decided to drink and get drunk from that wine in assembly rather than wait for others. Whether the wine was alcoholic or not, 1 Corinthians 11 neither condones alcoholic wine for the Lord’s Supper nor suggests that Jesus used alcoholic wine for His disciples to commune with Christ in remembrance of His sacrificial blood.
Warnings about Wine
Jesus warned against drunkenness and filling oneself with intoxicating drinks that trap people in this life (Luke 21:34). The Bible warns those who do drink, linger, and look at the cup (Prov 23:29–35; Rom 14:17–22). Christians can and should warn others about alcohol.
The apostle Paul revealed that those who continue in drunkenness will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9–11; Gal 5:19–21). The Greek word translated “drunkenness” literally means “filling oneself” in Scripture (Eph 5:18–19; cf. Rom 13:13). Christ’s Spirit in Galatians 5:19–21 teaches that such “drunkenness” is a “work of the flesh” and “those who are doing such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5 also condemned “wild parties” or “revelries” where any of the lists of sins like drunkenness would constitute a party as sinful and carnal. Paul also revealed in 1 Corinthians 6:10 that drunkards “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Drunkenness and filling one’s body with intoxicants is a sin.
Filling oneself with alcohol is evil and compromises the sobriety of the Christian conscience and one’s heart (cf. Rom 2:14–15; 1 John 3:19–21). Christ’s words and those of His apostles and prophets urge all to avoid drunkenness, and so Christians should do likewise and warn others of drunkenness. Peter warned, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Nations want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness [lit. excessive drinking], orgies, drinking parties [lit. drinkings], and lawless idolatry” (1 Pet 4:3). The word for “drunkenness” in 1 Peter 4:3 is not the usual word for drunkenness, but the Greek word is oinophlugia made of two words oinos meaning “wine” and phlugia is “to do something in excess.” Excessive drinking is a sin. Furthermore, “drinking parties” is translated from the Greek word potos, which literally denotes occasions that people gather for the purpose of drinking.
The apostle Paul commanded Christians to remain sober and make no provision to become drunk on any level (1 Thess 5:8). Christ had no part with drunkenness and drinking parties, so His followers must not. According to Romans 14, Christians should not condemn their brother over a drink; although, every Christian has the scriptural example and the foresight to warn against its use and against looking at the cup (Prov 23:29–35; Rom 14:17–22). Solomon warned by the wisdom of God.
Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things. (Prov 23:31–33)
Therefore, “Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Prov 20:1). The assertions of positive statements about drinking alcohol in the Bible are private interpretations.
Conclusion
The wine that Jesus drank was not intoxicating. Alcoholic wine is not characteristic of Jesus or any godly behavior in the Bible. Jesus neither encouraged drunkenness nor drank intoxicating wine. No one can rightly reference Jesus to justify excessive drinking, drunkenness, and drinking events. The Bible neither promotes nor supports the drinking of intoxicants. God’s grace compels Christians no longer to continue in any excessive drinking of alcohol because they have been forgiven.
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Rom 13:13–14)
Bibliography
- Jeff Chorniak. “Wild Yeast: The Pros and Cons of Spontaneous Fermentation.” Winemakers Magazine. 2005. <http://winemakermag.com/758-wild-yeast-the-pros-and-cons-of-spontaneous-fermentation>.
- Jean L. Jacobson. “Upsides of Wild Fermentation.” Wine & Vines, 2012. <http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=features&content=98687>.
- “Marking Red Table Wine.” University of California Davis, 2016. <http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/pdf/HWM3.pdf>.
- James Orr, M.A., D.D. “Wine; Wine Press.” International Bible Encyclopedia, 1915. <http://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/isb/view.cgi?n=9116>.
- “Alcohol in the Church.” 2016. <http://www.abidingplace.org/features/alcohol-in-the-church.html>.
- Kyle Pope. “Bible Wine.” Olsen Park church of Christ, 2013. <http://www.olsenpark.com/Sermons13/BibleWine.html>.
- Alfred Edersheim. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1883. <https://www.ccel.org/ccel/edersheim/lifetimes>.
Related posts:
“Reconsider the Biblical Concept of Drunkenness“
The Breath of God 
Before water purification with chlorine bleach or ozonation was invented, alcoholic wine was mixed with water to a low concentration to prevent illness. We now know that various microbes are the cause of disease from impure water. Giardia, cholera, some strains of escherichia coli, others are killed by a low concentration of ethanol in the water. Even if strong wine of 9½% (dry)-17% (strong) ethanol wine is mixed 9 parts water to 1 part 17% ethanol content wine, this results in an alcohol content of 1.7%. This is ample to kill most if not all microbes that may contaminate the water.
I once drank 23 12 ounce cans of Coors beer in a period of 2-3 hours with barely a buzz. I did not stagger or slur my speech. I eventually went back to my car, parked on private property, and went to sleep.
A couple of mugs of water mixed with strong wine at 10% wouldn’t generate a BAC enough to even begin to cause inebriation.
