Wine has been a household staple since the days of Noah and likely long before his days as well. Because some Biblical characters (including Noah) abused wine while others drank it in moderation, especially to celebrate special occasions, the Bible both commends (Psalm 104:15; Isaiah 65:8; John 2:1ff) and condemns (e.g. Genesis 9:21ff; Isaiah 28:7.; Joel 1:5-6; Micah 2:11) the use of wine. However, wine was used in the Old Testament in the worship of God (as a drink offering) and the very first recorded miracle that Jesus performed involved turning water into wine. In communion, wine also signifies the blood of Christ poured out for us as atonement for our sins
Wine has throughout the Middle Ages been considered a healthy drink. Long before the days of Louis Pasteur who is known for his research on fermentation and vaccinations, people noticed that those who drank wine were somewhat less likely to become ill than those who did not. We know today the antiseptic qualities of the alcohol. However, there is no documented evidence that people in those days understood why wine appeared to promote healthy living.
Wine comes from grapes, though today we have other types of wine (e.g. dandelion wine.) In the Old and New Testament days, people used grape juice plain, but also diluted. According to R.A. Baker, Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History, a 3:1 dilution of water to wine would produce a beverage with an alcoholic content similar to a beer today. Undiluted, the alcoholic content would be much greater, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Jews, Gentiles, and Christians alike (Ephesians 5:18.) And there were numerous variables that determined how potent wine might be. Dr. Baker points out that women and children in Biblical times were generally forbidden to drink wine, having to content themselves with grape juice. Much of the ancients’ concern as far as wine production went was to keep the beverage from spoiling, specifically from turning into vinegar as a consequence of too much fermentation. This fermentation, or the production of wine into an alcoholic beverage required the use of yeasts (some types of which were found on the grapes themselves.)
There is no general consensus on what Jesus means in Matthew 9:16, 17. Consequently, there are several contending and perhaps equally plausible explanations to what we read in verse 17:
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.
“Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Fermentation
Marvin Vincent in his Word Studies of the New Testament sees in this passage a contrast between the free lifestyle Jesus and His disciples were leading and the ascetic lifestyle of John the Baptist and his disciples. These contrasting ways of life were drastically different and essentially incompatible. Writes Vincent of the garment example and the patch: “Jesus . . . pictures the combination of the old form of piety peculiar to John and his disciples with the new religious life emanating from Himself . . .” The wineskins (which were most often bottles made from leather) might very well represent people, specifically new believers, and the parable might suggest that a fundamental change must take place in a person (e.g., abandoning his or her old ways) if he or she is to successfully withstand being filled with a solution (Spirit) that is dynamically changing that person daily through the process of fermentation—a activity that is expansive in nature, enough to rupture ill-suited wineskins. Perhaps this also ties into Romans 12:2 and discussions in I Corinthians and elsewhere of the old nature versus new nature. If the new wine does represent the Holy Spirit as some believe and the old wine skin represents a person who is unyielding and comfortable in their sins, essentially in their old ways, then this may be a recipe for disaster and evidence that true regeneration may not be taking place.
Wine as symbolic of the Holy Spirit
Another reason to see the new wine as symbolic of the Holy Spirit, may be based on Acts 2:13 where on Pentecost the disciples who were filled with the Spirit were accused of having imbibed new wine. Some commentators who hold with this interpretation say that the expansive qualities of the new wine explain how the Spirit works during (for instance) times of revival. A parallel account of the passage in Matthew is found I Luke 5:36-39 and Luke adds the comment “No man having drunk old wine straightaway desireth new, for he saith ‘The old is better.’” Jesus is not personally saying the new wine is inferior to the old, but rather he is reporting what some people might remark about it. Those who see the new wine as symbolic of the Holy Spirit Who moves during revivals would see the person in Luke who prefers the old wine as someone who resists genuine revival and whatever change or reform follows the revival, preferring instead the predictable status quo ante. Or, because vintage wine is so much more sensual than new wine, it may represent the “world, the flesh, and the devil,” which some people have trouble abandoning.
