How do anti-alcohol Christian sects explain Jesus' use of it? Last Supper. Water into wine miracle.?

Question

No, it wasn't "grape juice". Any grape juice stored in the Middle East naturally ferments within a week in the Middle East heat.

Answer 1

in the bible fresh grape juice was called new wine.
when Jesus preformed the miracle, all the people were amazed that they saved the best wine until the last, when normally the best wine was to be served first, and the lesser wine was to be served later when people were to tipsy to notice the difference.
the process to stop the fermentation of grape juice into wine was not invented until the 16th century.
Paul in his writing gave the edit that pastors should not drink hard liquor, and deacon should not drink to excess.
a lot of the older ministers were alcoholics, and new the problems with alcohol, so they preached against all alcoholic beverages, the same goes for gambling, if you can't control it, it is better to stay away.

Answer 2

You really need to read historical writings of the times. Fermented wine (much less potent than modern wine) was considered a shame. Society frowned on it, even in the earliest societies.

Fermented wine is not natural. It needs certain things like air, glucose and the correct temperature to change the glucose into alcohol. The ancients preserved natural grape juice in skins and bottles, sealed with pitch or other sealers. (Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient writings attest to this fact). According to many other writers, the juice was boiled down to a thick consistency, sealed in containers, sometimes kept in springs or ponds, and later mixed with water to provide the refreshment of the grape juice. None of this procedure would allow the juice to ferment.

Note Christ said no man puts new wine in old skins. The fresh juice would mix with the old wine in a stretched skin, and allow fermentation to take place, stretching and breaking the skins due to the produced gasses.

Read the account of the Wedding Feast at Cana, carefully. Why did the master of the house say that the best had been saved until last. If it was wine, after they had "well drunk" of alcoholic wine, they would not have been able to taste the difference. Could not the Creator (Jesus) have taken water (From which grape juice is made) and caused his creation to turn into grape juice? Would the Master who committed no sins caused the guests to continue in sin by getting more drunken and disorderly, after He and His Father condemned such behavior throughout the scripture? Jewish law allowed for fermented wine to be used as an antiseptic or internal medicine, and was limited to 8-10%, much like our NyQuill.

The English word wine is used for both juice and fermented juice. To understand which is which, one must get the proper Greek or Hebrew translation or look at the context.

Answer 3

It was wine. Why some have a problem with that, I don't understand at all. the non-fermented wine argument does not stand.

Luke 7: 33: For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
34: The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

John 2:10: And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

It is obvious it was wine. They would not have known the later wine was the better wine if it were grape juice.

The bible does not speak against consumption of wine, it has always been drunkenness of wine that was and is the issue.

Personally I don't drink wine because I think it is wrong. I don't just so as not to give others the idea it is ok to get smashed out of their minds and use my drinking a glass of wine as an excuse.

Answer 4

Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine in response to His mother's intercession, to prevent a young couple from being embarrassed on their wedding day. If you know anything about Jewish weddings, they didn't serve grape juice. They served WINE and plenty of it. (Not picking on the Jewish folks here. Other ethic groups do the same thing; but the wedding Jesus attended on this occasion was a Jewish wedding.) Note what the steward says after tasting the water become wine ... "Most people serve the best wine first, and then after the guests have drunk for a while, a lesser vintage, but you have saved the best wine until last". What was the purpose of this tradition? Why serve the best wine first? The answer is pretty obvious. Once the guests have been drinking a while and are half sloshed, they won't even notice, or at least won't care if poorer wine is served. Yep, it was wine alright. And if Jesus thought it morally unacceptable to drink alcoholic beverages, He would not have participated in their sin by providing alcoholic beverage for them to drink.

Answer 5

It was not accepted to be pure until it fermented and alcohol content, so what the had was definitely wine. To drink grape juice was an abomination because it was impure or "green".

Wine was kept in wine skins (made from animal skins) for months. The reason you did not put new wine into old skins was that as it ferment, the old brittle skins would crack open with the fermentation. They did not have preservatives back then to keep grape juice.

