trendkill

That's interesting. Weird the kind of things you learn from reading random blogs.

I'm not surprised. Mormon beliefs actually vary quite a bit, despite what Mormons might tell you. But it doesn't have any practical implications today because Mormons don't even use grape juice for the Sacrament; they use water. :P

Anyway, I remember hearing somewhere that non-alcoholic grape juice is a relatively recent innovation and that it was unheard of and/or highly impractical to make such a drink in Jesus' time.

Dean Anderson

I would have thought that without modern refrigeration techniques then unless the juice were freshly pressed (in which case why not just eat the grapes?) it would be hard to prevent it naturally fermenting in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern climates if it were stored for any length of time.

credoconsolans

Thanks Chris and Pervy. Can you even attempt to store grape juice? Seems to me it would start to go bad overnight And trend my friend and I weren't discussing the Mormon Sacrament, but why he wouldn't drink when we went to Happy Hour.

funinspace

I was generally talking about consumption, not sacraments. I didn't know any UMC churches used wine for communion, interesting. I think that some of their bylaws (or whatever one calls them) still frowns upon alcohol consumption. I don' t know of churches outside of the Roman Catholics that still use wine, as a matter of policy, in communion. I'm sure there's a few other sects that do, but I just don't know them.

On the grape juice vs wine meaning front, the wedding is the funniest twist to me. The guest of honor complemented the family for saving their best for last, after people wouldn't know the difference. Gee, a couple of grape sodas, and for some foggy reason people can't tell the last can is no longer the cheap Shasta…right. Not only were they drinking wine, but this god-head was ensuring they were down right tipsy by keeping their glasses full. What a crack up...

funinspace

Sure for a few days, maybe even a week or so if you have a good cave. Of course even if the ripening season lasting around a month, one would still be left with at least 10 months with no drinking or communion juice. Of course if you put it on ice, it would last better Hum, I wonder how far away was the closest ice house???

Angrillori

We also know, that in the absence of refridgeration, having alchohol in a liquid/drink was about the only way to get it to "keep" for prolonged periods. The feasability of keeping any drink that wasn't alchoholic, or water, around for more than a short while was pretty slim.

Try an experiment for yourself. Suqsh some grapes, don't use antiseptic techniques, put them in a jar, and let the jar sit at room temperature or higher for a while, and see how safe it is to drink later.

Then try the same thing, but add a bunch of alchohol.

No, "grape juice" isn't only a bad translation, it's bad history.

fossilman

No.

That's why:

Luke 5:37
37And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.