So jesus said to them, truly, truly, i say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. Announcing the completely revised and updated edition of the wine bible, the perennial bestselling wine book praised as the most informative and entertaining book ive ever seen on the subject danny meyer, a guide that has all the answers bobby flay, astounding thomas keller, and a magnificent masterpiece of wine writing kevin zraly. Of these, is the common greek word for wine and was always used by greeks to describe fermented products. Son charles welch, promoting the product at the 1893 worlds fair in chicago, said unfermented grape juice was born out of a passion to serve god by helping his church to give its communion as the fruit of the vine. Can someone please point out one verse to me where the bible sanctions the use of. The oxford companion to wine by jancis robinson, a. When you crush grapes, the juice that comes out is grape juice. Wine or grape juice bible baptist church ballincollig. The majority of red grapes have clear juice, so all the colour in the wine comes from the skin. No where is the bible is the word wine ever applied to the lords supper, which is.
Nonalcoholic juice from the grape is called new wine in the bible. The good wine mentioned in the bible is unfermented. This is a common question in the body of christ and after much research, i find division in the church on this topic. If he does, the wine will burst the skinsand the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. Did jesus change the water into wine or grape juice. A comment i often hear when meeting readers of my books in different parts of the world, goes something like this. God himself provides wine which makes mans heart glad just as he gives food which sustains mans heart ps. In the new testament, the word for wine is oinos g3631, and can mean either fermented, or unfermented grape juice. I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranates. Of all the greek words which describe wine or similar grape products, only and. Though it drinks deep of its subject, karen macneils wine bible deftly avoids two traps many wine books fall into. The natural history and culture of the vine are described under a separate head.
That is a biblical fact and only those with a personal agenda would claim otherwise. I recommend the book entitled bible wines and the laws of. It has taken this long not because it takes a long time to accumulate the facts, but because it takes a long time to feel a placeculturally, historically, aesthetically. When did the concept of wine is grape juice originate. He is not to drink grape juice or eat grapes, whether fresh or dried. The adjective new is applied to the word wine but the usage is clear. Prohibitionists object saying, but how do you know that the original hebrew and greek words mean fermented wine.
According to this pdf, the theory comes from the idea that the current process of fermentation far exceeds the fermentation process of jesus time, therefore the concentration of alcohol in the wine must have been so weak compared to wine today, that people started to assume it must have been like grape juice compared to the wine today however, the bible does talk about drunkenness, and the. At his crucifixion he completed his mission by tasting wine and dismissing his spirit into the fathers hands jn. She is the creator and editor of winespeed, the top digital newsletter in wine in the united states. A biblical study on the use of alcoholic beverages berrien springs, mich biblical perspectives, 1989, 106. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Wine needs to hire a new pr agency to help with its image in. Content index books of the bible john wine or grape juice. The manufacture of wine is carried back in the bible to the age of noah, genesis 9. Destroys myth that the ancients had no way of preserving grape juice. This dilution was specified by the rabbis in nt times for the wine customary at passover 1980, 376. I was recently asked by a brother in the lord is it wrong to consume alcohol.
My purpose was to enlighten christians to the truth that god never encourages his children to partake of an alcoholic beverage. Jesus drank wine, christians can drink wine in moderation. The wine bible has taken me a long time to writein some ways ive spent the better part of my last twenty years on it. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. Wine is the most common alcoholic beverage mentioned in biblical literature, where it is a source of symbolism, and was an important part of daily life in biblical times. As for proof, in john 2 the bible says wine, not juice.
The skin also imparts flavours and tannin astringent compounds. There was a different type of drink the bible also calls wine. I preached a series of four messages in october 2010 on wine in the bible. The completely revised and updated edition of the wine bible, the perennial bestseller with over 550,000 copies in print, and praised as the most informative and entertaining book ive ever seen on the subject danny meyer, a guide that has all the answers bobby flay, and, simply, astounding thomas keller.
