For the first 1800-1900 years of Christianity, drinking alcohol in moderation was one more way to enjoy God’s gifts. But a movement in the social politic of America in the early 1900’s suddenly changed some protestant denominations stance on alcohol consumption.
These groups began teaching that drinking alcohol was always or almost always a sin. This was a huge change from historical Christianity.
As a result of this new teaching, we had a lot of people twisting scripture to try and support this idea that Jesus didn’t drink alcohol and that the word “wine” in scripture is actually referring to grape juice.
But this is not supported by scripture, history, or logic.
The Jews, prior to Jesus’ birth, had considered “wine” to be fermented (alcoholic) grape juice. And it was certainly a part of many activities, including weddings, and it was definitely used in the passover celebration.
When Jesus came along there is no indication that He changed or condemned any of these existing practices. In fact, he seems to have encouraged them. His first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:1-11). And again, the wine that these Jews would have been drinking was fermented, alcoholic wine – not grape juice. And then of course Jesus used wine when he celebrated passover with his apostles and instituted the Eucharist – wine being the object of consecration. Jesus actually humbles himself, taking on the form of wine, so that we can consume Him.
Another point to remember is that back then people had no way of preserving juice. They had no preservatives or other modern processes to keep grape juice from fermenting. So once they harvested the grapes for the year and stored the juice in skins, the fermentation process naturally began. If you put juice in a container and leave it alone for a few months what do you get? Fermented, alcoholic wine. That’s what you get.
The passover feast occurred 6-7 months after the grape harvest. By then the grape juice was surely a nice shiraz, or a pinot (ok…I’m not sure how nice it was). So it would have been impossible to not have alcoholic wine for the passover and really for any occasion during the large part of any year.
And even in scripture the apostles themselves are mistakenly accused of being drunk on wine (Acts 2:13-15). First, this seems to infer that it’s not unreasonable to think the apostles may have been drinking alcoholic wine. And second, Peter responds to the accusers, not by saying that they didn’t drink alcohol or that it was bad. He responds by saying basically, “hey, we’re not drunk, it’s too early to be drinking wine.” The implication is obviously that the apostles did drink alcoholic wine, it was just too early in the day to have done so – and they certainly weren’t drunk.
And the constant teaching of the Church is consistent with all of this. Drinking wine can be a good and holy thing.
All that being said, the Church has also always taught that abuse of alcohol or anything else to the point of impairing your judgment is a serious sin. Just as some groups have taken the use of alcohol to an extreme by prohibiting it, it is just as incorrect and even more dangerous to take it to the other extreme of abusing it.
Many Catholics take the Church’s acceptance of the use of alcohol as a license to get drunk. This couldn’t be further from the truth and is a sin of grave matter. I’ve heard many a Catholic respond to negative inferences of getting drunk by saying, “Oh, I’m Catholic…so it’s cool.”
No, it’s not cool. And it’s not Catholic.
It’s another one of those things where a little common sense goes a long way.
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{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Actually, the rejection of alcohol goes at least as far back as the non-conformist movements of the 17th century, including the Quakers and Puritans.
Well, you can blame this one on the Methodists and the other “holiness” movements from the late 1800s. Of course, refrigeration wasn’t invented until this time so even if churches took a stand on alcohol use (which they didn’t) they wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
Fortunately, within my own confessional Reformed tradition, the use of wine in communion is becoming more and more frequent as the moralism of the Wesleyan’s and Southern Baptists is being seen for what it is.
As Chesterton says, “We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”
Intriguing read. I was an evangelical for a number of years before becoming a Catholic, and from experience, have noted that many evangelicals who indulge in an occational alcoholic beverage, do so with a kind of remorse. In other words, they drink with guilt. On the other hand, there are Catholics who say “hey they thought the 12 on Pentecost were drunk, so let’s drink up” as an excuse to drink beyond moderation. Drinking wine is good, but getting wasted and acting like a jerk isn’t. Good read.
A well explained article. Yes, common sense goes a long way. I wish the youth here in the UK can be tought this way and not overdo it every weekend. Unfortunately the lack of right teaching with lack
of going to church let people not understand the right meaning of what alcohol is all about. I enjoyed your insight and oppinion here.
There are many “fruits of the earth” that God has created. We should be thankful for them and use them for enriching our lives. Alcohol takes the edge off of a hard days work, just as caffeine can get us off to a nice start. I view these things as just a few of the many gifts God has given us. Too much of anything can constitute a problem for us physically or otherwise. How we use God’s gifts is just another “choice” we have to make. Obviously, bad behavior will always be bad behavior. I could just as easily be impatient, crabby, hateful, or mean from NOT partaking in these “fruits of the earth” just as much as if I had. It’s all about how we choose to let it affect our behavior. We should always respect our body, and too much of anything can be sinful in that it can affect the greatest gift of all, our physical body and mind. Keep it in perspective and enjoy the many gifts of the earth that God has given us !