Earthen vessels
There is another possibility, one that came to me as I was researching this blog and reading an article by D.T. Lancaster called New Wine and Old Wineskins. In the Jewish commentaries (the Talmud) there was a rabbi named Yehoshua ben Chananiah who stored his Torah in jars of clay, as well as encasing his wine in clay bottles. When the daughter of an Emperor seemed shocked that things so valuable as the Torah and fine wine were stored in common vessels instead of gold and silver receptacles, she placed a quantity of wine in such expensive receptacles (thinking that the quality of the containers should match the worth of the contents.) However, she found that the wine stored in gold and silver containers spoiled. When I read that, I was reminded of a comment Paul wrote in II Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” Clearly, Paul intends the earthen vessels to represent believers (as in Romans 9:20 ff.), and then the power that he references might be indeed the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives. The term “earthen vessels” likely refers to the fact that we are formed from dust.
And speaking of grapes . . .
Squeezed between a rock and a hard place
In Matthew 24:21 Jesus notes in the last days there will be a tribulation “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time . . .” The used for “tribulation” in this passage is thlibo and is commonly translated as “affliction” and “tribulation” when it appears in Scripture.
The word used by the New Testament writers to indicate affliction and/or tribulation is a word commonly used in Biblical days to describe the process by which juice was squeezed out of grapes in the process of making wine. In fact, thlibo refers to “pressure,” being “squashed,” or “hemmed in” as in the case of Mark 3:9 where Jesus was concerned that the crowd might “press upon him.” as the word is translated in that passage. In other cases, the word may mean “rub” or “chaff.”
Look at the wine press o the right. Imagine being a grape (or apple or orange) and feeling squeezed as the top of the press forces you against the floor at the bottom. A regular medieval torture device, like thumbscrews. Ever felt squeezed by debt? An affair? Sin? A problem in life with no good choice? That’s tribulation (and possibly the basis for a coronary down the road.)
Thlibo also has a medical application when used to describe the pressure of a pulse and finally it can also be used to describe a “kiss.”
The image of the word used in ancient writings by Greek and Roman authors such as Homer and Plutarch is that of being embattled, surrounded, or squeezed. Trench speaks of the punishments used in early Britain when an accused would have great stones placed on his chest until he suffocated. In latter times in Europe, special chambers were used where a confined person of normal size could neither stand, lie down, nor properly sit. Both examples suggest alternative meanings of thlibo although the second example draws from a synonym in Greek, the word stenochoria (used only four times in the New Testament and three of those times in the same verse as thlibo.) In fact,the first few letters of this synonym stenochoria also have a medical application (e.g., “stenosis,” which refers to a narrowing of an artery or other condition, such as pyloric stenosis, a problem affecting the upper gastrointestinal tract of some infants in which food cannot pass.)
The exact meaning of the word thlibo in any given passage of Scripture depends on other factors including grammar, the context of what the writer is saying, and the presence of modifying words within the verse.
Today, Christians living on fixed or meager incomes and facing rising medical costs, paying more for fuel, and just trying to not run out of money before the next payday (if they even have a job) can appreciate the “squeezing” or “pressure” implied by thlibo. Our culture with its ungodly values are evident whenever we turn on the television. Our democratic political system which is becoming increasingly dysfunctional (as Plato almost 2,500 years ago warned a democracy would be destined so to devolve), our dwindling resources, and our society itself seems to “press” us from all sides. Indeed, Christianity itself seems on the wane in many parts of the U.S., in post-modern Europe as well as in the third world where Islam is on the rise. Yet when the word is used in the New Testament, there is always the reminder that God is very near to us, and that those who trust in Him will find relief.
hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxo-_SrV1q4
1 Thought to refer to the plant species Artemisia,
Banner photo credit igorr1 (ISock.)
