Did Christ drink alcohol during the Passover?

Posted on Lipiec 4th, 2024 in English

Pamiątka śmierci - wino

This is an interesting topic because it concerns the most important Christian holiday. Followers of the true Christ with the name Yeshu/Yesu participate in it.

This holiday is The Memorial of Christ’s Death. Christ ordered this holiday to be celebrated.

The basic rule we have is to celebrate this holiday with dignity:

„For as often as you eat this Bread and drink the Cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. So, then, whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the Bread and drink from the Cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.” – 1 Corinthians 11:26-29.

We have already written a lot about this holiday:

Today let’s explore the topic: is it possible to drink alcoholic wine at this celebration?

We know that moderate and controlled drinking is allowed:

https://zastopujczas.pl/biblia/english/alcohol-in-the-bible-is-drinking-allowed

Now let’s see if Christ drank alcohol?

The drink consumed at Christ’s last supper was compared to blood, it represented/identified the Blood of Christ. Human blood is red in color, ranging from light to dark in intensity.

„So Yeshu said to them, „Truly I tell you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day, because My Flesh is true food and My Blood is true drink. The one who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me, and I in Him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the Bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate — and they died. The one who eats this Bread will live forever.” – John 6:53-58.

The blood of Christ was compared to the fruit of the vine, to grapes:

“For this is My blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom.” – Matthew 26:28-29

We have a similar message in Mark 14:24-25 and in Luke 22:18.

We know we should drink grape wine. However, these verses do not give us an answer whether the wine was with alcohol or without alcohol.
So let’s take a look at the Old Testament and see what the Israelites drank during Passover.

Christ celebrated Passover with His disciples during the Last Supper:

“Then He said to them, „I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” – Luke 22:15.

What did the Israelites drink during Passover?

Let’s see what conditions the Israelis had for celebrating Passover.

The key prohibition is: „remove all leaven” and there’s a command for unleavened/unfermented bread:

“You must eat unleavened (4682) bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast (7603) from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened (2557) from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.” – Exodus 12:15.

“For seven days you must eat unleavened (4682) bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord. Unleavened (4682) bread is to be eaten for those seven days. Nothing leavened (2557) may be found among you, and no yeast (7603) may be found among you in all your territory.” – Exodus 13:6-7

“You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. They must take some of the lamb blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (4844).” – Exodus 12:6-8.

The word 4682 means:

biblehub.com
• unleavened bread,
• dough, without leaven,
• in the sense of greedily devouring sweets; properly/specifically, sweetness; specifically sweet (i.e. not sour and bitter with yeast);
• unfermented dough or loaf.
Unfermented bread contains: flour, water and salt.

The word 7603 means:

biblehub.com
• leaven,
• yeast bar or cake (swelling as a result of fermentation) – sourdough.

The word 2557 means:

biblehub.com
• sourdough, sourdough bread,
• ferment.

The Old Testament emphasizes unfermented, unleavened bread and for drinking: bitter herbs/bitter things. Now let us return to the New Testament.

What is the fruit of the vine?

In the Old Testament we have an example of drinking bitter herbs. In the New Testament, at the Last Supper, Christ prepared the fruit of the vine, generally called wine.
Wine is made from the fruit of the vine, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. We have the example of a wedding where Christ turned water into wine. The wedding guests got drunk with the first wine called „good”, so it was alcoholic.

Therefore, the expression „fruit of the vine” does not give us an answer as to its alcohol content:

„Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He gave it to them and said, „Drink from it, all of you. For this is My Blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine (288) from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom” – Matthew 26:27-29.

However, let us pay attention to the expression: „drink from it, all of you.”

Is this expression also addressed to young people, to former alcoholics, to people who do not drink alcohol, to people who have taken vows not to drink alcohol?
Please note that this is not an easy topic…

Summary

The Old Testament tells us that the Israelites were to remove the leaven and eat unfermented bread on Passover. They drank bitter herbs/bitter things.
The New Testament informs us that the Blood of the New Covenant is wine from the fruit of the vine. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic wine was made from these fruits.
Some researchers are inclined to the thesis that Christ could not drink alcohol, which is why grape juice was drunk at the Last Supper.

These are assumptions, opinions, but they are not Biblical facts. Nor is the Passover a holiday for us that we should completely copy into the Memorial of death. Christ partially changes the Memorial compared to the Passover: there is no lamb as a meal to eat and we do not have the drink: the fruit of the vine.
Since the New Testament is not clear on this issue, perhaps it is a matter of conscience, and the most important thing in the entire Memorial is to eat the bread and drink from the Cup worthily. This means taking good care of your body, spirit and soul all year round, and on this special day: to do it perfectly.

„Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.” – 1 Corinthians 5:7-11.

Author: Robert Brzoza

Translator: Hubert Brzoza