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin
:)
Actually, that’s a an altered, shortened, and overall rather distorted quote. The actual quote, which is actually a pretty good theological point, is that when people question why water is no longer turned into wine like Jesus did at Cana, he points out that God does indeed send down water, which is in turn “drunk” by the plants, like grapes. The grapes are then turned into wine, which is proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.
so its a mortal sin to get drunk?
Thomas,
This blog has an interesting perspective on if drunkenness is a mortal sin or not: http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2006/12/is-getting-drunk-mortal-sin.html
So the Evangelicals believe that for Jesus’ first miracle, he turned water into grape juice? He would have better off with a “pick any card…” trick. :)
Did you know that in the Bible wine symbolizes joy, celebration. No feast could be celebrated without it. Just goes to show how wrong the Protestant principle of free examination of the Bible is, that anyone can interpet the Bible. Jesus choose to remain with us in the Eucharist in the form of bread and wine. Bread was the daily food in the Meditaranean of the time, while wine symbolized feasting.
I was raised Protestant and became a Catholic just a few years ago. I love this examination and explanation of drinking as it would be viewed from a Biblical perspective from Christ’s own life and time. I find it interesting also that he would choose to come to earth during a time when this would be recorded as normal. At other times, it would not have been. I think this clears up a lot of left over protestant wonderings and will be the basis of future conversations with believers who feel as though I have backslidden because of my choice to drink from time to time. Thank you.
Iam supporting your teachings
They are true
Ineed more teachings for the passover
George
+254710660301
Omg … As I Have Learned Alcohol is dangerous for health and causes death and other bad things and as far as i thing…Apostles would have never taugth us wrong things.. plz do reply..
Kim,
Alcohol in moderation is healthy:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcohol/SC00024
“Moderate alcohol consumption may provide some health benefits. It may:
* Reduce your risk of developing heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and intermittent claudication
* Reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack
* Possibly reduce your risk of strokes, particularly ischemic strokes
* Lower your risk of gallstones
* Possibly reduce your risk of diabetes”
Drinking wine is good but getting drunk is evil.then why can’t we abstaine ourself from all apearance of evil? As the bible comanded
Evil is not something unto itself, but good corrupted. For example, making love to your wife is good, but sex with a whore is evil. Eating a reasonable dinner is good, but stuffing yourself to the max is gluttony. In the same way, wine in moderation is good, but drunkenness is evil.
Kim can you elaborate on your position a little more?
I am confused at what point you are trying to make in your previous post.
Here is what the good St. Bellarmine said about getting drunk.
Saint Robert Bellarmine Calling Drunkards To Repentance!
Drunkenness where a person says and does things that he or she would normally not is in most circumstances a mortal sin, and for some people, this can result from one or two drinks, so this is really a highly individual matter.
I was a member of an Evangelical Free Church for a time after I regained my faith in Christ, but before I returned to the Catholic Church, and I remember the pastor saying with a straight face that the word for wine actually meant raisin paste.
My Methodist minister brother in law taught at a Methodist college and would go out of town to buy wine so the locals wouldn’t catch him in the act.
I feel it is important to note that there were as many as 4 ways to preserve grape juice during the time of Jesus. These way were: Fumigation, filtration, sublimation, and boiling. Before anyone says I’m incorrect, I encourage you to do some research first. If I must, I will return with a rebuttal to any objections to this fact.
As to adiutricem’s comment, It is not impossible that Jesus turned the water to grape juice. We find in John 5:19 Jesus saying,”Then answered Jesus and said unto them,” Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” We find in nature the grape on the vine; if the skin of the grape is not perforated, the grape will simply shrivel up and turn into a raisin. It requires the external squashing of the grape to obtain the fresh juice which then, over time, will attract yeast cells, whose purpose is to decompose the grape, and eventually ferment. It is neither silly nor completely unlikely that Jesus turned water into grape juice. If further inquiry should be compiled in relation to this comment, I will be happy to share more information about this subject.
Nick, if you can provide links to documentation on the 4 ways to preserve grape juice, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
And of course Jesus could have turned water into grape juice…he can do what he likes. But scripture says it was wine…not grape juice. And everywhere else it refers to it, in the context and use of the time, it is understood to be alcoholic wine – not un-fermented grape juice. There are plenty of reasons it is very implausible that Jesus did not drink alcoholic wine.
