UNFERMENTED WINE AT THE LORD'S SUPPER.
By Editor
WE have several times called attention to the fact that the wine used at the Passover feast was unfermented and the bread unleavened, because no leaven, or ferment (processes of decay), was permitted by the Levitical law. See Ex. 12:15, 19; Deut. 16:4. Neither is the liquid then used called wine, but "cup" and "fruit of the vine." The following letter from B. Lomas, of Texas, to the N. Y. Voice on this point may be of interest to our readers:— "In a recent issue you draw attention to the fact that the Coptic Church of Egypt uses unfermented wine for sacramental purposes, regarding this as one of the historical evidences that unfermented wine was used in the institution of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and you conclude by saying:— "And yet we are confronted by an imposing array of biblical scholars, including the learned editors of the Independent and the Sunday School Times, who solemnly assure us that Christ knew nothing whatever of unfermented wine, and that the idea that there were two kinds of wine in his day is absurd. "There need be no question or difficulty as to what Christ used in the institution of that last Supper. He and his disciples, as consistent Israelites, obeyed the requirements of the Mosaic law with regard to the Passover. By carefully reading what was required in the preparation for and keeping that festival (Exodus 12) we do not need the help of reverend doctors or learned editors. The whole thing can be summed up in one single statement, very easily understood,—nothing leavened—fermented—was permitted there, and the heaviest penalty known was incurred for using anything leavened at that sacred memorial feast; that to use drink was optional—the word 'eat' implying both to eat and to drink—but a seven-day festival rendered drink a necessity, and what that drink was to be was left to the force of circumstances and common sense. Only in one thing it was absolute,—it could not be leavened. "Now at the Passover, when Christ instituted his Supper, they had a cup and used some kind of liquid which he called 'this fruit of the vine.' It is a very peculiar fact that unleavened grape juice bears a singular resemblance to blood. Dr. B. W. Richardson says:— "The constituent parts actually of blood and of the expressed wine are analogous. One of the most important elements of the blood, that which keeps it together, that which Plato spoke of as 'the plastic part of the blood,' is the fibrin, and is represented in the gluten of the unfermented wine. "The nourishing part of the blood, which we call the mother of the tissues, we find in the unfermented grape, in the albumen; and that is also present in the blood, the proportion being nearly the same in both. Really, on a question of symbolism, if there be anything at all in that, the argument is all in favor of unfermented wine. Whatever is meant by 'this fruit of the vine,' one thing is absolutely certain, it was not fermented—leavened."