Drinking is for Death Beds

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God is a Teetotaller (Maybe you should be, too)

The Bible does not say it is OK to drink alcohol as long as we drink in “moderation”. Jesus never drank alcohol. Jesus never made alcohol so that wedding guests could enjoy a really good drunk. Paul never told Timothy to get something for his stomach at the liquor store. God is a teetotaler, and we should be, too.

You say, “b-b-b-ut that’s contrary to everything I’ve ever heard! Are you saying there is NO legitimate Biblical use for alcohol?”

The only Biblical use for alcohol is to deaden pain while you are dying. Although I must admit, it makes a great additive for gasoline.

A message about what the Bible says about drinking can help only two groups of people: Christians, and non-Christians.

It can help Christians, because anyone who trusts God will try to live by how God says to live; when you see the Bible warnings about drinking, you will not drink, and you will deliver yourself from much tragedy.

It can help non-Christians, if anything can, because the truths of the Bible cut sharper than any sword; anyone too hard hearted to respond to the compelling common sense of the Bible, is too stubborn to believe even if someone should rise from the dead to tell him about Hell. (Luke 16:31)

There are 15 different Hebrew and Greek words which the King James Version translates with the one word “wine”. Some of the words mean fresh grapes – not even juice, but fresh grapes – yet the King James translates “wine”. The King James translators weren’t wrong, but the meaning of the English word “wine” has changed. In modern dictionaries it means only fermented fruit juice. But it can mean either fermented or unfermented juice, according to the Century Dictionary published between 1887 and 1903.

Unfortunately, new translations do nothing to resolve this misunderstanding. Every single one of them says Jesus made wine, and that Paul told Timothy to drink wine for his stomach’s sake.

When we don’t realize this, we read in the Bible that Jesus not only drank wine, but made it, and not just a glass of it but six milk buckets full, and we think Jesus knew how to have a good time. And he did. But there is nothing about drinking that gives anyone a good time.

To the extent drink affects emotions at all, the change is not good. Drinkers will tell you they have a good time, but ask their families. The kind of “good time” available from drinking is a taste of the “good time” available in Hell.

Overview of this study

Drunkenness is clearly prohibited in both the Old and New Testaments. Some verses say “strong drink” is OK only for people who are dying, but is not OK for anyone with any responsibilities at all.

The reason Christians are divided on whether “social drinking” (up until one becomes “drunk”) is OK is that several New Testament verses say Jesus made “wine”, and Paul recommended “a little wine for thy stomach’s sake”. The Greek word for wine, οινος, can be translated as either fermented “wine” or as unfermented “juice”. My conclusion that they should be translated “juice” is driven by (1) the verses that expressly forbid even a little drinking, (2) a little history of how the word is used in other Greek literature of the time, (3) my understanding of how fermentation works, and (4) my experience with drinking and with “alcoholics”.

Understanding Fermentation

I used to assume the “wine” often approved in the Bible must have been fermented because I was ignorant of how fermentation works. I used to think fresh grape juice was only available during grape harvest, because fresh juice would quickly spoil and turn into wine. I didn’t know fresh grape juice is far easier to preserve than fermented wine.

When boiling juice is poured into a container which is then quickly sealed, it can keep two or three years without refrigeration. But once mold spores, which are always in the air, get into the juice and fermentation starts, it doesn’t stop when it turns to wine; it continues fermenting until it turns to vinegar.

Louis Pasteur lived from 1822 to 1895. He was hired by beer and wine makers to find a way to keep wine from turning to vinegar. He discovered fermentation is caused by living microorganisms. He taught them to stop fermentation at the stage they wanted, by heating their brew again to kill the mold spores, and then sealing their brew.

(Pasteur also invented the Rabies vaccine, and taught surgeons to sterilize their tools.)

Before that, bizarre efforts were made to keep fermented beverages from turning to vinegar. They tried salt, marble dust, resin, sulfur fumes, crushed iris, and lime!

Another way the ancients preserved fresh juice was by storing it submerged in cool pools for a couple of months, until the weather got colder and it could be stored elsewhere. This worked especially well with the sweetest juice, the juice which flows even before it is pressed through a filter. High sugar content retards fermentation. After that juice is taken, more juice was separated from the pulp by a cloth filter. The pulp is the most fermentable.

