Divine Wine?
Jesus confessed that he drank wine on the following occasion:
Luke 7:34
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!
Jesus used wine at the Passover and his Memorial:
It would be preposterous for Jesus to take the cup of Elijah/Messiah and pass it around the table and not drink thereof Himself. In 1 Corinthians 11:25, Paul said Jesus "SUPPED" from the cup. The requirement for Messiah was to drink from the cup. Jews only used fermented grape juice [fruit of the vine] for Passover. They never used grape juice at Passover. It was not available. Only recently do reformed Jews allow grape juice for children and those who may not for medical reasons take wine. Would Jesus serve His disciples something He wouldn't drink.
Jesus taught wine as a medicine:
Luke 10:34
34: And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Jesus made wine:
John 4:46
46: So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine Jesus taught how to preserve wine:
WINESKINS HOLD NEW FERMENTING GRAPE JUICE
Mark 2:22
22: And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
Luke 5:38
38: But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. The Holy Ghost is the new wine:
FIRST MESSIAHIANS ACCUSED OF DRINKING WINE
Act 2:13
13: Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Paul didn't say, "don't drink wine", he said don't get drunk:
DRINKING WINE TO EXCESS OR DRUNKENNESS FORBIDDEN
Ephesians 5:18
18: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit.
Bishops are not to be given to wine (that is excess):
1 Timothy 3:3
3: Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
The deacons were not to be given to much wine:
1 Timothy 3:8
8: Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.
Aged women could drink wine (not to excess).
Titus 2:3
3: The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things.
Exegesis of the word *wine.*
The word wine in the New Testament, except for the passage in Acts 2: always uses the Greek work "oinos:"
Greek 3631. oinos, oy' -nos; a prim word [of perh. of Heb. or. [Heb3196]]; "wine" [lit. or fig.]:-wine.
Hebrew3196. yayin, yah'-yin; from an unused root mean. to effervesce; wine [as fermented]; by impl. intoxication:-banqueting, wine, wine [-bibber].
Use of fermented wine is Biblical. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God does not have double standards. It is not a sin to drink wine for religious purposes if casual use was not prohibited by the Apostle Paul.
HOW PASSOVER WINE IS MADE
The grape harvest in Israel is usually in July. The grapes to be made into wine were carried to the winepress where they were pressed or stomped producing the juice. The natural leaven on the hulls and stems contaminated the juice and this began the cleansing or fermentation process. If there has been no leaven in the juice the cleansing or fermentaion would not have begun. The moment the grapes are pressed the cleansing starts. This juice with the leaven and the cleansing begun, is placed into wineskins. Here the cleansing completes its work in 12 to 14 days.
The grape juice from this vintage had to be harvested prior to the feast of Tabernacles according to Deut. 6:13. This feast falls in late September or early October. Winter starts in October and grape harvest and wine making are over when it comes. Since the fresh grape juice cannot be used for religious purpose until it is over 40 days old, it cannot be used for any religious purpose until the next feast which comes six months later in March-April. This is Passover. By this time the juice has turned to wine. The first use of this "new wine" is Passover. The second use of new wine is Pentecost, 50 days later. The 120 were accused of drinking this new wine or fresh vintage from the prior year's harvest. No one has been able to keep *fresh grape juice* over this six months time period without it becoming wine. Grape juice becomes wine in less than 21 days. So 40 day old wine is fermented wine.
It is easy enough to see that if the Jews did not use boiled dead grape juice for Passover, in an effort to fake having fresh jucie, neither should we. The Passover is not about something fake, or a substitute. Dead boiled grape juice will breed corruption if it is not preserved with a canning process not known or available in those centuries. Boiled grape juice must not be used to represent the blood of Christ, for that is not only fake, it was not done for Passover. Jesus used the same type of Passover wine used for centuries. It was not grape juice made from fresh pressed grapes, boiled juice, or reconstituted jucie from jams, jellies, or syrup, as many falsely allege and practice. Passove wine was not juice preserved in Roman amphoras, thrown in fish ponds as some allege from Cato's tales. What Cato did is not what the Jews did.
At the grape harvest those to be made into wine were crushed. That is why it is called a winepress. The juice is then placed into a proper container. It should be stored in a cool place. The cleansing of the grape juice to conquer the leaven in it begins the instant the grapes were crushed. The cleansing process is now called fermentation after the secret was discovered less than two hundred years ago. The cleansing process is the natural purifying and conquering of the billions of leaven cells in the fresh grape juice poluted with them. This fresh juice is not pure there are billions of leaven cells baptized into it. The cleansing changes the grape sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. As the alcohol content rises the leaven is killed. Although alcohol can be addictive if abused, it represents *joy* in Scripture. And people get drunk on wine to reach some aspect of this warm feeling. What aspect the alcohol represents in the killing of sin baptized into the blood of Jesus, I will leave others to debate. I will also leave it to others to debate if Jesus drank wine, and if when he shed his blood the morning after drinking Passover wine, if there was present in his blood any alcohol that might have remained from that celebration.
