Wine is no less fruit of the vine than grape juice or jelly. As soon as you crush a grape, enzymes quickly begin to change chemical structure. If you cook a fish; you've changed it's chemical structure; but it's still a fish.
The Nazarite Vow requires abstaining from all fruit of the vine, including wine.
Not sure how you understand what happens when an alcoholic drink has gone through the fermentation process. The yeast eats the sugars in the grapes and it poops out alcohol. While there may be remnant of the juice of the grape, it's molecular structure has changed to an extent whereby it would not make any sense any longer to call it “the fruit of the vine.”
Six Biblical Reasons Why Jesus's Miracle at Cana & the Lord's Supper Drink Was Unfermented Wine (Fresh Grape Juice):
If Jesus made alcoholic wine He would have broken Scripture in a number of places and he would have encouraged future generations of alcoholics to have the green light that it is okay to drink (Whereby they would slip back into drinking themselves to death). Anyways, here are 6 reasons in the Bible that make it absolutely clear that Jesus could not have made intoxicating wine or used such a beverage in the Lord's supper.
#1. Jesus's Pure Blood is likened to the Pure Wine that He made.
Jesus's blood washes away our sins. Scripture says the life of the flesh is in the blood. Jesus says He is the bread of life and that we are to eat of his flesh and blood. Jesus is life. However, alcohol is not a product of life but it is a picture or symbol of death because it is a byproduct of death and not life. This is why Christ made grape juice because it was a pure juice and it was worthy of reflecting his glory in Him being the perfect, sinless Son of God. "Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape."(
Deuteronomy 32:14).
#2. Woe unto him that gives his neighbor strong drink.
"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also," (
Habakkuk 2:15). If Jesus gave strong drink to his fellow neighbors here, he would be under the woe of
Habakkuk 2:15. This would not be a blessing for Jesus but it would be a curse if he were to disobey this part of Scripture.
#3. Jesus is a King (And wine is not for kings).
Jesus is a king and Jesus would not have ignored his own sage advice or wisdom within His Word that says "it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink" (
Proverbs 31:4 KJV); And the very Scriptures themselves are a testimony of Jesus: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (
John 5:39 KJV). So if this verse is true, I want you explain how
Proverbs 31:4 is a testimony of Jesus Christ.
#4. Warnings against Alcohol.
Wine is a mocker (
Proverbs 20:1). Strong drink is raging (
Proverbs 20:1). Whoever is deceived by it is not wise (
Proverbs 20:1). Wine bites like a serpent and stings like an adder (
Proverbs 23:32). Do not look upon wine when it is red in the cup and when it moves itself aright (
Proverbs 23:31). You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the LORD your God. (
Deuteronomy 29:6). Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes? (
Proverbs 23:29). They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. (
Proverbs 23:30).
#5. If Jesus did get people drunk (It would be a sin) & They would no longer be Sober.
Jesus could not have made alcoholic wine because John chapter 2 says, that the people at the wedding were "well drunk" (
John 2:10 KJV). This means that they had already had drank a good amount of wine already and would have been either tipsy or close to being tipsy (at the very least). Jesus creating more good wine (i.e. good wine supposedly meaning that it was stronger in alcoholic content) would have contributed to the intoxication of those at the wedding party. This means that if they were not sober before, Jesus creating even more stronger alcoholic wine would have definitely made them at least tipsy or with having a mind that was not sober. This is a direct violation of Scripture that commands Christians to be sober (
1 Peter 1:13 KJV) (
1 Peter 4:7 KJV) (
1 Timothy 3:2 KJV) (
1 Timothy 3:11 KJV) (
Titus 1:8 KJV) (
Titus 2:2 KJV) (
Titus 2:4 KJV) (
Titus 2:6 KJV) (
Titus 2:12 KJV) (
1 Thessalonians 5:6, 7, 8). For God's Word wants us to be sober minded for our adversary the devil, is a roaring lion, who walks about, seeking those whom he may devour (
1 Peter 5:8 KJV). So were they sober at the wedding or not? Also, Paul even warns that drunkenness is the type of sin that will cause someone to not inherit the Kingdom of God, too (
Galatians 5:21).
#6. Christ set a good example by His miracle.
The public creation of alcoholic wine would also contradict Romans chapter 14 that tells us that you are not to do anything to make your brother to stumble. For verse 21 says, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak" (
Romans 14:21 KJV). For a public wedding of drinking and the writing down of that event is like a giant billboard sign declaring to Christians who have struggled with alcoholism and have put it away could then think that it is okay to drink again (when their conscience condemns it and or because they are horribly addicted to it). This would be the same thing as a Christian drinking in front of an alcoholic (knowing they are an alcoholic); For if a Christian were to do so, they could make this alcoholic stumble back into alcoholism again. Which would be evil. For
Romans 14 says, "Let not then your good be evil spoken of" (
Romans 14:16 KJV). Jesus knows there are alcoholics who would read John chapter 2. Such a stamp of approval on alcohol could easily send them back into alcoholism. This would be evil.
Conclusion:
Jesus did not create alcoholic wine as a part of His miracle in
John 2; And nor did He even drink the Biblical wine that OT saints drank which was mixed with water and lower in alcoholic content (Thus the Lord's supper beverage was non-intoxicating). Jesus drank with his disciples of the fruit of the vine at the Last Supper. The fruit of the vine is what the Scriptures say He drank (
Matthew 26:29). The fruit of the vine is grape juice! --- Not fermented intoxicating alcohol! That would be like calling an orange smoothie drink in being like the fruit of the orange!