When Jesus made the water into grape juice, John chapter 2, the master of the feast said the best wine was saved for last. A really old guy named Plutarch said the juice obtained by filters was “more pleasant to drink” than the juice which contained pulp. (This agrees with my experience when we harvested grapes from our own vines.)

Another ancient way was by boiling it until 10-33% of it had boiled away, leaving a syrup which would not spoil. Then they thinned it again with water when they were ready to drink it. I tried it with my own grapes. It works, and it tastes good. After gently pressing out the juice, I boiled away about half the pulp, and the result was about as thick as apple butter. It tastes good on bread. Thinned with water, it tastes like grape juice again, though a little thicker. I didn’t add any sugar. Sometimes the ancients did.

Some scholars think grape syrup is what some Scriptures mean by “honey”.

Another method of preserving was by burning sulphur dioxide so the sulphur fumes went into the jar and were absorbed by the juice, thus inhibiting the yeast germs.

That, I didn’t try.

Slightly dried grapes, which were half way to being raisins, kept a long time; and juice was often made from them by freshly squeezing these grapes into a cup. The apocry­phal Acts and Martyr­dom of St Matthew the Apostle even indicates Jesus made his wine that way for his final Passover. That account states, “... and having pressed three clusters from the vine into a cup,....” This does not prove that was Jesus’ method, but it does at least show the author expected his readers to be familiar with the practice.

Isaiah 28:7-8 says ALCOHOL IMPAIRS THE PERCEPTION OF REALITY.

“But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.”

Now listen to the rest of this verse which describes what families of alcoholics have to live through: urinating in clothes, and vomiting on the furniture: “For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”

Also Isaiah 19:14: “...as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.”

ALCOHOL DISABLES THE CONSCIENCE.

Genesis 9:21:“And Noah drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.”

Another in Genesis 19:32-33: “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father: and he per­ceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.”

The children of this drunken union became nations which became enemies of Israel.

And in Habakkuk 2: “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their naked­ness!” In other words, alcohol is a favorite tool of sex criminals. But of course drinking is a factor in a very high percentage of all crimes, and that doesn’t even count the many sex crimes, which aren’t even counted as crimes in today’s America.

ALCOHOL NOT ONLY DISABLES THE CONSCIENCE, BUT ALSO THE BODY.

Proverbs 23:21 describes the “good times” had by drinkers “For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”

Hosea 7:5: “In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine.

Proverbs 26:9:  As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

In other words, people who are drunk can be unaware when they cause themselves serious injury. In the same way, people use metaphors carelessly by linking them to reality where they don’t fit.

ONE CANNOT DRINK, EVEN A LITTLE, AND LEAD GOD’S PEOPLE

Leviticus 10:8-11 “And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying. Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy Sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference [or be able to tell the difference] between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;”

In I Timothy 3, we find the qualifications for a bishop include, “Not given to wine”. The same guidelines are also given in Titus.

And in Proverbs 31:4-7 a queen warns her son who was destined to become a king: (this applies to all who still have responsibilities): “It is not for kings. 0 Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink. Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish [dying, and in pain], and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”

This last verse, by a prince’s mother to her son, was like saying “you are growing up to be a king. Alcohol is the beverage of the rabble who have no hope. You sure don’t want to be like them!”

Bible commentator Matthew Henry observes, “All Christians are made to our God kings and priests, and must apply this to themselves.” (Revelation 5:10 has the saints in Heaven saying this. Revelation 1:6, John, the author, says this of all his readers.)

Bible Commentator Albert Barnes says the last phrase alludes to the “Jewish practice of giving a cup of wine to mourners, and (as in the history of the crucifixion) to criminals at their execution.”

Bible Commentators

Psalm 104:15 has the phrase "Bitterness of Soul". The same phrase is in 1 Samuel 1:10 where the woman chose to pray rather than to drink.