Hey Matthew! Sorry about not answering your question sooner. I found the 4 ways to preserve wine in a book called, “Booze, Bucks, Bamboozle, and You”. Oh, I do want to make it known that I do not believe as I believed on May 10th 2010. I was working on discovering the truth of the matter regarding alcohol, and I have found it! Also, for arguments sake, I would like to point out that the wine used in Canan was known as the morally good wine (Kalos) not simply good (gathos). And I may have those 2 Greek words switched, not sure. It has been about 6 months since I have done any research regarding alcohol.
Nick said: “It requires the external squashing of the grape to obtain the fresh juice which then, over time, will attract yeast cells, whose purpose is to decompose the grape, and eventually ferment.”
Yeasts are naturally present on the grapes, there is no need to attract them(Of course, in modern time we are able to separate strains and use the ones that produce the most desired characteristics.) Fermentation is a type of decomposition and so when you say “and eventually ferment” it has already been fermenting. If the grape were already decomposed by other microorganisms, such as bacteria, then there would be no sugars left for the yeasts to ferment.
I would also like to see some links on the methods of preservation that you offered. I do not believe boiling would be a very good method. It would kill any microorganisms already present, but there are still sugars which would then, in this case, attract yeasts or bacteria unless it were sealed in a sanitized, air-tight container. I would also love to learn a method of filtration that could have been in practice at that time that could help me remove yeasts and bacteria from juice.
A bunch of fisherman sitting around and drinking “grape juice” 2,000 years ago? Yeah, right.
Kevin – that is perhaps the most convincing point of all!
I strongly agree with Kevin!
Not only is it very likely that hard and tough fisherman would have tasted and enjoyed alcohol, think about the whole warrior system of a warlike nation. It is inconceivable that upon returning from wars with the Philistines and everybody else (everyone always hated the Jews), they would refresh themselves with a nice cup of unfermented grape juice.
I asked a couple of devout Jewish friends whether their culture always had used alcoholic beverages as part of their religious observances. They invariably look at me as if I were joking. At no time did the Jewish tradition abstain from alcohol.
Jesus Christ was a good Jew.
He had no option but to drink alcoholic wine.
Nick said:
“4 ways to preserve grape juice during the time of Jesus. These way were: Fumigation, filtration, sublimation, and boiling.”
I have done some research, but only a few hours. I am quite puzzled by these assertions.
1. Fumigation: Please enlighten us as to any ancient fumigation techniques. And I cannot see how that has to do with preserving grape juice, is it to kill the yeast that is on every grape skin?
2. Filtration: what are you filtering? How fine does this have to be? What happens to the yeast?
3. Sublimation: I did find out about this. It is basically the terminology for distillation. But I do not think it is possible to have non-alcoholic brandy.
4. Boiling: Presumably this means pasteurising. This would have some benefit, but it is unlikely that ancient storage systems would have prevented eventual fermentation.
Finally, I really want to know: why bother with such a complicated process? It is extremely unlikely that Jews did not drink alcohol. (Please refer to my previous post.)
Wine is one of God’s most miraculous creations, probably the most unlikely food or drink. It has almost unbelievable flavour complexity, hundreds of identified and distinct flavours. By actually putting the most appropriate variety of yeast on the outside of the grapeskin is genius, meaning that the two will only mix when they are crushed. Saying that this wonderful substance is sinful is seriously disrespecting God’s creation.
It’s so sad that we even have to debate this. It was settled long ago in Sirach, ch. 31 (http://www.newadvent.org/bible/sir031.htm). If only Luther hadn’t thrown it out…
32 Wine taken with sobriety is equal life to men: if you drink it moderately, you shall be sober.
33 What is his life, who is diminished with wine?
34 What takes away life? Death.
35 Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk.
36 Wine drunken with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart.
37 Sober drinking is health to soul and body.
don’t be misled. The Bible says do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit. This does not mean that you should not drink. It means drink but do not get drunk. I will provide scriptural reference if anyone needs one.
Did Jesus drink alcoholic wine? It is assumed by a great many that He did. Let’s examine this for a moment. Do you know how much wine Jesus made during His first miracle at the wedding feast of Cana? He made 6 firkins, or about 150 gallons. Now, of course, the New International Version (NIV), which never changes anything of significance (yea, right), says by implication that Jesus did this “after the GUESTS had too much to drink”. You do understand that Jesus was a GUEST don’t you??? So, let me understand this correctly, Jesus was at a party where the guests were drinking to excess, Jesus was one of the guests, and He supplied a few extra kegs to liven things up a bit after they had already drank to excess. Is that your Jesus?
