When we come to the New
Testament the content of the wine is never discussed. The burden of proof,
however, is surely upon anyone who would say that the “wine” of the New
Testament is substantially different from the wine mentioned by the
Greeks, the Jews during the intertestamental period, and the early church
fathers. In the writings of the early church fathers it is clear that
“wine” means wine mixed with water. Justin Martyr around A.D.150 described the Lord’s Supper in this way: “Bread is brought,
and wine and water, and the president sends up prayers and thanksgiving”
(Apology 1, 67,
5). Some sixty-five years later Hippolytus
instructed the bishops that they shall “eucharistize [bless] first the
bread into the representation of the Flesh of Christ; and the cup mixed
with wine for the antitype of the Blood which was shed for all who have
believed in Him”
(Apostolic Tradition XXIII, 1). Cyprian around
A.D.250 stated in his
refutation of certain heretical practices:
Nothing must be done by us but what
the Lord first did on our behalf, as that the cup which is offered in
remembrance of Him should be offered mingled with wine. . . .
Thus, therefore, in considering the
cup of the Lord, water alone cannot be offered, even as wine alone cannot
be offered. For if anyone offer wine only, the blood of Christ is
dissociated from us: but if the water be alone, the people are dissociated
from Christ. . . . Thus the cup of the Lord is not indeed water alone, nor
wine alone, unless each be mingled with the other [Epistle LXII, 2,
11 and 13].
Unmixed
wine and plain water at the Lord’s Supper were both found unacceptable. A
mixture of wine and water was the norm. Earlier in the latter part of the
second century Clement of Alexandria stated:
It is best for the wine to be mixed
with as much water as possible. . . . For both are works of God, and the
mixing of the two, both of water and wine produces health, because life
is composed of a necessary element and a useful element. To the
necessary element, the water, which is in the greatest quantity, there
is to be mixed in some of the useful element [Instructor II, ii,
23.3—24.1].
To
consume the amount of alcohol that is in two martinis by drinking wine
containing three parts water to one part wine, one would have to drink
over twenty-two glasses. In other words, it is possible to become
intoxicated from wine mixed with three parts of water, but one’s drinking
would probably affect the bladder long before it affected the mind.
In concluding this brief
article I would like to emphasize two points. First, it is important to
try to understand the biblical text in the context in which it was
written. Before we ask “What does the biblical text mean for us today?” we
must ask “What did it mean to them originally?” Second, there is a
striking difference between the drinking of alcoholic beverages today and
the drinking of wine in New Testament times.
If the drinking of unmixed
wine or even wine mixed in a ratio of one to one with water was frowned
upon in ancient times, certainly the drinking of distilled spirits in
which the alcoholic content is frequently three to ten times greater would
be frowned upon a great deal more.
Robert H. Stein is associate professor of New Testament at Bethel
College, St. Paul, Minnesota. He has the B.D. from Fuller Seminary,
S.T.M. from Andover Newton Theological School, and Ph.D. from
Princeton Seminary.
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