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament: Wine was the most intoxicating drink known in ancient times. All the wine was light wine, i.e. not fortified with extra alcohol. Concentrated alcohol was only known in the Middle Ages when the Arabs invented distillation (“alcohol” is an Arabic word) so what is now called liquor or strong drink (i.e. whiskey, gin, etc.) and the twenty per cent fortified wines were unknown in Bible times. ...The strength of natural wines is limited by two factors. The percentage of alcohol will be half of the percentage of the sugar in the juice. And if the alcoholic content is much above 10 or 11 percent, the yeast cells are killed and fermentation ceases. Probably ancient wines were 7–10 per cent.... To avoid the sin of drunkenness, mingling of wine with water was practiced. This dilution was specified by the Rabbis in NT times for the wine then customary at Passover. The original Passover did not include wine (Deut 20:6).

….Related words are šēkār, probably beer, ʿāsîs perhaps wine from other fruit juices (Song 8:2), tîrôš (q.v.) apparently the fresh juice from the vineyard, never by itself associated with intoxication.

Harris, R. L. (1999). 864 יַיִן. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 376). Chicago: Moody Press.


Bible Commentator Albert Barnes on John 2:10:

The good wine - This shows that this had all the qualities of real wine. We should not be deceived by the phrase “good wine.” We often use the phrase to denote that it is good in proportion to its strength and its power to intoxicate; but no such sense is to be attached to the word here. Pliny, Plutarch, and Horace describe wine as “good,” or mention that as “the best wine,” which was harmless or “innocent” - poculo vini “innocentis.”

The most useful wine - “utilissimum vinum” - was that which had little strength; and the most wholesome wine - “saluberrimum vinum” - was that which had not been adulterated by “the addition of anything to the ‘must’ or juice.” Pliny expressly says that a good wine was one that was destitute of spirit (lib. iv. c. 13). It should not be assumed, therefore, that the “good wine” was “stronger” than the other: it is rather to be presumed that it was milder, if not completely alcohol free.

The wine referred to here was doubtless such as was commonly drunk in Palestine. That was the pure juice of the grape. It was not brandied wine, nor drugged wine, nor wine compounded of various substances, such as we drink in this land. The common wine drunk in Palestine was that which was the simple juice of the grape.

Death Beds

We, as children of God, are richer than kings -- and are NEVER poor nor without hope, but ARE in great need of our memory and judgment.

But does God actually smile upon the use of alcohol by the heathen to forget their poverty and their misery? That’s why drinkers tell you they drink. Does God agree?

We know from our experience, and from Proverbs 23:21 that we just read, that drink is the cause of poverty and misery. How then could God take the position that it is good to drink to forget poverty and misery?

Knowing that drink causes misery and poverty, Lemuel’s mother is mocking the excuse drinkers always give, that they just want to forget all their misery and poverty. It’s like saying “Son, don’t be a loser who drinks to forget the problems worsened by his drinking. Stay sober so you can solve them.” Actually, the Talmud interprets the verse about giving strong drink to him that is ready to perish, as referring to intoxicants given to those being executed. And yet Jesus, when He was executed, refused intoxicants even then. He is The King of Kings! The only Fruit of the Vine He tasted on the cross was non-alcoholic vinegar.

Here is the CLASSIC ANTI-LIQUOR PASSAGE:

Proverbs 23:29-35: “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.”

Doesn’t God do a good job of describing drinkers? Woe! Sorrow! Contentions, meaning they are constantly picking fights. Ask anyone in the family of a drinker what it is like to be a great enough diplomat to defuse a drinker’s suspicions and accusations. When the drinker is the husband and father, ask the wife and children what it is like to either succeed in heroic diplomacy, or be beaten. Here’s the rest of the passage:

“Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it btteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lien, upon the top of a mast. [meaning you will stagger like a seasick sailor.] They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”

I will seek it yet again! Yes, that’s another feature of alcohol: it’s addictive powers. And yet I do not believe any chemistry about it is addictive; rather, it is sin which is addictive. It is stupidity that is addictive.

Here are some passages which approve of “wine”, but which mean fresh juice:

In Genesis 27:28 Isaac gives his blessing to Jacob: “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:” The Hebrew word here is tirosh, which refers not to juice or wine, but to grapes growing in the field.

Jacob blesses Judah, painting an image of Judah walking around in one of those giant vats full of grapes, to press out the juice with his feet, and getting juice all over his clothes. If you want to see a video of how that is done, look up the “I Love Lucy” episode where they take a trip to Italy. Season 5, Episode 23.

“Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” Genesis 49:11.

And here’s another use of the Hebrew word “tirosh”. In this passage the context even makes it clear that we’re talking about unfermented wine. Look at Isaiah 65:8: “Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.”

Did you catch that? -- “new wine is found in the cluster” -- Before the juice is even squeezed from the grape, it is called wine. -- from the word “tirosh”

Going on to Amos 9:13-14, let’s look at it a phrase at a time and consider what is being said. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,” the days come -- so we’re talking future here -- “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed;” --- the plowman OVERTAKING the reaper, the treader, and the sower refers to longer growing seasons, so that planting may begin while harvest is still going on -- indicating an abundance of food --- “and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.”

“Sweet”, as a modifier of “wine”, further clarifies that it is not fermented. Wine “dripping” from the mountainside refers to mature grapes dropping from clusters before harvest. I have grown up with luscious grape vines bearing fruit every year, and grapes, like every other fruit, fall on the ground before it’s time to harvest them.

Psalms 104:14-15 says: “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.”

I first thought this must be fermented wine, because the emotion of “glad­ness” associated with a food seems to suggest the mood-altering fermented state rather than emotion-neutral unfermented juice. But Scripture doesn’t associate drinking alcohol at all with “gladness”, but with “sorrow”, “woe”, “poverty”, and “misery”. All the other blessings listed in these two verses are wholesome and natural. Besides, fresh grape juice truly is a special treat. But the clincher is that in Psalms 4, the ability to gladden the heart is attributed to grapes growing in the field, and to unfermented corn, showing us that good, wholesome food had the power to make King David very happy, with no need to get drunk. Besides, David knew what we know from the verse about it not being for kings to drink "strong drink".

Context Study

wine H3196 what does a context study show? yayin Red identifies a context where the drink is clearly intoxicating. Blue: clearly not. Black: ambiguous. Gen_9:21; Gen_9:24; Gen_14:18; [Melchizadek] Gen_19:32; Gen_19:33; Gen_19:34; Gen_19:35; Gen_27:25; [Jacob drank before blessing] Gen_49:11; Gen_49:12; Exo_29:40; Lev_10:9; Lev_23:13; Num_6:3; Num_6:4; Num_6:20; Num_15:5; Num_15:7; Num_15:10; Num_28:14; Deu_14:26; Deu_28:39; Deu_29:6; Deu_32:33; Deu_32:38; Jos_9:4; Jos_9:13; Jdg_13:4; Jdg_13:7; Jdg_13:14; Jdg_19:19; 1Sa_1:14; 1Sa_1:15; 1Sa_1:24; 1Sa_10:3; 1Sa_16:20; 1Sa_25:18; 1Sa_25:37; 2Sa_13:28; 2Sa_16:1; 2Sa_16:2; 1Ch_9:29; 1Ch_12:40; 1Ch_27:27; 2Ch_2:10; 2Ch_2:15; 2Ch_11:11; Neh_2:1; Neh_5:15; Neh_5:18; Neh_13:15; Est_1:7; Est_1:10; Est_5:6; Est_7:2; Est_7:7; Est_7:8; Job_1:13; Job_1:18; Job_32:19; [Does fermented wine still expand? I don’t think so.] Psa_60:3; Psa_75:8; [“the wine is fermented”? Redundant if “wine” already means “fermented”] Psa_78:65; like a man shouts for joy from wine? Psa_104:15; Pro_4:17; Pro_9:2; Pro_9:5; Pro_20:1; Pro_21:17; Pro_23:20; Pro_23:30; Pro_23:31; Pro_31:4; Pro_31:6; Ecc_2:3; Ecc_9:7; Ecc_10:19; Son_1:2; Son_1:4; Son_2:4; Son_4:10; Son_5:1; Son_7:9; Son_8:2; Isa_5:11; Isa_5:12; Isa_5:22; Isa_16:10; Isa_22:13; Isa_24:9; Isa_24:11; Isa_28:1; Isa_28:7; Isa_29:9; Isa_51:21; Isa_55:1; Isa_56:12; Jer_13:12; Jer_23:9; Jer_25:15; Jer_35:2; Jer_35:5; Jer_35:6; Jer_35:8; Jer_35:14; Jer_40:10; Jer_40:12; Jer_48:33; Jer_51:7; Lam_2:12; Eze_27:18; Eze_44:21; Dan_1:5; Dan_1:8; Dan_1:16; Dan_10:3; Hos_4:11; Hos_7:5; Hos_9:4; Hos_14:7; Joe_1:5; Joe_3:3; Amo_2:8; Amo_2:12; Amo_5:11; Amo_6:6; Amo_9:14; Mic_2:11; Mic_6:15; Hab_2:5; Zep_1:13; Hag_2:12; Zec_9:15; Zec_10:7.

