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NASB | Matthew 26:29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 26:29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." |
Subject: What is 'the fruit of the vine'? |
Bible Note: Tim: You wrote: "1) There is no explicit command either way. But, there are many passages, besides the drunkness ones, which paint a very negative picture of wine. And, there are groups of people in the Old Testament who were expressly forbidden to drink wine. Why?" That is a good question, but also points to another one: why were only SOME (like the Nazirites described in Numbers 6) expressly forbidden to abstain from wine and everything associated with it? It is at its heart an argument from silence, I suppose, but it seems that this prohibition would be superfluous if it applied to all of God's covenant people. After all, there was no command given to the Nazirite to refrain from adultery or what to do on feast days or the Sabbath, because that had already been given in the Mosaic covenant. Therefore, the "total abstention" clause in the Nazirite vow would seem to be limited to the person in question, just like the prohibition on getting a haircut. I don't know why Timothy was reluctant to drink wine. Perhaps he was a fan of Pepsi. And Jesus could have saved a lot of us a lot of time on a lot of issues by saying things differently. One thing I wish he had expressly said would be, "Thou shalt (or shalt not) baptize infants of believers." However, who am I to question the wisdom of God the Son? Even if he had expressly spoken using the words "alcoholic (or non-alcoholic) beverage," I am sure that we the church would have found a way to still argue over it. :) --Joe! |