Since Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1-11), can Christians drink wine?

Whenever we read of “wine” in the Bible, we assume it to always be alcoholic in nature because that’s how it is today.  This is why some assume the master of the wedding feast at which Jesus turned water into wine was saying the guests were already drunk by the time Jesus had made the “good wine” (John 2:10).  The “good wine” is assumed to refer to wine which is “best for getting smashed” because the master of the feast said the guests were already “well drunk.”  Such was not the case, however.

For one thing, “good” (kalos) actually means “beautiful, excellent,” and thus refers to the wine’s taste and appearance, not its supposed intoxicating qualities.  For another, “well drunk” (methuo) could indeed mean “to drink to intoxication,” but it could also mean “drink well” (Strong).  That last definition refers to the quantity of drinking without necessarily requiring the drink to be intoxicating, according to lexicographers Liddel, Scott, and Bloomfield.  This is why some translations have John 2:10 saying “drunk freely” instead of “well drunk.”

More importantly, “wine” in the Bible (most commonly yayin in Hebrew and oinos in Greek) could in biblical times refer to not only an alcoholic beverage (Gen. 9:21; Prov. 20:1), but the same words would also be used to describe:

• Clusters of grapes which were just gathered (Jer. 40:10)
• Freshly trodden grapes, i.e., freshly squeezed grape juice (Is. 16:10)
• The grapevine itself (Num. 6:4)

With that in mind, consider this.  Six jars were filled with about 20-30 gallons of water, all of which was then miraculously turned into wine by our Lord (John 2:6-8).  If the “wine” in question was not freshly squeezed grape juice (Is. 16:10), but was instead intoxicating in nature (Prov. 20:1)…

…then Jesus miraculously made at least 120 gallons of an alcoholic beverage for His literal neighbors (considering that Cana was a few miles down the road from Nazareth).  By doing so, the sinless Son of God would have committed sin by violating Habakkuk 2:15:  “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk…”

Jesus is the Word which is God (John 1:1, 14).  The Holy Spirit who inspired the writers of Scripture (2 Pet. 1:20-21) in turn got His message from Jesus, the Word (John 16:12-15).  That means that the writer of Proverbs was inspired by the Holy Spirit who in turn got His message from Christ, which means that ultimately it was Christ who directed the writer of Proverbs to describe wine and strong drink as a “mocker” and “brawler,” telling the reader “whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Prov. 20:1).  It was ultimately Christ who directed the writer of Proverbs to command the reader to not even look at intoxicating wine while giving many serious warnings about the consequences of imbibing it (Prov. 23:29-35).

That being the case, why would the Son of God make 120 gallons of an intoxicating beverage and give it to people whose souls He wanted to save?

In reality, Jesus made the kind of “wine” described in Isaiah 16:10: freshly squeezed grape juice.  He did not make the kind of wine described in Proverbs 20:1 and 23:29-35: an intoxicating, alcoholic beverage.

This is in keeping with the Spirit-inspired directives he later gave to the apostles for Christians to be “sober” (nepho, abstain from wine, be free from the influence of intoxicants) in 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 and 1 Peter 5:8, and to not “get drunk” (methusko, to begin to be softened, to moisten or to be moistened with liquor) in Ephesians 5:18.  The literal meanings of the Greek words in both of these divinely-inspired directives prohibit Christians from even starting the process of getting drunk, which would naturally prohibit all social drinking.