In Robert Stein’s article mentioned previously, he said “The ratio of water might vary, but only barbarians drank it unmixed, and a mixture of wine and water of equals parts was seen as ‘strong drink’ and frowned upon.” A bit later he says, “In several instances in the Old Testament a distinction is made between […]
Tag: wine
Robert Stein’s article Wine Drinking in New Testament Times was published in the June 20, 1975 issue of Christianity Today. Some prohibitionists consider Stein’s article an important source establishing that wine in biblical times was so diluted that it bears little resemblance to modern alcoholic beverages. The article can still be obtained easily through inter-library […]
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Twenty To One
Homer’s The Odyssey is referenced by some prohibitionists to show that wine was diluted by as much as twenty parts water to one part wine. This is part of the evidence that wine was so diluted in biblical times that it bore no resemblance to modern wine. This mention of The Odyssey is misleading. In […]
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Habakuk 2:15
Sometimes, this is quoted from Habakuk 2:15: “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink” This is presented as prooof that it was even forbidden to give an alcoholic beverage to a neighbor – so clearly, all drinking is sin. But, if we bother to crack open our Bible and read the entire verse, we […]
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Not Enough Time
This one’s a hoot: Jesus must have turned the water into grape juice (NOT wine) because it didn’t have time to ferment! It could not possibly have been wine! Jesus transformed hydrogen and oxygen atoms into different elements! He circumvented the natural processes for producing grape juice — no seed, soil, cultivation, irrigation, weed control, […]
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Something Rotten
Perhaps my favorite proof that Jesus turned water into grape juice (NOT wine) is this: Jesus never could have made something dead and rotten! This argument is based on the mistaken idea that fermentation is a process of death and decay. This might have been understandable 150+ years ago, but now we know that fermentation […]
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Pulleys
When I was in college, many years ago, I studied physics. Somewhere along the way we learned about pulleys. The purpose of a pulley is to change the direction of a force. Ideally it will do so with very little friction, but the purpose is still nothing more than changing the direction of a force. […]
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Wine On The Hoof
In a blog article mentioned previously, the blogger attempted to use the phrase “wine in the press” (citing Isaiah 16:10 as an example) to prove that yayin sometimes refers to fresh grape juice. Others have made the same argument for tirosh, which is also sometimes used in an “in the press” context. One author included […]
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Unshakable
I recently came upon a blog article in which the blogger tried to use the greek word oxos to prove that the greek word oinos was broad enough in meaning to include non-alcoholic beverages. The argument hinged on the idea that Matthew 27:34, Luke 23:26, and Mark 15:23 all refer to the same event, but […]