Saturday, April 02, 2005
Grape Juice Instead of Wine
How did grape juice replace wine at the communion table? Christian History magazine explains:
In the 19th century, temperance became “teetotalism” or “total abstinence,” moving all alcohol (wine included) into the list of forbidden beverages. Many began to question why a beverage considered dangerous to drink was still used on the Communion table.
Believing both in the authority of Scripture and the scientific proof of alcohol’s poisonous nature, Protestant theologians and exegetes tried to explain the Bible’s positive use of the word wine, not least Jesus’ command to his disciples to remember him by consuming it. Led by biblical commentator Frederic Lees, they theorized that several Hebrew and Greek words used to mean wine in the Bible actually referred to grape juice. Jesus had instituted the Eucharist with the unfermented “fruit of the vine,” whereas the ferment of intoxication represented “the leaven of the Pharisees,” symbolizing corruption and decay.
Motivated by these arguments, Protestant churchgoers and clergy sought a way to make unfermented grape juice. An American Methodist dentist, Thomas Bramwell Welch, and his son Charles were the first to succeed in this on a large scale. Charles Welch was a skilled marketer, and “Welch’s grape juice” became a popular beverage among total abstainers and the replacement for fermented wine on most American Protestant Communion tables (except in Lutheran and Episcopal churches).
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