Many believers and churches today believe that drinking alcoholic beverages is a no-no for them. Some have said that biblical wine was more like grape juice. What does the Bible say about wine and alcoholic beverages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wine was a staple in bible times. It was the beverage of choice in most cultures. Some sources say that ancient wine wasn\u2019t as strong as today, since they didn\u2019t use sugar or yeast which tend to increase the alcohol content. In addition, they often mixed water with wine to further reduce the alcohol\u2019s effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, people could and did get drunk from their wine and other strong drink in those days. The Bible has a lot to say about wine, mainly as a sign of blessing from God along with olive oil. Psalm 104:14-15 says: “He causes grass to grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, producing food from the earth, wine that makes human hearts glad\u2014making his face shine with oil\u2014and bread that sustains human hearts.” The parable of the Good Samaritan describes oil and wine as having medicinal value. However, we know that wine could be abused, just as alcohol is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Torah (law) described drink offerings of wine, but also prohibited the priests from drinking wine or beer when entering the tent of meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first recorded instance of alcohol abuse was in Genesis 9 when Noah got drunk after the flood. The second was in Genesis 19 when Lot\u2019s daughters got him drunk so that they could sleep with him and have children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Proverbs mention wine, such as 20:1, wine is a mocker, beer is a brawler; whoever goes astray because of them is not wise. Proverbs 23:29-35 is a vivid description of someone falling into a drunken stupor. Phrases like \u201clinger over wine\u201d, \u201cseeing strange things and saying absurd things\u201d, \u201cnot feeling any pain\u201d describe the experience. The author closes with the addictive question, \u201cwhen will I wake up? I\u2019ll get another drink\u201d. This may have been Solomon\u2019s description of his own experience since he seems to have sampled everything in life (see Ecclesiastes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaiah mentions wine no less than 25 times, several of them describing the effects of too much wine and beer. He included colorful language like “staggering, stumbling, heroes at drinking wine, being overcome,” and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John recorded Jesus\u2019 first miracle in chapter 2, turning water into wine. In fact, the steward implied that people were overindulging. He said, “everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people have drunk freely, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Luke 7:33-34, Jesus said \u201cFor John the Baptist did not come eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, \u2018He has a demon!\u2019 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, \u2018Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s very clear that Jesus and his disciples drank wine. In fact, his opponents accused him of being a drunkard, which implies he wasn\u2019t just drinking unfermented grape juice! Jesus was neither a drunkard nor a glutton, but it\u2019s clear that unlike John the Baptist, he did drink wine. John was likely a Nazarite, (see Numbers 6:1-3 and Luke 1:15) which would have prohibited him from drinking any wine or strong drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ephesians 5 :18 – Don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled with the Spirit.<\/em> We can summarize the biblical perspective very simply. Drinking alcohol in moderation is permissible but drinking too much, especially getting drunk and losing control, is not. However, those who feel free to drink should be sensitive to those who don\u2019t. We know a lot more about alcoholism today, which makes Paul\u2019s point in Romans 14 even stronger. In order to \u201clove our neighbor as ourselves\u201d <\/em>in this area, those who drink in moderation should NOT do so, or even mention that they do, in the presence of those who don\u2019t drink for whatever reason, either from past abuse or a conviction that they are called to abstain. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many believers and churches today believe that drinking alcoholic beverages is a no-no for them. Some have said that biblical wine was more like grape juice. What does the Bible say about wine and alcoholic beverages? Wine in Bible Times Wine was a staple in bible times. It was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45],"tags":[30,32,29,31],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theology-traditions","tag-alcohol","tag-beer","tag-drinking-in-the-bible","tag-wine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/searchingscripture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/drinking.jpg?fit=264%2C148&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3812,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/3812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchingscripture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
1 Tim 3:8-9 – Deacons, likewise, should be worthy of respect, not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
<\/em>
1 Timothy 5:23 – (to Timothy), \u201cDon\u2019t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.\u201d<\/em>
Paul tells Timothy, \u201cuse a little wine<\/strong>\u201d, while deacons should not drink \u201ca<\/strong> lot of wine<\/strong>\u201d, and no one should \u201cget drunk with wine\u201d.<\/strong>
One more point that Paul makes in Romans 14:21-22, It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nBottom Line<\/h3>\n\n\n\n