Oinos: Yes, It Actually Means "Wine"

There are some in the evangelical world who are under the self-imposed delusion that the “wine” that was drunk in the NT by Jesus and the rest of the early Church was not really wine but either “grape juice” or “wine mixed with water”. This complete false notion helps them (they believe) to harmonize the New Testament teachings on alcohol consumption with their own personal preferences.

This is a totally incorrect and completely false idea without ANY shred of evidence. Conservative evangelical scholarship is in complete agreement that the wine that was drunk by the Son of God and the early NT Church is the same as that which is made today.

While no serious NT scholar takes the “grape juice” or “wine mixed with water” claim seriously, the recent burst of “tee-total or ta-ta” expressionism in the SBC has lead many believers to swarm the conservative scholarly world in order to find some one, somewhere, and sometime who can justify their own personal preferences on how believers should behave against the revealed truth in Scripture.

In fact, much of the recent articles I have read about this issue from popular pastors makes one wonder the state of SBC leadership and its Scriptural cognizance. How can such men and women with such doctorates make such ludicrous and glaring mistakes? Now, I have met pastors with doctorates who have told me the most ludicrous explanation of why they believe there was no alcohol in the “wine” that Jesus drank, but these doctoral pastors were not writing for the general public and making a case on the pages of the BP. What excuse does a doctorate have when such a mistake is made? He or she is either ignorant or disingenuous.

So let me say this for all to read and research concerning the Greek word oinos.

1) Oinos does not mean “grape juice” or “wine mixed with water”. It just doesn’t. Look it up in any Greek-English dictionary. It means “wine” just like the English word “wine” means oinos.

2) There is a Greek word that means “unfermented grape juice”, and that word is trux. That word does not used anywhere in the NT, nowhere. If the NT writers had meant “unfermented grape juice” they would have used trux but they did not. When we in English mean “wine”, we say “wine”. When those in the NT meant “wine”, they used oinos. When we in English mean “grape juice”, we say “grape juice”. When those in the NT meant “grape juice”, they usedtrux. There is absolutely zero evidence anywhere in reality that oinos means “grape juice” or “wine mixed with water”.

3) The Hebrew word for “wine”, yayin, certainly doesn’t mean “grape juice” or “wine mixed with water”.

4) Even if in some parallel universe there is a reality where oinos means “grape juice”, why would NT writers warn people not to drink too much of it? If it was only “grape juice” then there would be no fear of getting drunk. The command would be pointless. It would be like them saying do not drink to much water because you might get drunk.

5) The same is true with “wine mixed with water”. Even if in some parallel universe there is a reality where oinos means “wine mixed with water”, then it would still be something could be abused to drunkenness. If one could not abuse the “wine mixed with water” and could not get drunk then the NT warning would be pointless.

6) But let us assume for the moment that the God-Man and NT Church did drink “wine mixed with water”. What then is the NT teaching on alcohol? “You can drink alcohol but only if you put a lot of water in it and not drink too much so you get drunk.” Even then, one ends up back at the plain, literal, inerrant, sufficient teachings of Scripture on alcohol: “Drink alcohol but do so in moderation and do not get drunk,” which is the point that those of us who actually disagree with alcohol abstinence have been arguing all along.

No matter how one looks at this issue (if you actually believe the Scriptural teachings), the Scriptures say that a believer most certainly can drink alcohol.

So will you people who call yourselves conservative evangelical Christians please actually read the Bible and abide by its teachings instead of preferring your own version of what God wants.