Smith Bible Dictionary: It has been disputed whether the Hebrew wine was fermented; but the impression produced on the mind by a general review of the above notices is that the Hebrew words indicating wine refer to fermented, intoxicating wine. The notices of fermentation are not very decisive. A certain amount of fermentation is implied in the distension of the leather bottles when new wine was placed in them, and which was liable to burst old bottles. It is very likely that new wine was preserved in the state of must by placing it in jars or bottles and then burying it in the earth.

In other words Smith is confused about bursting bottles.

Smith: In the New Testament, the character of the "sweet wine," noticed in Act_2:13, calls for some little remark. It could not be new wine, in the proper sense of the term, inasmuch as about eight months must have elapsed between the vintage and the Feast of Pentecost. The explanations of the ancient lexicographers rather lead us to infer that its luscious qualities were due, not to its being recently made, but to its being produced from the very purest juice of the grape.

….The use of wine at the Paschal Feast was not enjoined by the law, but had become an established custom, at all events in the post-Babylonian period. The wine was mixed with warm water on these occasions. ….(The simple wines of antiquity were incomparably less deadly than the stupefying and ardent beverages of our western nations. The wines of antiquity were more like sirups; many of them were not intoxicant; many more intoxicant in a small degree; and all of them, as a rule, taken only when largely diluted with water. They contained, even undiluted, but 4 or 5 percent of alcohol. — Cannon Farrar).

https://www.delish.com/food-news/a49410/what-you-need-to-know-about-apple-cider/ Cider is most often compared to beer because it's slightly bubbly and contains less alcohol by volume than its fellow fruit-fermented drink, wine. This is because even the sweetest apples contain much less sugar than grapes. On average, hard cider contains 4 to 6 percent alcohol.

Deuteronomy 14:26 even permits “strong drink” as part of celebration of “make glad”, Hebrew samach, “cause to rejoice” H8055

But is it general human experience that wine causes anyone to rejoice? Even a little?

Drunks are on a perpetual quest for that good “buzz”, as distinct from a “bad trip”. What is consistent about the effect of drinking? It varies from person to person, and from “high” to “high”. Suppose we theorize that the verse refers to just the first few swallows, before it has any trace of a “high”. But then what makes it any more “gladdening” than fresh juice? Does it actually taste better? Not in my experience. Juice tastes better, and you don’t have to stop after a few swallows. You can drink a quart and be gladdened with each swallow.

Inconsistency: Proverbs saying drink is not for kings, but David, the king, saying it makes him glad. How would he know? And if “making glad” is all it does, why shouldn’t kings be glad too? Why does it pervert judgment? Same substance? or can “effervescence”, wine, mean juice?

However, this is not “tirosh” but “yayin”, which means “effervescence”, which means with bubbles of gas. All the commentators say this means fermented, which in those days maxed at about 10% alcohol.

Psalms 4:7 “Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” The word for “wine” is tirosh, which definitely means grapes growing in the field.

What did Jesus mean when He said “old wine is better”?

Luke 5:39, “No man also having drunk old straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.”

Isn’t “old wine” a name for grape juice that has fermented and turned to wine? So isn’t Jesus saying “no man” would want grape juice if he could have alcoholic wine?

No. By “old wine”, the people of the time meant grape juice that had aged a couple of months, that was still fresh. Our Welch’s grape juice, which sits around unrefrigerated for months before we buy it, would have been called, by them, “old wine”.