In his book, what would jesus drink, brad whittington breaks down the. Some say wine is ok and others say that the wine mentioned in the bible is grape juice. The juicy truth of biblical wine gross family to moldova. The wine bible second edition, revised by karen macneil. God fed the israelites on manna, and they drank of the pure juice of the grape. Gods condemning of wine that is intoxicating in his word and blessing of the nonfermented wine grape juice. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.
Wine in the bible refers to the fermented juice of the grape used as a beverage. On the other hand, a few believe that the bible points to grape juice rather than wine, and they do make some interesting points. Apwelchs grape juice was invented by thomas bramwell welch, an abstemious methodist, who cooked up the grapes in a quest to find a nonalcoholic alternative to wine. The most informative and entertaining book ive ever seen on the subject.
This finding renders the claim that the bible only knows of fermented wine untrue. But unfermented grape juice is a very difficult thing to keep without the aid of modern antiseptic precautions, and its preservation in the warm and not overcleanly conditions of ancient palestine was impossible. The third message, god blesses grape juice in the bible, became the most important in that series. The primary dictionary definition of wine is the fermented juice of grapes, made in many varieties, such as red, white, sweet, dry, still, and sparkling, for use as a beverage, in cooking, in religious rites, etc. So jesus did drink grape juice and wine as he lived his life among the people. In the new testament, jesus miraculously made copious amounts of wine at the marriage at cana. Red wine is made from red grapes, fairly obviously one might think, but in fact some red wines have white grapes added before the process of vinification or wine making. Net bible he must separate himself from wine and strong drink, he must drink neither vinegar. A cluster of grapes are nonfermented fruit and their juices are considered as new wine in bible language. But there is also a very different way that biblical writers will use words that refer to wine which is much different than that to which we are accustomed. During the sacrament of communion lords supper, or holy eucharist, some congregations will strictly use grape juice and avoid alcohol.
It would be interesting to find these books and examine them i have never. People ive encountered who believe that wine in the bible means nonfermented grape juice have also thought that any alcohol consumption was bad. Gods blessing for his people unknown binding january 1, 2011 5. The word wine could be used to describe fermented and unfermented. The book avoids these traps through macneils obvious, and infectious, love of her subject, which comes out in almost every sentence of the book, and which lets her talk about wine in a way that. Williamson summarizes the overall picture in wine in the bible and the church. When wine is used to symbolize doctrine it is old wine or fermented grape juice, that is false doctrine and new wine or unfermented grape juice, that is. Properly this is the fresh grape juice called also mishreh, numbers 6. All wine mentioned in the bible is fermented grape juice with an alcohol content.
If both grape juice and wine are available, grape juice, one would think, would be the wiser. An old wineskin would break because it could not expand under the pressure. Wine is the fermented juice of grapes and has a prominent and positive place in the bible. To avoid the sin of drunkenness, mingling of wine with water was practiced. Does the bible teach that jesus drank grape juice or wine. Ancient biblical grape juice and wine drinkers raisin eaters and teetotalers part 2 there were anointed men of the bible who took an oath. Bible verses related to grapes from the king james version kjv by relevance sort by book order john 15. Karen is the author of the awardwinning book, the wine bible, the single bestselling wine book in the united states, with more than one million copies sold. Thus, relatively speaking, the fresh grape juice is the purer of the two, as the scriptures above show. Alcoholic beverages appear in the hebrew bible, after noah planted a vineyard and became inebriated. The new wine was the freshly pressed grape juice before it had the chance to ferment. Bible study on wine and grape juice witnessing gods.
Buy it here and have it signed and personalized by karen macneil. First off, i believe it would be helpful to understand the difference between wine and grape juice. All other occurrences of the word wine in the new testament are from, or. The case for abstinence brumbelow, david, patterson, paige on. Wine press definition and meaning bible dictionary. Ancient biblical grape juice and wine drinkers raisin. Expediency, therefore, might be the prevailing factor in the case posed. Recommended best books on winewine bible wine bible. Wine in english, oinos in greek, vinum in latin and yayin in hebrew have been historically used to refer to the juice of the grape both unfermented and fermented.