Question About Jesus And Wine
Dear Brother Faull,
I've heard you say that Jesus never drank fermented wine. A preacher I know says that since grape harvest was in the Fall and Passover was in the Spring, they could not have possibly kept the juice from fermenting over that period of time. Therefore, the preacher says Jesus was using wine for the Lord's Supper at Passover.
What say you to this?
Signed - A Student
ANSWER:
The preacher needs to study a little bit more before assuming such a position.
In Zondervan’s Pictorial Bible Dictionary under this we read, “Means for preserving grape-juice were well known: Cato, De Agri Cultura CXX has this recipe. “If you wish to have Must (grape-juice) all year, put grape-juice in an amphora and seal the cork with pitch; sink it in a fishpond. After 30 days take it out. It will be grape-juice for a whole year.”
It also adds that the term “fruit of the vine” was a “studied avoidance of the term “wine” indicating that the drink was unfermented as the bread was unleavened.
Also, William Patton in “Bible Wines - Laws of Fermentation” says that grape-juice can be preserved in at least five other ways than fermentation.
So, unfermented juices were available all year long!
Also in “Wine in the Bible” by Samuele Bacchiocchi, he has a whole chapter of 25 pages giving quotes from Josephus, Columella, Pliny, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Virgil, John Kitto, Aristotle, Horace, Polibius, Athenaeus, Albright, Stein, and even the Talmud plus several dictionaries and encyclopedias. These will validate the use of the methods of preserving grape juice from fermentation.
He gives the five ways to prevent fermentation of grape juice. We have this book for sale for those who need to read the information themselves.
In light of the evidence, the preacher should make an apology for his assumption. It sounds reasonable but he is way off. I doubt if he does mention it as some have a hard time saying, “I was wrong.” Others have an agenda to defend their own drinking habits.
George L. Faull
I've heard you say that Jesus never drank fermented wine. A preacher I know says that since grape harvest was in the Fall and Passover was in the Spring, they could not have possibly kept the juice from fermenting over that period of time. Therefore, the preacher says Jesus was using wine for the Lord's Supper at Passover.
What say you to this?
Signed - A Student
ANSWER:
The preacher needs to study a little bit more before assuming such a position.
In Zondervan’s Pictorial Bible Dictionary under this we read, “Means for preserving grape-juice were well known: Cato, De Agri Cultura CXX has this recipe. “If you wish to have Must (grape-juice) all year, put grape-juice in an amphora and seal the cork with pitch; sink it in a fishpond. After 30 days take it out. It will be grape-juice for a whole year.”
It also adds that the term “fruit of the vine” was a “studied avoidance of the term “wine” indicating that the drink was unfermented as the bread was unleavened.
Also, William Patton in “Bible Wines - Laws of Fermentation” says that grape-juice can be preserved in at least five other ways than fermentation.
So, unfermented juices were available all year long!
Also in “Wine in the Bible” by Samuele Bacchiocchi, he has a whole chapter of 25 pages giving quotes from Josephus, Columella, Pliny, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Virgil, John Kitto, Aristotle, Horace, Polibius, Athenaeus, Albright, Stein, and even the Talmud plus several dictionaries and encyclopedias. These will validate the use of the methods of preserving grape juice from fermentation.
He gives the five ways to prevent fermentation of grape juice. We have this book for sale for those who need to read the information themselves.
In light of the evidence, the preacher should make an apology for his assumption. It sounds reasonable but he is way off. I doubt if he does mention it as some have a hard time saying, “I was wrong.” Others have an agenda to defend their own drinking habits.
George L. Faull
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