Wine & the Fruit of the Vine

"WINE & FRUIT OF THE VINE"

Subject HBS: "Wine & Fruit of the vine"

In the Gospel accounts, the Lord refers to the "fruit of the vine"- (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18). The Gospels do not refer to wine in the Lord's supper. What then does the "fruit of the vine" mean?. First of all, "fruit of the vine" was drunk out of a cup (Matthew 26:27). It was therefore liquid, and related to the fruit of the vine, a liquid from the fruit of the vine. Also, "fruit of the vine" must mean something more specific; it is not a vague, nondescript reference. But what exactly was the fruit of the vine?

In fact, a study in Jewish culture and practice reveals that "fruit of the vine" actually was a common way of referring to wine. For example, in the Berakhot 6:1 is says, "And sages say, 'Both over natural thick wine and over diluted wine that say, 'Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, creator of the fruit of the vine.' And they may was their hands with it." The rabbis were debating over what they may do with the wine after they blessed it. They thanked God for the wine by referring to it as the "fruit of the vine." Previously they instructed the people to bless the wine in this way: "...for over wine he say, fruit of the vine." Similarly, Rabbi Huna speaks of the same thing emphasizing "Creator of the fruit of the vine" which one recites 'over wine' 6:2). They also debated if one should recite the blessing after the meal and appetizer while drinking wine (6:5). In 6:6, there is further debate over the order of dinner wherein they recite the blessing over wine again. References to wine (and mixed wine) as being the fruit of the vine are abundant throughout.

The important reason for citing these Jewish references is that this, or something similar to this, was the context in which Jesus was and more importantly, this is about the only place where the phrase "fruit of the vine" is explained. References to the blessing over the wine were very common and these blessings referred to the wine as the "fruit of the vine." This seems to be the most reasonable explanation of the text while not doing any violence to any of the plain reading of it.

One thing is clear. Some form of WINE was used and not grape juice. More importantly, because the Corinthian Christians got drunk during the Lord's Supper :(11:21), and the references to the "Fruit of the vine" could only mean wine, we must conclude that is was certainly wine that was used in the New Testament.

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