The Biblical proof that Jesus was talking about unfermented juice is that his context is what happens if you put “new wine” into “old wineskins”. They will burst, he says. But for that to be possible, the juice would have to ferment and expand, and the bottle would have to have an airtight seal, forcing the juice to build up pressure.

Airtight seals are used only to preserve fresh juice, by keeping out mold spores, so it won’t ferment. If you want to make alcoholic wine, you don’t care if mold gets in. You want mold to get in. You don’t seal it. So neither new nor old wine threatens old wineskins.

The fact that wineskins used to produce fresh grape juice were called “old”, indicates any juice left in them would have been called “old” also, even though it was still fresh.

Jesus said, in Matthew 9:17, “Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins: else the wineskins break, and the wine runneth out, and the wineskins perish, but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

The reason you can’t re-use wineskins for preserving juice is that leather can’t be sterilized. Moisture from the previous batch will immediately attract yeast spores from the air. New juice poured into that bacterial soup will quickly ferment. So the purpose of using new skins was not so that they could survive the expanding, fermenting juice, but so juice would not ferment.

The fact is, new wineskins can’t survive expansion any better than old wineskins.

Grape juice does not have enough sugar to support fermentation but it can still produce alcohol.[by adding yeast? https://bronniebakes.com/can-grape-juice-ferment-3-things-to-consider/]

Grape juices are stabilized, so that they will not ferment. So you need that ferments go in the grape juice. ...The usual fermentation process consists of adding yeast to a barrel of grape juice and waiting seven to 21 days for nature to take its course. [and yet...] Another way to prevent fermentation would be to heat the juice to about 165°F for 15 seconds (bringing the juice just to a simmer would accomplish the same thing) and then put in sanitized jars. This is something like the process of pasteurization used commercially for juices and milk products. ...Why is my grape juice fizzy? The fizz is likely the result of carbon dioxide being produced by yeast eating the sugars in the grape juice; this is the same process that carbonates beer or sparkling wines. The thing is, most of these yeasts are introduced deliberately, and they take a while to do their job....

Does grape juice go bad in refrigerator? The precise answer depends to a large extent on storage conditions — keep opened grape juice refrigerated and tightly closed. How long does opened grape juice last in the refrigerator? Grape juice that has been continuously refrigerated will keep for about 7 to 10 days after opening.

Can grape juice ferment without yeast? The simple answer is your juice is naturally fermenting because of wild yeast. This is why a wine will ferment without adding yeast, at all. This would eliminate any chance of a wine fermentation occurring from the natural yeast that was on the grapes....

Can old grape juice make you sick? Unopened juice has a shelf-life of 12 months. But juice can spoil once opened, whether refrigerated or not. Spoiled juice has an off odor and flavor, and drinking it will cause your kids to have stomachaches and diarrhea. https://askinglot.com/how-long-does-grape-juice-take-to-ferment

Timothy's Stomach

How about when Paul told Timothy, a pastor trainer, to drink a little wine for what ails him? Apparently Timothy had previ­ously abstained from any beverage but water. Paul told him,

1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

I know you’ve read the newspaper doctors telling you a glass of wine helps your heart, or whatever. For some reason the studies refuting that nonsense aren’t quite as “newsworthy”.

The Guardian, May 24, 2023: "Still, a glass of wine a day might help your longevity, right? Well, unfortunately, rumours of booze’s effectiveness in that area may have been exaggerated. “For a long time, I think we’ve told ourselves alcohol is good for us, partly because we enjoy drinking it,” says Dr Sadie Boniface, head of research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies. “But science has debunked some of the ‘health benefits’ of moderate drinking, and one thing I think people generally don’t understand is that the official drinking guidelines are for ‘low-risk’ alcohol consumption, not ‘safe’ consumption."

The fact is God would not instruct Paul to tell anyone to consume alcohol for health, if alcohol does not improve health, and according to the evidence we have so far, it does not. The evidence that Paul associated fresh juice with stomach health is that we find that same association in other Greek literature where it is clear that fresh juice is meant.