Today, Christians who do not have access to sanitized municipal or community water have access to chlorine bleach and can sanitize their water with a few drops of 5¼%-6% sodium hypochlorite thereby avoiding the “appearance of evil,” as the unbelievers impose their ideas of how Christians should behave upon us. We not only should want to directly please our Master but also to promote His kingdom before the eyes of infidels (the unfaithful toward God). This isn’t being legalistic. It’s putting the interests of the kingdom of heaven, the “land” of our citizenship, ahead of our personal convenience. Avoiding anything to do with alcoholic beverages, including purchases of other products that bear brand names associated with alcoholic beverages, presents a purer image to the unbelievers and to weak brethren in Christ Jesus. Seagram’s® ginger ale, actually produced and distributed by Coca-Cola® and affiliates under license from Seagram’s, comes to mind. Personally, I do not want an unbeliever or weak brother to see anything on my pantry shelf bearing a name that has a close association with alcoholic beverages (or other doubtful substances).
I read the wine was an undiluted syrup & mixed w/ water to make it more palatable. Is that correct? And wild fermentation is a 3-4% alcohol content. So, it would be difficult but not impossible to get drunk or even a buzz on it.
That is what my research confirms. The “strong drink” in the OT is most likely referring to that boiled syrup that can make cider or liquor. Yes, it takes about 4-6 drinks in the first hour for the average man to get drunk off of 3-4% alcohol.
The attitude of “What can I get away with and still make it to heaven?” is not one pleasing to our Master. Think of the workman who puts in just the bare minimum to keep from getting fired.
Salvation is free and cannot be earned as the price has already been paid. We are, however, promised a reward for loyal, diligent service.
One slave was evaluated by his master and entrusted with ten talents (large weights of gold). Another was evaluated and entrusted with five talents. And a third entrusted with one talent.
The first two bought and sold according to their abilities. Perhaps they hired workers to build up their master’s business enterprises. Whatever, their master went away on other business of his and left them on their own. At any rate, when the master returned, the first said, “Master, here is your ten talents back, with another ten talents profit.”
The master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have done well in a small thing, I now appoint you governor of my province over there.”
The second said, “Master, you know that I am a poor and unqualified servant, yet somehow I managed to obtain a profit of five talents with your five.”
“Well done, good and faithful servant. I knew that you do not have the abilities of some other of my servants, so I left a smaller sum with you. You have done very well. As you have been faithful in a small thing, I can entrust you with the mayoralty of my city up the river.”
What if the third slave had, instead of burying the one talent, had done some careful buying and selling, and gained even a half talent profit? Would his master not have as well said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have done well with a small amount. I hereby appoint you chief steward of my summer palace”?
Salvation is not a reward. It is a free gift. It is an inheritance. Jesus purchased with His life, with His blood, salvation ample to pay off the sin debt of all of the billions of human beings who have lived. All that it takes to receive an inheritance is to be a qualified heir and to accept it when it is offered.
However, those who serve well are promised a reward according to their service. What that reward is to be we are not told. Very likely the three slaves did not know what reward their master would give them. They didn’t know how much profit they could gain. They didn’t know what, if any, reward they would receive. Nevertheless they did as they could with their abilities and opportunities, not expecting anything more than to continue to be part of their master’s household. It was not likely that even a harsh, greedy master, as the third slave of the parable accused the master of being, would punish a diligent slave with a whipping, the galleys or the salt mines.
We do not expect our Master to renege on His promises, as giving rewards costs Him, who can speak an infinite cosmos into existence with, “Let it be so,” nothing.
So what pasteurization method did they use to prevent it from Turing into wine? because if you don’t pasteurize grape juice it turns to wine.
https://www.cooksinfo.com/grape-juice
“Some Christians who don’t approve of drinking say that when the Bible refers to wine, it means unfermented Grape Juice. That simply wasn’t possible until pasteurization was discovered — freshly pressed Grape Juice begins fermenting almost immediately.”
Keep reading, brother. Natural fermentation produces no more 3% alcohol.
Furthermore, grape juice was often kept sealed in jars kept in streams and caves. Grape juice was also boiled down to a concentrate to preserve it.
The wine that Jesus made was not like today’s wine.
So it was wine, and not grape juice. If it has any alcohol it is wine.
At no more than 3% alcohol, I would see it more as grape juice than wine. I don’t think it’s worth dividing over. :-)
So you redefine what wine is so you can make up theology. Also no where does the Bible say alcohol is bad, it say drunkenness is bad, but not alcohol, just like food is not bad, but gluttony is bad. Such as Money is not evil, but the love of money is evil (well the root of all evil)
I didn’t say alcohol is evil, but I can rightly warn against desiring it. “Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly” (Proverbs 23:31).
Your missing the point of wine and bread. Both Bread and Wine are required at Mass. God and Heaven is not bound by time. Mass is not a memory, we are there, We are standing at the foot of the cross while God saving us is going on. The greatest event in history, the event of Cross the event of the empty tomb of Jesus, that happens in the rite, that you are participating in. The Eucharist is food for the journey to get home.
It is impossible to make “grape Juice” without refrigeration.
What do you mean? :-D
The way grape juice was made was by treading on a mass of grapes in an open winepress. Yeast from the residue from previous pressings and from the air started fermentation immediately.