The King James Bible (KJB) rendering which states they had “well drunken” (had plenty to drink) is the correct one. The New American Standard Version and other literal modern versions agree with the KJB here, leaving the NIV alone in its radically liberal paraphrase. Even if you take the rendering in the KJB, which I do, you have to conclude the guests had drank their fill of wine. If this wine was alcoholic then it is likely that they would not be ready for another 150 gallons of alcoholic wine. Think about it. How many glass of wine would this be? If you figure 4 ounces to a glass, 128 ounces to a gallon, you get 32 glasses of wine per gallon and a grand total of 4,800 glasses of wine. Now I do not know how many people were at this feast, but surely 500 would be a large number for such an event at this time. If this wine was alcoholic then Jesus did cause all who were there to drink to excess. This is clearly a sin in the Old Testament. Not only would His excessive drinking have been a sin, but causing others to do so is also a sin. Every Jew present at this wedding, and they were undoubtedly all Jews, would have known Him to be a sinner because of this verse, and many others:
Habakkuk 2:15, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also…”
Now my liberal (apostate) friends are quick to assert that Jesus drank alcoholic wine, as a tea totter of course, but are often shocked by the implication this has in John 2. Some have suggested that Jesus didn’t drink any, and that the guests did not have to drink all that he made. These are interesting thoughts, but I think it is clear from context that the guests had drank their fill and were now given a great deal more to drink. I think it is also abundantly clear from context this was not alcoholic wine.
The word “wine” is mentioned 231 times in the King James Bible. In the Old Testament there are 3 Hebrew words that are all translated as “wine”.
YAYIN: Intoxicating, fermented wine (Genesis 9:21).
TIROSH: Fresh grape juice (Proverbs 3:10).
SHAKAR: Intoxicating, intensely alcoholic, strong drink (often referred to other intoxicants than wine) (Numbers 28:7).
The New Testament, translated from Greek, uses the word “wine” for both fermented and unfermented drink. There are 2 Greek words for wine the New Testament.
OINOS: Wine (generic) – Matthew 9:17 — unfermented, Ephesians 5:18 — fermented.
GLEUKOS: Sweet wine, fresh juice (Acts 2:13).
The context reveals the type of wine as in Proverbs 20:1, ”Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise”. If grape juice is substituted for the word wine, the verse doesn’t make sense.
The Bible is full of prohibitions about using alcoholic wine. It was forbidden for priests and for those who took the Nazarite vow. It was forbidden for kings and princes (Proverbs 31:4-6) and pronounced woe upon anyone who provided his neighbor alcoholic wine and made him drunk (Habakkuk 2:15). It would be inconsistent for the Bible to speak against alcoholic wine and then have Jesus ignore it.
Hey, it’s been awhile since I’ve been on this site! My comment about ways to preserve the juice of the grape really sparked some cool conversation! OK, the 4 ways to preserve grape juice I found in a book called, “Booze, Bucks, Bamboozle, and You”. I was reading this book during the time in my life when my church was attempting to persuade me that Christian’s drinking alcohol is sinful and worthy of hell. Since that time, I’ve left that church. After I began asking questions about aspects of their argument that didn’t make sense, they could not give me a satisfactory answer as to why drinking alcohol was evil. So, I could not continue going to a church that was living in denial. If it had been a personal conviction, I could live with that. But saying that their conviction applied to everyone was not a solid argument. Needless to say, I am 21 now and enjoying the complex and captivating flavors of alcohol.
Jesus did not drink alcohol or strong wine. There also was a way to preserve sweet wine. They sealed it in a wineskins with pitch and sunk the skins in cold water or a deep cistern for fourty days. The wine would remain sweet for 1 year.
That Jesus the HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL and THE HIGH PRIEST FOREVER MORE would even touch strong wine is obsurd. It has to do with credibility. He turned the water into wine but there is no mention of him drinking it. He was accused by the Parasiees of being a drunk and a glutton. When he mentioned that the Son of Man came eating and drinking and you accuse him of being a winebibber and a glutton. Eating and drinking refers to koinonia or fellowship not drinking or partying. I don’t think I could follow a Jesus that was a hippocrate. You see in order for him to be a perfect sacrafice he had to be sinless. Even touching strong wine as it was called back then would be frowned upon by any who saw him as Mesaiah. It would destroy his testamony. I could say for certain the this article is off the mark and the kind of reading that would make it hard for someone struggleing with drinking to trust in a Jesus that drank.