Answer 6

wine or grape juice preserved in Bible days did not have the benefit of refrigeration or bottling as today. So often the juice was reduced to a thick syryp or jam... and it was storred that way for use at a later date when they added water to it. The result was a wine flavored drink that children could drink, yet was safe to participate in. Water by itself was not healty to drink then. So culture was very different. The Bible uses two different words for wine. One is the strong form of drink with higher alcohol content, and the other was a this watered down version. Ne wine, was the stronger form, before it had too much alchohol form in it.
Christians today who are tee totalers refrain from using wine, so that they do not become drunk... as the Bible teaches.... and so that they do not become a 'stumbling block' to others who will watch and judge them. In our culture, it is not necessary to drink wine... there are lots of other beverages. There is no excuse for drinking wine or beer or alcohol of any kind. To do so is to be carnal, selfish and insensitive to others.
Jesus used it because it was a part of his culture. In making a sacrifice, wine was often mixed with oil and poured over the sacrifice... Jesus at the last supper was demonstrating that His body...the bread, was to become a sacrifice. It was also part of the Jewish passover ceremony... They understood that part, but did not understand the sacrifice part until later. The author of the book of Hebrews grasped it later. Jesus became a better sacrifice... one that did not just temporarily remove the sin, but one that would cleanse permanently.

Answer 7

You've touched on a very funny thing about religion.

Many people get massively tied up in the details of their religions---memorizing scriptural passages down to the letter, proving how this or that prophesy came true, finding reasons that their religion is the "real" one (compared to all those other, phony religions), and so on.

But religion's real purpose isn't to analyze, prove, or predict. It's to comfort people against the fundamental fears of death, pain, and disapproval. Always has been, always will.

Some of us were lucky enough to have unfailingly loving, accepting, supportive parents. Well, I didn't have 'em, but I'm sure some of you did... What? You didn't, either? Hmm... Maybe it was because they were human, like us.

What's the solution, then? Aha---an INHUMAN parent, of course!! A completely perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful Father (and, in some cases, a divine and beautiful Mother too) who will completely and totally accept and love us---and all we have to do is:

_ Believe He exists

_ Perform certain rituals, sing certain songs, and follow a certain code of behavior (fortunately, other people in our group will help us in case we forget any of the details)

_ Give money (in some cases, 10% or more of everything we make) every week to the people who own the hall

Wow! I feel so good now! After feeling so inferior and insignificant for so long (which is unsurprising, considering that most kids _are_ inferior and insignificant), I can finally love myself and believe I'm a pretty cool person! What a deal!

We're still basically emotional creatures. As one philosopher said, "Logic is a small boat tossed on the sea of emotion." If you don't believe that, just open a newspaper.

So---does it makes sense for Christians not to drink, when Jesus Himself drank? Who knows. But it's wacky to expect any sincerely religious people to challenge and pick apart something that gives them such a tremendous emotional benefit. Why would they? If Jessica Biel decided to be your girlfriend, would you criticize her for farting in the bathtub? (Yes, I know, I'm a genius with the analogies. :?D )

Cheers, Ander

Answer 8

But if Jesus could turn water into wine, he could make a Special Magical Grape Juice that never fermented!

I believe Jesus preferred Welchs brand. But Jesus would never, ever sully his lips with alcohol. Even his first miracle was turning water into...(you guessed it) GRAPE JUICE!

Answer 9

Yes,it was. Wine is a Greek word meaning freshly-crushed grapes, thus it was juice. Man fermented this juice to create a toxic drink. The Holy Bible was translated from original documents some which were Greek. The word bible is Greek for books.

Answer 10

I wondered that myself. Even better, Jesus' first miracle was turning the water into wine. It happened at a party. Get this, the guests had already polished off the wine there (which must have taken some time) Obviously more than a few were plastered. They were all sad that there was no more wine. So jesus does what? He makes MORE WINE! Jesus rocks.