Wine ── or Grape Juice?

by Leonard V Johnson

Are true Christians supposed to use real fermented wine or unfermented grape juice for the LORD’s Passover?

In 2014, I was invited to visit a small Sunday-keeping Open-Bible Church! Oh, they’re sincere. They’re beautiful people ── but they’re being gravely deceived! They were taking “communion” once a month!

So, I tried explaining to the minister that the LORD’s Passover is annually. But, sadly, like most leaders of a church organization, they will not be corrected by a “commoner.” Our Lord Jesus Christ kept the LORD’S Passover annually (Exodus 13:10).

At COJCOM, we use just a small amount of fermented red wine. And, yes, even for pregnant women. We are unaware of any scientific evidence that the small amount of wine we use during the LORD’s Passover is harmful to the child (unless one is allergic to wine ── It is rare to be allergic to wine, but it is possible to have an intolerance to certain ingredients found in wine, including histamines, sulfites, and tannins. Then kosher wine would be better).

Indeed, the Greek word commonly translated as “wine” in the New Testament is oîνος – oinos, which means “a beverage from fermented grapes.” Our Lord Jesus’ first recorded miracle was to make fermented wine ── John 3:3-11.

Our Lord Jesus introduced the use of a wine cup ──

“Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.’” – Luke 22:20.

The cup symbolizes His blood ── as blood is the color of red, as was the color of first-century produced fermented wine. Red and purple grapes would produce a deep red or purplish juice. God’s living word teaches us that wine is the blood of the grape ── Deuteronomy 32:14.

Now, since so many of our peoples will want to argue that the Greek means “grape juice,” let us emphasize ── “Wine was rarely kept for years in the first century, … Usually, wine was consumed the year it was made.” 1

I have traveled extensively ── and even picked up and delivered numerous loads of grapes while driving over the road as a commercial truck driver ── in a climate similar to the land of Israel. So, when are grapes harvested in Israel? The answer to that question depends on several factors, including the variety of grape, the climate, and the location of the vineyard. Typically ──

The grape harvest season in Israel varies depending on the region. The northernmost region of Israel, the Galilee, has a cooler climate and a longer growing season, so the harvest season here begins in late September or early October. The central region of Israel, which includes the Golan Heights and the Judean Hills, has a warmer climate and a shorter growing season, so the harvest season here begins in late October or early November. The southernmost region of Israel, the Negev Desert, has a very hot climate and a very short growing season, so the harvest season here begins in early November or early December. Israeli grapes should be stored in a cool, dry place. They will keep for up to two weeks. 2

Also, a medicinal use for wine ── that unfermented grape juice would not have sufficed was that most people drank their wine watered, with more water than wine. Water was rarely clean and tasty, so the bacteria-fighting properties of alcohol helped make water safer to drink. 3

The LORD’s Passover is usually in the Gregorian calendar called April.

Let us also note that Jews used fermented wine at Passover ── “There were different kinds of wine. ‘Yayin’ was the ordinary matured, fermented wine, ‘tirosh’ was a new wine, and ‘shekar’ was an old, powerful wine (‘strong drink’).” 4 And, according to Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, “It may be stated at this point that no trace can be found, among the hundreds of references to the preparation and use of wine in the Mishna, of any means employed to preserve wine in the unfermented state. It is even improbable that with the means at their disposal the Jews could have so preserved it had they wished (cf. Professor Macalister’s statement as to the ‘impossibility’ of unfermented wine at this period, in Hastings’ DB II. 34b)” 5

So, only fermented wine kept cool can remain unspoiled for many years. Now, note ── the use of alcohol or fermented wine is endorsed during the holy Feast of Tabernacles. Cf. Deuteronomy 14:26. Yet, it is not mandatory.

True Christians are not to be “drunk with wine, in which is dissipation,” as the apostle Paul wrote under divine inspiration ── Ephesians 5:18.

The definition of “drunk” is “affected by alcohol to the extent of losing control of one's faculties or behavior.” And “dissipation” is “gradually disappearing or wasting away.”

Only a small amount of wine is normally consumed during the LORD’s Passover. □

Bibliography

1 Hamel, K.D., Winemaking in First-Century Israel, 24 March 2021.

2 Cook, A., When Are Grapes Harvested in Israel? plant4harvest.com.

3 Ibid. (1)

4 Hisrch EG, Eisenstein JD. Wine. Jewish Encyclopedia. 1907, pp. 532.

5 Hastings, J., Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2005, pp. 974.

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