(July 30, 2020 at 5:45 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: One thing to note is that of the major world religions, Judaism and Christianity (at least until the 19th century) were the two kindest to consumption of alcohol. In Christianity, it's largely been used in moderation, either in Communion or for everyday life (in no small part because the water wasn't always safe, to the point where, by the 18th century, many believed that water was bad for your health). In Judaism, there's actually an commandment for Purim that one should drink "until one cannot tell 'blessed be Mordecai' from 'cursed be Haman.'" I strongly suspect that it's unlikely that they'd drink non-alcoholic grape juice.
And then, after looking at the religious nuances of alcohol, I figured out "Oh, I could have looked up the history of non-alcoholic grape juice and saved myself some trouble." So, I did. And it turns out that non-alcoholic grape juice was only made a viable drink in 1869 after Thomas Branwell Welch discovered a means of pasteurising grapes to make sure they don't ferment and turn into wine. Since 1869 was long before the time of Christ, therefore, it's virtually impossible for the Jews to have been huge consumers of non-alcoholic grape juice, unless they were really into wasting good grapes.
Alternately, you could have simply read post #5 in this thread and saved yourself even the minor inconvenience of a web search.
You’re welcome.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
