The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-09-25
THE WINE OF THE BIBLE.

The yagueSt and most useless
kind of a discussion has been car
ried on for several weeks in the
local press about the qualities of
the wine mentioned in the Bible.
The writer's are arrayed in two
camps; and the question at issue is
whether the wine spoken of in
Holy Scripture is the fermented
or the unfermented juice of the
grape. The opponents seem to be
fairly well matched, at least as far
las the marshalling of arguments
more or less irrelevant is con-
cerned. The tiresome reiteration
of platitudes, the illogical deduc-
tons from false premises, the I'M
warranted assumptions and far
fetched analogies, the setting up
of personal opinion against his
torical fact tend to make the read
ing of these letters wearisome in
the extreme and unproductive of
any good.
One would think that the ques-
ton was an important one and
that momentous consequences
hinged upon the solution Of it.
As a matter Of fact, it is one which
Biblical commentators do not dis
cuss at all. 1t is a settled ques-
ton among Scripture scholars and
historians that the wine spoken of
in the Old and the New Tesla
ments is what is ordinarily meant
by wine in our day-the fermented
juice of the grape. That the wine
into which Our Lord changed
water at the marriage feast of
Cana in Galilee was a fermented
beverage is evident from the state
ment made by the chief steward
to the bridegroom: "Thou hast
kept the good wine until now. 2
Furthermore, what reason is there
for believing that the little wine
for thy stomach s sake" which
st. Paul prescribed for Timothy
was unfermented grape juice
None whatever.
The admission freely made in
the Bible that Christ changed
water into wine does not in any
way initiate against His charac-
ter or mission, even though we
hold, as we should do, that it was
the fermepted juice Of the grape.
1t has nothing at all to do with
the liquor question of the present
day, all statements of modern
prohibitionists and irrational total
abstainers to the contrary not
withstanding.
Apart from the merits Of the
case, this discussion is based upon
the false assumption that the use
Of wine and spurious liquors of
any kind is sinful in itself, that it
is morally wrong to drink alco-
holic beverages or offer them for
sale. Insistence upon this absurd
ity has done more to bring the
prohibition movement into disre-
pute than anything else. It is one
of the reasons why Catholics, no
matter how anxious they may be
to see the legalized saloon put out
of business, cannot ally themselves
with the radical leaders of move
ments which have for object the
wiping out of the liquor traffic.
The Catholic Church does not
teach and never has taught that
drinking and saloon keeping are
i'll themselves morally wrong.
The Catholic total abstinence
movement which has done so much
for the promotion of sobriety in
this country by enrolling under
it's banner tens of thousands of
men and women who pledge them
selves not to taste, touch or handle
intoxicants of any kind, asserts
that liquor drinking or liquor sell
ing is not in itself opposed to the
noral law and, therefore, not sin
full. 1t bases its arguments for to-
tai abstinence upon the ever
present danger of abuse which
is associated with the drink
ling customs of our times and also
upon the spiritual necessity of a
Christian self-denial like that In
culcated by st. Paul when he said
It is good not to eat flesh, and
not to drink wine, nor anything
whereby they brother is offended,
or scandalized, or made weak =
1t inculcates by word and example
personal total abstinence from in
toxicating drinks as a heroic form
of self denial which the individual
is able to put into practice with
the aid of divine grace.
The Catholic total abstinence
movement deals with the indi-
vidual directly and with society
only indirectly, in as far as it is
made up of individual units. The
opposition it engenders and fos-
tiers against the saloon is not due
to a belief that drinking or saloon
keeping is, in itself, sinful, but
to the deleterious influence Of the
saloon-fed liquor traffic upon the
physical, social and religious vel
foro of thoco x.,bo INDULGE x,1vor,