New Wine-Acts 1:13

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 12, 1883

New Wine—Acts 1:13.

THE following is the article referred to on page 173, in the Sabbath-school instruction on Acts 2:—

Doctor Barnes says:—

“New wine—Gleukos. This word properly means the juice of the grape which distills before pressure is applied, and called must. It was sweet wine, and hence the word in Greek meaning sweet was applied to it. The ancients, it is said, had the art of preserving their new wine with the peculiar flavor before fermentation for a considerable time, and were in the habit of drinking it in the morning. One of the methods in use among the Greeks and the Romans of doing this was the following: An amphora or jar was taken and coated with pitch within and without, and was then filled with the juice which flowed from the grape before they had been fully trodden, and was then corked so as to be air-tight. It was then immersed in a tank of cold water, or buried in the sand and allowed to remain six weeks or two months. The contents, after this process, were found to be unchanged for a year, and hence the name aei gleukos, always sweet. The process was not much unlike that which is so common now of preserving fruits and vegetables.”

Liddell & Scott's Greek Lexicon defines the original word thus: “Sweet, new wine.”

Pickering's Lexicon gives it thus: “New wine, must; a sweet juice or liquor; in N. T. sweet wine, Acts 2:13.”

Andrews' Latin Lexicon defines the corresponding Latin word, “new or unfermented wine.” Many other authorities might be cited.

This was a very healthful, nourishing drink, and one of which any one might partake with impunity.