The wine that Jesus made. The "it was grape juice" argument is an argument without any merit.
The Greek word translated "wine" is (οινος, οινουo, οινω) oinos, which was the common Greek word for normal wine, wine that was fermented/alcoholic.
The Greek word for the wine Jesus created is the same word for the wine the wedding feast ran out of.
The Greek word for the wine Jesus created is also the same word that is used in Ephesians 5:18, "...do not get drunk on wine..." Obviously, getting drunk from drinking wine requires the presence of alcohol.
Everything, from the context of a wedding feast, to the usage of oinos in 1st century Greek literature (in the New Testament and outside the New Testament), argues for the wine that Jesus created to be normal, ordinary wine, containing alcohol.
There is simply no solid historical, cultural, exegetical, contextual, or lexical reason to understand it to have been grape juice.
There are thirteen original Hebrew and Greek words for "wine" in our English Bible. How can we know which one means fermented wine? To find the answer, do not go to Aristotle or Pliny, but go to the Bible itself. By comparing its usage, the scriptural meaning of wine can be defined.
One of the original Hebrew words for wine is "yayin." This word is first used in Genesis 9:21 where Noah "drank of the wine and was drunken." This wine caused drunkenness! Was it just grape juice? Uh, no!
In Genesis 14:18 we read of Melchizedek – a type of Jesus Christ, or possibly even a Christophany – who "brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God." God Himself, in the person of Melchizedek, gave wine to Abraham. And again, the original Hebrew word was "yayin" which always means fermented wine. This same Hebrew word is used in Amos 9:14 speaking of the coming Millennium where the people will "plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof." They will drink the same kind of wine that Noah drank and became drunk by overindulgence.
In the New Testament, one original Greek word for wine is oinos. Proof that it is alcoholic is given in the story of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan poured oil and wine on the man’s wounds (Luke 10:34), showing that the wine had enough alcoholic content to be used as an antiseptic. Would you pour grape juice on a wound? Only if you wanted a massive infection.
The Greek word oinos is also used in John 2 where Jesus turned water into wine by a divine miracle. It is used in 1 Timothy 5:23, the command of Paul, "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities." This Greek word is also used in Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess."
If God wanted to say "grape juice" He would have done so, just as He did in Acts 2:13 "Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine."
The words "new wine" are translated from the Greek word γλευκους (gleukos).
God is not an idiot. Had He wanted to say "grape juice" he would have said "grape juice" (γλευκους), but He didn't. He said (οινος) fermented, alcoholic wine, just like Paul cautioned about in Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine . . . " (οινω).
Wow. So much of this is just simple assumption, there are biblical examples where the word yayin refers to grape juice, you stating that it is always fermented is just simply not true. So yes we can go to the bible itself to prove that words in the bible translated wine do not always mean alcohol.
you mentioned that gleukos means grape juice... so are you leading us to believe that they thought the apostles were full of grape juice? ironic because Strong even give a definition for gleukos that says "but used of the more saccharine (and therefore highly inebriating) fermented wine...
Even gleukos can obviously mean alcohol from the very verse you posted, why is it so hard for you to admit that the word oinos might also have the option of being fermented or unfermented.
Just because you post examples in the NT and the O.T. where Yayin and Oinos is used to refer to alcoholic drink, that does not prove that every time those words are used that they are alcoholic. There are passages that use the word Yayin that are obviously not alcoholic, and the word oinos in the seputagint is used to translate yayin.
As to others talking about how wine cheers the heart of man, I can tell you something I went to wallmart a while ago and bought some 100 percent juice from welches, and it was the 100 percent stuff, not the syrup concentrate with added water, and I tell you it cheered my heart because the quality of the juice was way better, it ruined the normal welch's juice for me.
There are just so many assumptions made about these words and really all you are doing is building a strawman and beating it down, I do not claim that yayin or oinos only means unfermented juice, so you can post examples where those words are alcohol and all you are doing is beating down your own strawman that you have set up.
How about showing us in Isaiah 16:10:
10 And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
Are we to believe that alcoholic wine is what comes straight out of the press?
or how about here?
Nehemiah 13:15 In those days saw I in Judah
some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all
manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified
against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.
1 Chronicles 31:
5 And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all
things brought they in abundantly.
