Food & Wine for Thought

“Did Jesus turn the water into alcoholic wine?” One of the arguments, which I’ve heard throughout my life, against the drinking of wine and other alcoholic beverages is that the word which we read in our Bibles translated into English as “wine” can actually mean grape juice. I.e., “wine” does not necessarily refer to something fermented, but it can also refer to the juice which has just been created. While I have yet to study the claim of this argument or to study this word in the original language (“oίνoς”, pronounced oy’-nos, as the Greek would have it), I still have some fundamental questions even about this argument.

First of all, I assume that it can be safely said that the translators of the Holy Scriptures generally fell into one of the four following categories:
...Christian, Wine-Drinker...........Non-Christian, Wine-Drinker
...Christian, Non-Wine-Drinker.....Non-Christian, Non-Wine-Drinker

If they fell into either of the two categories on the right-side of the above array, that is, if the translators of our English Bible were not Christians, then does this not raise some very serious issues concerning our convictions about the infallibility and authority of the Scriptures? So let’s assume for now, for the sake of argument (without yet researching the translation parameters), that they were Christian.

They then were either drinkers of alcoholic wine or abstainers from such. If they were abstainers from wine, and if they were thus because of religious conviction, and if the word in the original language could have been translated as something other than wine (this is a big “if,” since it would also be helpful in this argument to know if it was common in the language and era of the translators to refer to “grape juice” as “wine”), then why did they still translate it as wine? I.e., if the context of the Scriptural passage was likely referring to non-fermented grape juice, then why didn’t the translators clarify that (unless the King James language was not referring to any fruit beverage as anything other than wine), especially if they themselves were convinced of the inappropriateness of drinking wine?

Otherwise, if they were Christians who enjoyed their liberties in Christ including the enjoyment of their wine, then it is understandable why they had no problem translating the many references to wine as they did.

* * * * * *

– Why do the Scriptures appear to be speaking of wine?
– Why was Christ accused of being a “winebibber” (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34)? Did the “men of [Christ’s] generation” really have a problem with His drinking grape juice?
– Why have Christians in the past drunk wine, why do Christians today enjoy wine without becoming controlled by it, … especially if it is easily or feasibly arguable that Scripture should likely be referring to grape juice?

What has changed throughout church history? and why? How have these changes come about? Are they justified? – We need to know the Scriptures, and we need to know our history.