When grape juice is squeezed out of the hulls and pulp, millions of tiny leaven yeast cells on the grapes and stems were immediately baptized into the juice. The grape juice is not pure. It is filled with leaven which many ministers see as a type of sin. Man has found no way to get the grape juice out of the grape without contaminating the juice with billions of these leaven cells. The only way the leaven is removed or canceled is through cleansing fermentation or by boiling over a fire with heat.
Like leaven in bread, the leaven cells change sugar into both carbon dioxide and minuscule amounts of alcohol. In bread, the carbon dioxide forms bubbles and causes the bread to rise. When bread is baked, the gas escapes leaving little empty spaces. The slight sour taste is the fermentation. In grape juice, the same process continues over a period of days. [In the days of Christ it was put into new wine skins and allowed to cleanse itself out of direct sunlight.] As the alcohol content increases, it kills off the leaven cells and their carcasses sink to the bottom as the dregs. The dregs are very bitter. [Psa. 75:8; Isa. 51:17,22] After 8-10 days of the cleansing process, the hulls and pulp should be carefully removed from the juice. The cleansing process should be allowed to continue. Anyone observing the juice will see the bubbles working from the bottom to the top. After a few days the cleansing process will slow down and stop. When the bubbles stop, the washing and cleansing effect on the juice is complete. The new wine is now purified and is poured off and sealed.
Nothing is added to the grape juice. You do not add yeast, sugar, or alcohol. In making Passover wine, God has seen to it that man needs to do nothing except have patience until it cleanses out the impurities in the juice. This is a vivid lesson that mans works do not produce salvation. Grape juice is not pure. It has billions of leaven cells in it. So the blood of Christ cleanses us of all our sins. Grape juice is not pure or cleansed. It is called "pure" on the bottle only because state laws prohibit fruit "drinks" from using the word "juice" if it is not made from 100% pure juice or juice concentrate. To say a juice is pure then only means it has no other juice or contents mixed with it. Not that it is without leaven. It takes about 21 days for grape juice to cleanse and purify itself.
As a historical requirement, Passover wine should be pressed out no later than 40 days before Passover. 40 days seems to be a Bible precedent for the time period to prove men and sincerity. So somewhere in ancient antiquity, 40 days became the requirement to "prove" fermented grape juice. Some wine after 40 days was rotten and no good. It failed to pass the test. It was discarded or allowed to make into vinegar. If you are unable to make your own Passover new wine because of circumstances, you may purchase Kosher Passover wine in any large grocery store. This wine has been made by the same methods I have described above. It has been made by the same methods of wine making for over 3000 years.
Some have supposed to make their own grape juice or buy some that has been boiled where the leaven carcasses are free floating throughout the juice. This juice is not cleansed or pure in any sense of the word as applied to the blood of Christ. This practice has no Biblical authority. But the Jews and Jesus never followed these methods. The month of Nisan is in the spring of the year. No fresh grapes for another six-seven months. No one has proved Jesus made a grape drink to be served at the Two Passovers he observed. Passover wine was available all over Jerusalem. But fresh or boiled grape juice was not anywhere to be found.
When Jesus told Peter and John to go prepare the wine and bread for Passover [Luke 22:8], we can be sure that they purchased these items because they didn't have a place to make them. Only two days before they were in Bethany eating, and there is no record these traveling men of God carried the Passover lamb and other supplies with them. They borrow a man's house [Luke 22:11-12]. It was this mans responsibility to provide the lamb for all those in his house.
To fuss about hand squeezed or boiled juice for Passover is needless contention. If the wine used for Passover is not 40 days old, it couldn't be used anyway. There are no fresh grapes grown in Israel in February or March to press them out 40 days before Passover. So Christ used the new wine that was made from the harvest just prior to the feast of Tabernacles in September-October. If the way the Jews made it was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for anyone. If you cannot prepare your own, which is preferable, then go buy it. Make sure to mix it with one third water. Passover wine was mixed with one third water. How this came into existence there is no conclusive answer. But it answers exactly the blood and water that came out of the side of Jesus. This is how to prepare the fruit of the vine for the Lord's Passover.
