Wine (Bible)

Biblical References

• Blessing and joy: Psalm 104:15 celebrates wine as a gift "that maketh glad the heart of man." Melchizedek brings out bread and wine to Abram (Genesis 14:18). Isaiah 25:6 portrays the feast God will prepare as a feast "of wines on the lees well refined."
• Sacrifice: Numbers 15:5–10 prescribes that wine be offered with the sacrifices as a drink offering (an offering poured out at the altar).
• Warnings and prohibitions: In Genesis 9:20–21 Noah becomes drunk with wine, and Proverbs 23:29–35 warns of the harms of drunkenness. Leviticus 10:9 forbids priests to drink wine when they enter the tabernacle of the congregation, and Numbers 6:3 forbids wine to the Nazirite.
• New Testament: Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11). He also said that "new wine must be put into new bottles" (Mark 2:22). At the Last Supper he said of the cup, "This cup is the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:20). Ephesians 5:18 commands believers not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit, and 1 Timothy 5:23 counsels the use of a little wine for the stomach's sake. Church officers are required not to be given to wine (1 Timothy 3:3) or to much wine (1 Timothy 3:8).

Background and Original Languages

Along with grain and olives, grapes were among the principal agricultural products of ancient Israel. For this reason the phrase "corn, wine, and oil" frequently serves as an expression for the abundance of the land (Deuteronomy 7:13). The most common Hebrew word is yayin, while tirosh is often translated "new wine." The New Testament mainly uses oinos. Wine was both an everyday beverage and a staple of feasts, and it was also used to treat wounds (Luke 10:34).

Significance Across Scripture

In the Old Testament, wine represents the blessings enjoyed by the covenant people, and being deprived of wine signifies judgment (Amos 5:11). The New Testament takes up this theme and connects it to the joy of the Messiah's coming, to the blood of the new covenant, and to the cup that will be drunk new in the kingdom of God (Matthew 26:29).

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Was it alcoholic? Most scholars and church traditions regard the wine of the Bible as a fermented beverage. During the nineteenth-century American temperance movement, some distinguished between the wine Scripture commends and the wine it warns against, interpreting the former as unfermented grape juice. Many object that this view is difficult to support from the usage of the original-language terms.
• Abstinence or moderation? The Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Korea, Lutheran churches, and others hold that what Scripture forbids is drunkenness, and they teach moderation. Many Korean Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel churches have emphasized total abstinence as a Christian virtue since the early missionary period. For more detail, see Alcohol and Tobacco.
• The Communion cup: Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches use wine in Communion. Most Korean Protestant denominations reportedly use grape juice. Those who use grape juice hold that "the fruit of the vine" (Luke 22:18) mentioned by Jesus is sufficient. Grape-juice Communion is generally understood to have spread widely after the nineteenth-century American Methodist Thomas Welch promoted pasteurized grape juice for sacramental use. The understandings of various denominations regarding the meaning of the cup are discussed in Eucharistic controversies.

In the Korean Church

The saying "new wine into new bottles" (Mark 2:22) is frequently quoted in sermons emphasizing church renewal and new beginnings. The scene on the day of Pentecost in which the disciples were mocked with the words "These men are full of new wine" (Acts 2:13) is often cited together with Ephesians 5:18 in sermons on being filled with the Holy Spirit.