Athenaeus, about 200 AD, explains in his work called, “Banquet”, that “the Mityleneans had a sweet wine which they called prodromos, and others called it protropos.” Later on in the same book, he recommends this same sweet, unfermented wine for the dyspeptic: “Let him take sweet wine, either mixed with water or warmed, especially that kind called protropos, the sweet Lesbian glukus, as being good for the stomach; for sweet wine does not make the head heavy.”

In this case “Lesbian” doesn’t have quite the same meaning we attach to it today. It means “devoid of the ‘strong’ or masculine alcohol”.

How about the wine offered in Moses’ laws? Several Mosaic laws required pouring “wine” as part of burnt offerings. Can we tell if it was fermented? Well, let’s see. Look at Leviti­cus 2:11, “...ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.” There’s our answer. The Hebrew word for “leaven” means, simply, “ferment”. We usually associate leaven with yeast, and fermentation is caused by yeast spores. Therefore, the sacrificial wine could not have been fermented.

Adam Clarke on Exodus 12:8 Unleavened bread - מצות matstsoth, from מצה matsah, to squeeze or compress, because the bread prepared without leaven or yeast was generally compressed, sad or heavy, as we term it. The word here properly signifies unleavened cakes; the word for leaven in Hebrew is חמץ chamets, which simply signifies to ferment.

John Gill: on Leviticus 2:11

No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven,.... It might be used in peace offerings, and in the wave loaves, Lev_7:13 but not in meat offerings; not only in the handful that was burnt, but in the rest that was eaten by Aaron and his sons; for so is the rule (p),"all meat offerings are kneaded in hot water, and are kept that they might not be leavened; and if what is left of them be leavened, a negative precept is transgressed,

Albert Barnes: Honey, being used to produce fermentation, and leaven (or, a small piece of fermented dough) were excluded...

Let’s consider the “WINE” THAT JESUS MADE.

At the Wed­ding in Cana, John chapter 2, Jesus made 6 large pots of “wine” out of water. I always assumed the wine which had ran out must have been fermented, because the master of the feast said poorer wine was usually served last, after the wedding guests had “well drunk”. Doesn’t that mean that after drunks are smashed, they lose their discrimination between good and bad wine and will gladly drink antifreeze? Actually, no: the tendency to be less concerned about quality, after your belly is stuffed, applies to all food and beverages. These happy wedding feasts lasted several days. It seems it would be impossible to maintain a happy feast of several days in the company of men, women, and children if the guests were becoming inebriated. Fights would break out, an orgy-like atmosphere would likely develop which would be a terrible way to start off any marriage, children would be caught in the midst of debris being thrown helter skelter, children would likely become intoxicated themselves, and the majority of the guests would have hangovers by the second morning.

Confirma­tion that Jewish wed­ding feasts used unfermented juice comes from Rabbi S.M. Isaac, in the 19th century. He said “The Jews do not, in their feasts for sacred purposes, including the marriage feast, ever use any kind of fermented drinks. In their obla­tions and libations, both private and public, they employ the fruit of the vine – that is, fresh grapes – unfermented grape juice, and raisins, as the symbol of benediction. Fermentation to them was always a symbol of corruption.”

In other words, had Jesus made fermented wine, it would have been a scandal, not a blessing.

There is enough evidence to say it is not justifiable to claim that shekar must always be intoxicating, and since its use in Deuteronomy 14 is such that an intoxicant is in­consistent with God’s commands in other places, we must assume that a non-intoxicant is intended here.


Well, this hasn’t exhausted all there is to study about wine in the Bible, but I hope it has certainly given you something to think about -- not only about wine and it’s true meanings, but also about digging in and studying the Bible to see what wonderful things God has in store for YOU!

Isn’t understanding the Bible just like anything else you do in life? Giving it a “cursory reading” just won’t do. You have to dig in and study to really understand what God wants you to know. Everyone knows you can’t become a great, professional musician by “cursory practice”, or by picking a great musician to trust! You have to work at it daily to understand the “ins and outs” of music theory as well as to be able to perform. The same is true of any profession.

Should we expect any less of ourselves when it comes to understanding God’s Word and applying to our daily living? Maybe that’s why God said, “narrow is the way and few there be that find it”. Maybe he knew few people would want to devote the time or effort to actually “seeking” an understanding of the Truth He offers us.