FG
Of course, Jesus was not a drunk, but he did drink wine, which is by definition alcoholic. Jesus was an observant Jew and thereby followed the traditions of Passover, which include drinking wine: “There is a Rabbinic requirement that four cups of wine are to be drunk during the Seder meal.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover#Four_cups_of_wine
If Jesus wanted us to be teetotalers, don’t you think he would have said so specifically? He did not. Likewise, there are no directions in the Bible for the non-alcoholic preservation of grape juice, contrasted with detailed instructions on the selection and preparation of the Passover feast.
Hey Frank, I admire your passionate stand on this subject and it is clear that God has convicted you in this matter. I also have done in depth studies into what the Bible says about Christians drinking alcohol. I just wanted to point out that a little of your logic above is rather illogical. When you say that Jesus made wine but did not drink it because he found it foul; why would he create something that he found disgusting for all to partake in? I encourage you to look at it another way. If you do a quick internet search for the Greek translation of this part of the Bible, you will find the “wine” Jesus created was known as the morally good wine not the simply good wine. This is what you need to use; not that the Bible doesn’t depict Jesus not drinking the wine he created.
I don’t condemn anyone for drinking wine or other alcoholic beverages, but I can’t do it because it smells to me like something that died. I used to bag groceries at a supermarket and sometimes I would have a bottle of wine slip out of my hands and drop to the floor and break. The smell of the result of that spillage turned my stomach. Even though I am a Catholic (of recent origin) I cannot take the wine when taking communion. Happily the church says I don’t have to take the wine to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. I do believe Jesus drank wine, however. No doubt he had a stronger constitution than I have. My philosophy is “Others may–I may not!”
Are we not now the temple of God?
This is the restrictions that the priest had to take in order to go into the Holy place. As all Christians know, we no longer have to go into a temple to meet with the Lord, We are the Temple. We must also keep out temple Holy. This is why we have the commandments.
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 between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean
Yes, this was for the Priest, but why was this for the Priest? At this time the priest were the only ones aload into the temple. We are now that temple.
Sarah – that’s a very good point. However, if you put it into the context of Jesus and the entirety of scripture it is overwhelmingly clear that Jesus did not make, expect, or live out a total abstinence from wine. In fact, he encouraged, promoted and commanded (at the Last Supper) the drinking of wine. And Jesus is not just a “temple of God”…he IS God.
But this scripture IS a great reminder of why it is never good to be “drunk” or to drink too much.
first off, you must have yeast to make wine, or bread. secondly, the old testament was to be lived by law, the 10 commandments, we do not live by that alone now. third, there are way too many scriptures in the bible that let us know to honor our bodies and mind which were bought with a price, his blood. lastly, this is just my opinion, if you were truly a born again christian, why would you choose to alter your mind by drinking? there isn’t any logical christian reason to drink alcohol. if you choose to drink it’s not because God wants you too, it’s because you choose to. justify it however you want, but you could have taken all this time trying to justify it and could have been reading your bibles. K.J.V.
Jamie – wild yeast is present in the air and on the grapes used. So, as stated in the post, any grape juice stored for any length of time (such as until passover) from the grape harvest, would have been fermented – i.e. alcoholic – because there was no practical way to normally “preserve” grape juice and store it back then without having natural (wild) yeast present in it.
The rest of your argument makes no sense. Having wine does not dishonor your mind and body necessarily. We see both uses in scripture…to get drunk (which is sinful) or to celebrate and make hearts glad (wedding feast at Cana, Old Testament, etc.). Wine itself is not the evil. It’s how it is used or abused. Everything you do “alters your mind”. Exercise affects the chemicals in your brain. Coffee (and pretty much every food and drink) alters how your body feels and the chemicals in your brain. So you can’t use the fact that something “alters your mind” as an argument for it being sinful.
Personally, I enjoy reading scripture with a good glass of wine. Of course I use a more complete version than the KJV. Peace and love!
Well there definitely was wine getting made at the time, although it was a slightly different process to what we’re used to these days.
I would imagine with all the references to wine – as opposed to grape juice – that Jesus did drink wine.
Here’s a piece I wrote about the wine that was drunk back in those days
http://www.regularwino.com/history/what-wine-did-jesus-drink/
Did Jesus drink wine? He supposedly turned water into wine I guess to one up Dionysus who performed the same trick at a party centuries earlier. I wonder what the ancients would think if some of them could come back to life today and see that we’ve made religions out of their Harry Potter stories.
FOOD, if eaten to survive, it can be very beneficial duh, if eaten to much can turn a healthy person to a diseased over eating monster. Same with alcohol, a little goes along way, however if drunk too much, you know………. Same thing. Everything is good and bad.
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