Our Baptist church is considering the elimination of the statement in the church covenant that states, \u201cdo not use or sell any alcoholic beverage\u201d. Obviously, this is to condone moderate drinking.\u00a0 The basis for this is Romans 14:21.\u00a0 The pastor has a lexicon that shows all wine as written in the Bible means fermented.\u00a0 Would you have Greek and Hebrew lexicons that state there is more than one meaning for oinos<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0yayin<\/em>.<\/p>\n What\u00a0you have presented<\/a>\u00a0on the Internet has been very informative.<\/p>\n\t The best book on the subject is\u00a0Bible Wines<\/em>\u00a0by William Patton. Though written in 1871, it is probably the clearest and most detailed treatment on this subject. It is still being published.<\/p>\n My arguments in “Old Testament Beverages<\/a>” and “New Testament Beverages<\/a>” are based on the actual usage of the words in the context of the passages as well as in other ancient writings. These are more accurate than relying on biased writings of people wanting to prove that recreational use of alcohol is or is not approved of in the Bible.<\/p>\n In\u00a0The Complete Biblical Library<\/em>, under\u00a0oinos<\/em>, it states:<\/p>\n “It is important to note that the Hebrew word\u00a0tirosh<\/em>, “grape juice, unfermented wine,” appearing 38 times in the Old Testament (Harris, “tirosh,”\u00a0Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament<\/em>, 2:969), is almost exclusively translated by\u00a0oinos<\/em>\u00a0(36 times). In other words,\u00a0oinos<\/em>\u00a0can and does refer to unfermented and fermented wine in the Septuagint. … From the Septuagint usage noted above, the\u00a0oinos<\/em>\u00a0could be fermented or unfermented. Suffice it to say, the “better” wine of course does not in any way imply or demand a more alcoholic, or even an alcoholic, wine at all …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the\u00a0Encyclopaedia Judiaca<\/em>, 1971, vol. 16, p. 538:<\/p>\n “The word \u201cyayin\u201d (O.T. wine) can refer to newly pressed (unfermented) wine.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Our Baptist church is considering the elimination of the statement in the church covenant that states, \u201cdo not use or sell any alcoholic beverage\u201d. Obviously, this is to condone moderate drinking.\u00a0 The basis for this is Romans 14:21.\u00a0 The pastor has a lexicon that shows all wine as written in the Bible means fermented.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[371,190],"class_list":["post-23592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-alcohol","tag-translation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14621,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-ran-into-an-argument-that-every-lexicon-defines-oinos-as-a-fermented-drink-do-you-have-sources-to-disprove-this\/","url_meta":{"origin":23592,"position":0},"title":"I ran into an argument that “every lexicon” defines oinos as a fermented drink. Do you have sources to disprove this?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I really appreciate the work you do as a Gospel preacher and a brother in Christ. I am in the process of studying the subject of moderate drinking with a brother in Christ, and also for myself. I have no doubt the Bible condemns it and I agree with\u00a0your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18504,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arent-the-translators-accurate-enough-so-we-dont-have-to-look-at-the-definitions-of-greek-words-for-alcohol\/","url_meta":{"origin":23592,"position":1},"title":"Aren’t the translators accurate enough so we don’t have to look at the definitions of Greek words for alcohol?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been studying about wine in the Bible. I am convinced that we should not be using fermented wine.\u00a0However, I was asked some questions for which I don't have a good answer. Why would the translators of the different versions of the Bible make a mistake when translating\u00a0oinos\u00a0with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18280,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-fermented-grape-juice-wine-be-used-in-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":23592,"position":2},"title":"Can fermented grape juice (wine) be used in the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please answer me with biblical texts the following questions or doubts I have: Which kind of wine (intoxicating fermented wine or non-fermented wine) should be used during Lord's Supper celebration? Can we commit sin by using fermented or alcoholic wine during the Lord's Supper celebration? It is alleged that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29620,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wine-has-not-always-implied-alcohol\/","url_meta":{"origin":23592,"position":3},"title":"“Wine” Has Not Always Implied Alcohol","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeff Belknap \"Wine Defined,\"\u00a0Sentry Magazine, December 2002 \"whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise\" (Proverbs 20:1). Today we have a serious problem in our society with drinking alcoholic beverages. Unfortunately, it even seems to be a perplexing issue in the body of Christ. There is a great deal of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27384,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wasnt-wine-used-during-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":23592,"position":4},"title":"Wasn’t wine used during the Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was thankful for the short piece on\u00a0Jesus not having long hair\u00a0and not being handsome. I wanted to correct you, though, in your interpretation of the commandment to observe Passover in Luke. It was wine, not grape juice. Nowhere can you find the Greek words written by Luke or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-timothy-a-nazirite\/","url_meta":{"origin":23592,"position":5},"title":"Was Timothy a Nazirite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Timothy a Nazirite? It appeared that he was reluctant to take the wine ( grape juice) so I know that if he was a Nazirite he would not take even grapes or grape juice for medicine. I was told that it had to be alcohol because he could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n