Wine/Alcohol: Did Jesus really drink wine/alcohol? (The Real Truth)

In the Bible, the only group of people who were told never to drink alcohol were the Nazirites, and Jesus was not a Nazirite. Jesus was a “Nazarene”, which means He belongs to the town of Nazareth, but he was not a Nazirite.

Scripture never tells the Bible readers that Jesus took the Nazarite vow. So, did Jesus drink wine/alcohol? and if yes, what wine did Jesus drink?

Did Jesus drink wine/alcohol?

In the scriptures, the first miracle that Jesus performed at the wedding of Cana was turning water into wine. According to Jewish tradition, good wine was served first, and the guest in the last should receive the lesser one.

Jesus turned water into wine, and it was such good wine that the guest was astonished to receive the best wine at the end of the dinner. This was Jesus’s first miracle. Scripture didn’t give a flat denunciation of alcohol.

According to the Bible, Jesus drank wine at times. Also, there are positive lines about wine, which the Bible sometimes refers to as the “fruit of the vine”.

What Wine Would Jesus Drink?

What wine would Jesus drink in Jesus’s days? According to the Bible, wine was probably not that smooth but a bit harsh from constant exposure to the organic material. It had a bit high alcohol level and an extra layer of tannin, making it a bit rough around the edges.

It had higher sugar levels, which would add juicy roundness to the harshness. Red wine would be dark in color, as Jesus uses it as a symbol for his blood in the Bible. Then Jesus was probably drinking the new wine that was recently diluted, since it was round and fruit-driven, with the exact amount of sweetness for the wedding guests.


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How were they making wine?

The process of winemaking began with structures from stone in the vineyards. These were the wine presses, and which contained a large square platform that was a few feet deep.

They dumped the grapes into it, and sometimes, these wine presses had a trellis built over them with ropes hanging down to hold onto while stomping around. They stomped the grapes and the juice flowed into “veqebs” and then collected in earthen vats and stored in a cool place to begin natural fermentation.

The new wine could not be fermented for too long; if it would, then it would turn into vinegar. So, they used a common process to add the must, which contained some extra sugar to the new wine so that it would overwhelm the yeast. The winemaking process was pretty awesome.

There was no such thing as flirtation or racking wine from one vessel to the next vessel; instead, all the organic material settled until the wine was clear. You can imagine the taste of wine back then.

So what did the wine taste like?

Wines at the time of the Bible were juicy, round, austere wines, red or amber in color. That austerity was often cut with water. It was required, at the time of the bible, to dilute your wine with a little bit of water to round it out. 

According to their wine-making process, they get that the wine which was recently diluted was round and fruit driven and had a good amount of sweetness which were the best wines of the Bible times. Otherside Pliny dedicates some of his writing to different ratios of dilution.

Different dilution methods definitely affect the taste of wine, but the best wine of the time was consumed by wealthy families.


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