If the freshly squeezed juice was not put into sealed containers without any air it became vinegar. If put into sealed containers such as wineskins that were completely full with no air it became, over a period of days, alcoholic wine.
I have purchased “Great Value” grape juice from Walmart that was slightly fermented. I call it “Walmart wine.”
You are saying all grape juice meets open air before being put into sealed containers [before entering the stores] and so it is fermented and there is no true grape juice. Okay. [Edited 9 June 2020]
Who are you addressing? The location of your comment in the thread makes it appear that you are responding to my comment.
However, if you are addressing my comment, your response is illogical as it makes an unwarranted conclusion from my comment.
Your response:
“You are saying all grape juice meets open air before entering the stores and are fermented so there is no true grape juice.”
Nowhere did I write that “…all grape juice meets open air before entering the stores…”
I wouldn’t know. I am not privy to grape juice production procedures.
“You are saying all grape juice….[is] fermented so there is no true grape juice.”
Again, I wouldn’t know. The only grape juice that I recall ever tasting that had a tinge of alcohol effect is Walmart’s in-house brand, “Great Value.”
This is a common logical fallacy: the non sequitur.
Al, I was referring to your comment of sealed containers as related to today’s grape juice. I see you saying that all grape juice meets open air before being put in sealed containers and so it is fermented. You appear to imply that there is no true grape juice.
Up until refrigeration was invented, grape juice in the Near East might be placed in sealed containers and submerged in a cool stream but what feels cool to our skin when it is water isn’t cool. Air a 60°F feels cool to the skin but water at 85°F feels cool.
The grape treading vats were definitely open to the air.
Your article leaves the impression that wine in the bible is non-alcoholic at best or containing very low level of alcohol. If wine contains alcohol, I see perfectly why it is considered “bad to drink wine.” But if it is plain juice, why would it be considered bad?
I think it is very plain that the article does not treat wine as plain grape juice. Please, consider the whole article. Context determines the meaning of “wine” in the Bible. Farewell.
Give strong drink {undiluted wine} unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. – Proverb 31:6
And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart. – Psalm 104:16
No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities. – 1 Timothy 5:23
The alcohol in wine when mixed with water 10-20 parts water to one of wine (12-14% alc.) is enough to kill microbes, such as giardia, in the water but is only 0.6%-1.4% alcohol. Ordinary beer is 5% alcohol. Near-beer is no more than 0.5% alcohol. In ancient times wine (fruit beer) or beer (grain wine) was all they had for sanitizing water. The wealthy could afford distilled alcoholic beverages (vodka, whisky) but these should be very diluted.
I do not care to support the alcoholic beverage industry as it is deeply involved with criminality and corrupt government officials.
Good insight, Al. Very objective and a great addition to the comments.
Each of the recommendations given in the Bible is for medicinal use of wine.
My grandfather said that there were three things in his life of which he was most proud:
• Never unfaithful to his wife
• Never scratched a Democrat ticket (ballot)
• Never drank alcoholic beverages as a drink
When he lost so much weight from the “Spanish” flu, which he contracted from his patients, his physician prescribed beer to get his weight back up. Once his weight was restored he stopped drinking beer and never touched an alcoholic beverage again.
He was a “jack” Presbyterian, agnostic, scoffer, married to a “jack” Methodist.
Is the first sentence missing a “not”? It says “The word “wine” in the Bible IS ALWAYS alcoholic or equivalent to modern wine.”
Yet the information in the rest of the article says that this is NOT true, and that
“When reading the word “wine” in the Bible, the word may simply refer to grape juice or intoxicating wine not exceeding ~10% alcohol. The reader must interpret the word “wine” within its context to determine if it alcoholic. However, biblical wine is CERTAINLY NOT like wine today.”
Anyone stopping their search after reading the first sentence will leave with the wrong understanding.
Thank you. Changed. :-)
I commend the author for presenting truth, even if it is an unpopular, misunderstood, or even an ignored truth among the majority. The clearest understanding can be found in Ephesians 5:18, as the word translated “drunkenness” is the Greek word methusko (a prolonged transitive form of methuo) which means “getting drunk” or the process at which one becomes intoxicated. God simply tells us here, do not “methusko” (grow drunk by engaging in the process).
If quantity of “wine” is discussed (drinking it), who determines the various lines that people have before one has gone to far, however, if it is based on the quality of “wine” then: Any wine (oinos) that is unfermented is approved by God at any quantity and any “wine” (oinos) that is fermented is not approved by God and may not be consumed in any quantity.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 – Sober (nepho) in Greek is equal to its meaning in english, to abstain from wine (keep sober); to be free from the influence of intoxicants. The idea of “sober” is understood today and when someone claims sobriety in AA, all know that not one drop of alcohol has gone into their body. To emphasize this, Peter does tell Christians to flee the lusts of the flesh (works of the flesh includes drunkenness in Galatians 5:19-21), he begs us to abstain from these things, don’t even get near them.
My prayer is that no matter where you stand on this topic, we all have a heart like the Bereans and search the scriptures daily. Let the word of God mold your understanding of His word so that we can be complete, lacking nothing.