I do not drink because I don’t enjoy the taste, and because I signed a covenant saying that I wouldn’t for a year’s time, otherwise I’m not anti-alchohol & most of my friends enjoy social drinking. I was talking with a friend on the subject though who is very against drinking, social or otherwise. He said something similar to what Joey has said, not that alchohol was used to purify the drinking water, but that the water was undrinkable, and therefor wine was the substitute drink. This may have been the case in some areas, I couldn’t say…but it was just an interesting arguement to me, and I thought I’d share considering that Joey seemed to be interested in such.

Thank you for writing! Please keep it up.
Sincerely,
Allie

This is a fantastic blog. Thank you for the wisdom. Also, I agree on the above.

Chris

There’s no way of knowing how strong the alcohol was at that point so I would be hesitant to argue either way. However, your two thoughts seem to contradict. I’ve never heard that alcohol was used to purify water but if it was capable of doing so it would have to be pretty strong.
Also, the Bible is clear that in cases such as Moses, some Old Testament kings, and the wedding guests in John 2 people became drunk from their consumption. Even if the wine was weaker than it is today, it was still possible to consume enough to intoxicate people.