Originally posted by New-born baby
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Lye,
I would agree that it isn't added water that would make wine taste so good. Watered down Coca-Cola isn't any better tasting, but actually much worse. But I would question your statement that the alcohol content of wine today is equivalent to that of 2000 years ago. Have you any proof you can offer?
But let's say you are correct that alcohol content of today's wine is equivalent to the alcohol content of 2000 years ago. They still "mixed the wine" as both the Scripture and extant literature points out. Therefore the wine, when it was consumed 2000 years ago, was much weaker than the way we consume it today. Comprende, amigo? Here is a quote (and the link from which it came)
"The June 20, 1975, issue of Christianity Today contained an interesting article by Robert H. Stein: "Wine-Drinking In New Testament Times." He observes that the wine used in ancient times was mixed with water in ratios of up to four parts water to one part wine. Mr. Stein explains:
In the Talmud, which contains the oral traditions of Judaism from about 200 BC to AD 200, there are several tractates in which the mixture of water and wine is discussed. One tractate (Shabbath 77a) states that wine that does not carry three parts water is not wine. The normal mixture is said to consist of two parts water to one part wine. In a most important reference (Pesahim 108b) it is stated that the four cups every Jew was to drink during the Passover ritual were to be mixed in a ratio of three parts water to one part wine. From this we can conclude with a fair degree of certainty that the fruit of the vine used at the institution of the Lord's Supper was a mixture of three parts water to one part wine. In another Jewish reference from around 60 BC, we read, "It is harmful to drink wine alone, or again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one's enjoyment" (II Maccabees 15:39)".
Here's the link for that quote: http://www.rbc.org/bible_study/answe...ers/30797.aspx
Here is a quote (and the link it came from) that tells you that wine was the strongest drink in the ancient world, and lower alcoholic content than today's wines.
"Distillation was unknown in the ancient world (and would not be discovered until the early middle ages); wine, therefore, was the strongest drink of the Romans. Falernian was full-bodied (firmissima), with an alcohol content as much as fifteen or sixteen percent (at which point the yeast is killed by the alcohol it produces). A white wine, it was aged for ten to twenty years, until it was the color of amber (Pliny, XXXVII.12)".
Here's the link it came out of: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/wine.html
I would agree that it isn't added water that would make wine taste so good. Watered down Coca-Cola isn't any better tasting, but actually much worse. But I would question your statement that the alcohol content of wine today is equivalent to that of 2000 years ago. Have you any proof you can offer?
But let's say you are correct that alcohol content of today's wine is equivalent to the alcohol content of 2000 years ago. They still "mixed the wine" as both the Scripture and extant literature points out. Therefore the wine, when it was consumed 2000 years ago, was much weaker than the way we consume it today. Comprende, amigo?
Here is a quote (and the link from which it came)"The June 20, 1975, issue of Christianity Today contained an interesting article by Robert H. Stein: "Wine-Drinking In New Testament Times." He observes that the wine used in ancient times was mixed with water in ratios of up to four parts water to one part wine. Mr. Stein explains:
In the Talmud, which contains the oral traditions of Judaism from about 200 BC to AD 200, there are several tractates in which the mixture of water and wine is discussed. One tractate (Shabbath 77a) states that wine that does not carry three parts water is not wine. The normal mixture is said to consist of two parts water to one part wine. In a most important reference (Pesahim 108b) it is stated that the four cups every Jew was to drink during the Passover ritual were to be mixed in a ratio of three parts water to one part wine. From this we can conclude with a fair degree of certainty that the fruit of the vine used at the institution of the Lord's Supper was a mixture of three parts water to one part wine. In another Jewish reference from around 60 BC, we read, "It is harmful to drink wine alone, or again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one's enjoyment" (II Maccabees 15:39)".
Here's the link for that quote: http://www.rbc.org/bible_study/answe...ers/30797.aspx
Here is a quote (and the link it came from) that tells you that wine was the strongest drink in the ancient world, and lower alcoholic content than today's wines.
"Distillation was unknown in the ancient world (and would not be discovered until the early middle ages); wine, therefore, was the strongest drink of the Romans. Falernian was full-bodied (firmissima), with an alcohol content as much as fifteen or sixteen percent (at which point the yeast is killed by the alcohol it produces). A white wine, it was aged for ten to twenty years, until it was the color of amber (Pliny, XXXVII.12)".
Here's the link it came out of: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/wine.html
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