Deuteronomy 14

So how do we explain Deuter­onomy 14? It says that at the Feast of Tabernacles, everyone should bring a tithe of all that their land produces, including unfermented grapes [tirosh], to Jerusalem, and “eat” the tithe there, in a big celebra­tion.

There is an exception for people too far away to haul that much that far. They are allowed to sell their tithe for money, and bring the money to Jerusalem, and “spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.” --- which would include wives and children. The word used for wine here is “yayin”, meaning either fermented or unfermented; and the word for strong drink is “shekar”, which, according to Strong’s, means intensely alcoholic.

The apparent contradiction here, with other Scripture about “strong drink”, is glaring. This is the only time it is not condemned. Proverbs calls strong drink a “brawler”. Isaiah prophesies “woe” to those who run after it. It is forbidden for priests.

There are two linguistic challenges to Strong’s definition of shekar as intensely alcoholic. One is brought by Robert Teachout. He notes that the use of “wine and strong drink” together is a hendiadys, which the dictionary defines as “a figure of speech in which two nouns joined by “and” are used instead of a noun and a modifier: as, deceit and words -- used to mean deceitful words. That’s kind of a long, complicated explanation, but in other words, he says, “shekar” becomes an adjective modifying “yayin”. He says “shekar” really means, according to linguistic clues, “to drink deeply”, and it is the context of shekar, which, in all other Scriptures, has led to the ASSUMPTION that it refers to alcoholic wine. In other words, “yayin and shekar” used together should be translated “juice or wine drunk freely”.

The context of our verse in Deuteronomy simply describes drinking freely, as much as you want; which, I presume, would be like taking someone out to the finest restaurant in town, encourage them to get the most expensive thing, and not worry about the bill. My sense is that grape juice required a lot of labor, and wasn’t cheap. Only a God of love would think of telling His Children to go out and splurge on themselves, and call it “Thanksgiving to God”!

Another theory is that shekar means a sweet drink, which, like yayin, could be fermented or unfermented. He thinks those who used the word might have had in mind the sweet drink pressed from dates. The same word is found in the Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic languages, where it means date wine! And there are plenty of palm trees in Bible lands; and palm-wine, or juice pressed from dates, is easy to make.

Stephen Reynolds, one of the translators of the NIV, also suggests that the primitive meaning of the Hebrew word may have been a drink made from dates.

Fasting

Understanding fermentation helps us understand Jesus’ parable. The Pharisees criticized Jesus and His apostles for not fasting, as did the Pharisees and even John the Baptist.

Jesus said fasting is appropriate when grief, or loss, takes away your appetite. It makes no sense while you are celebrating. He said the rules about fasting which they follow were created in a context of intense grief, loss, or concern, causing natural loss of appetite, making fasting appropriate.

Jesus’ point is not that new situations need new laws. Jesus is not saying the old law requiring fasting makes no sense in this new situation where fasting is inappropriate. Because there is no law requiring fasting! That was never a law. The Pharisees had turned it into a church doctrine, with all kinds of rules, but the Bible only says God’s people sometimes did it, for a few different reasons.

What is it about an old custom that makes it unfit for a new situation, as if it were made unfit by contamination by mold spores? Jesus used the word “leaven” to mean “the doctrine of the Pharisees”.

Matthew 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

In other words, a godly practice is appropriate when a godly man follows God in his own situation. It is contaminated, made unfit as an example for us, when legalistic analysis displaces memory of the original situation with rules and theories which confuse followers about the original intent of the godly practice.

Thomas Jefferson

The U.S. Supreme Court has followed the Pharisees in banning mention of God in most government-sponsored environments. They started with a letter by Thomas Jefferson, which wasn’t even a law. It was a godly letter in context, but the Court didn’t understand it. They contaminated this godly letter with legalistic analysis of a phrase taken out of context, which now displaces, in the American consciousness, memory of the original letter, with rules and theories which confuse Americans about the original intent of the First Amendment which Jefferson was trying to explain. It is time to recognize the entire contraption of legalistic theories has been contaminated and can no longer govern modern needs without spoiling everything. Continuing in these failed interpretations will only cause modern needs to boil over, bursting the botched legal framework, and sending public passions to undisciplined destruction without legitimate law to focus or contain them.

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