They called Jesus a winebibber because He drank wine! Why else would anyone say such a thing? Like many have said here everyone back then (except those who took vows otherwise) drank wine because it was the only beverage that would not spoil!
Charles, it’s not true that wine was the only beverage that would not spoil. I’ve read where ancient peoples had several methods of preserving fruits and juices. Some of the classic Roman writers lay out those methods in their agricultural writings. They new how to preserve grape juice to keep it from fermenting through filtering and pasteurization. Welches does the same thing today.
Your argument with "oinos" only shows that it WAS wine that Jesus drank
Charles, when we use the word “cider” today, it can refer to fermented or unfermented juice. It’s a fact that the Bible uses the word “oinos” , or it’s Hebrew equivalent “yayin” to refer to both the juice while it’s still in the cluster and to the wine after it’s fermented. It’s like many other words in the Bible, whose true meaning has to be determined by how it’s used in context. Years ago in some of the older English dictionaries, wine was used in the same way that cider is today, refering to both fermented and unfermented.
My question to you is during the passover feast did Jesus and the deciples drink fermented wine or did they drink fresh grape juice containing leaven?
I think that boiling and filtering removes the abuminous subsatnces from the grape juice, preventing fermentation. I’m not sure the forbiden leaven applied to the juice anyway, didn’t it fefer to the “unleavened bread”? It was only a sympol, meaning to remove sin from our lives, wasn’t it?
I can't wait until the feast the Lord prepares for us (Isaiah 25:6) where the LORD of Hosts will prepare the best food and FINEST, WELL AGED WINE, and they say "but Lord, it's not for kings! What are you DOING?!?"
The term “well aged wine” is not in the original languages at all. No word is in the Hebrew for “well aged” and the Hebrew word for wine “yayin” is not there either. Instead, the word in the Hebrew translated “well aged wine” in modern translations, and “wine on the lees” KJV, is the word “shemer”. This means” something preserved”, or “the settlings. This is the definition given in Strongs dictionary. The settlings can refer to the fresh grape produce after the juice has been trodded and pressed out of the grape, or it can refer to the “dregs” settled to the bottom when making wine. Raisins, syrups, and jellies were made from the fresh produce, and the juice was filtered and preserved. Dregs were of course spoiled and discarded from the bottom of the wine container, being unfit for consumption. The question is, Is that feast given by the Lord going to consist of fresh juice, grapes, syrups, and jellies, or alcoholic wine with it’s “dregs”. Alcoholic wine was often mentioned by the Old Testament prophets as something the Lord would give as punishment to disobedient Israel, straight down to the dregs.
I know people see and interpret the Bible differently, but the reason I take the position I do is that I can’t see Jesus being any less discreet than any worldly steward or bridegroom, who presumably witholds the more intoxicating wine towards the end of the wedding in order to prevent drunkenness. Didn’t our Lord teach us that we are in fact “our brother’s keeper”, and that we should be careful not to be the cause of our fellow man stumbling into sin? How can we believe that He would provide the temptation for someone to sin, as would be the case for some interpretations of the wedding at Cana?