Was Jesus a Drunkard?

Over the years, I’ve had a number of interesting conversations with people of the Jehovah Witness faith. Many of them were on the doorstep of the house I grew up in, as they frequently canvased my neighborhood in my childhood years. Looking back on what I can remember of those conversations in light of what I now know, I sometimes find it puzzling what they decided to bring up with my preteen/teenage self. While I can’t remember if it was in the literature they gave me or if it came out in conversation, I was particularly struck by what I felt was a pretty strange claim: it is OK for Christians to drink alcohol because of what Jesus reveals here: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children” (Matthew 11:19; cf. Luke 7:34-35). In more recent years, I've somewhat surprisingly heard New Testament Christians make this same argument, and I thought it would be good to stop and reflect on this passage.

Though more and more people balk at this fact these days as our world plunges further and further “under the influence” of alcohol, I want to point it out anyways: there is a tremendous difference between our concept of the word “wine” and the Biblical words typically translated “wine,” yayin (Hebrew) and oinos (Greek). Citing many contemporaneous sources from the Biblical world to establish his point, Jim McGuiggan writes: One simply cannot read the word “wine” in the Bible and assume that it always means an alcoholic beverage. In fact, no one that I’m aware of disputes that when Jesus spoke of “new wine” (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-39), He was referring to grape juice. Note though that He did not say, “fresh grape juice”; it’s simply not how ancients spoke of the liquid that came out of grapes.

With that being said, let’s reflect a bit on the reading in question from Matthew 11 and Luke 7. First of all, it should be noted that what the people observed regarding Jesus stood in both comparison and contrast to what they observed regarding John the Baptizer in the verse before: “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’” (Matthew 11:18; cf. Luke 7:33). Because of what seems to have been a Nazarite vow, John had never had anything grapes or anything that came from them (Luke 1:15; Numbers 6:2-4). People observed what John ate (or, more significantly, what he did not eat) and concluded that he was demon-possessed. Were they viewing him properly, and did they draw the right conclusion? On both counts, the answer is no. So, what were they doing? They were placing the worst possible construction on the evidence they saw.

Well, what about Jesus? As far as the Bible reveals, Jesus did not take a Nazarite vow. While He would have been aware of the Old Testament’s command, “Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly” (Proverbs 23:31), there was nothing that kept him from grapes or other things derived from them. Further, his ministry brought Him to sinners (Matthew 9:13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32), some of whom doubtlessly would have been gluttons and drunkards (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). People saw what Jesus ate and those with whom He ate and concluded that He was a “glutton and a winebibber,” or, to drop the archaic description as other versions do, “a drunkard” (Matthew 9:17 ESV). Well, again, were they viewing him properly, and did they draw the right conclusion? Just as they did with John, people were placing the worst possible construction on the evidence they saw.

Jesus point in bringing up all of this is not to affirm that anything that was being said about Him or John was true. Prior to these statements, Jesus said, With these statements in mind, Jesus point in the following verses becomes clear: like children who refuse to play with their peers no matter what the game, Jesus’ generation refused to be reached no matter the approach, whether the approach of a ceremonially sanctified and separate man (John) or the approach of someone living as people typically do (Jesus).

So why doesn’t Jesus refute their claims about Him or about John? As relates to John, Jesus had already spent some time praising him and his work (Matthew 11:7-15; Luke 7:24-28). As relates to Himself though, it was enough for Jesus to say this, “But wisdom is justified by her children” (Matthew 11:19; cf. Luke 7:35). What does this mean? Wisdom is proven to be who she is by her offspring, that is, by the fruit of her teaching (some manuscripts actually read, “by her deeds” instead of, “by her children,” see ESV, NASB). Likewise, Jesus’ life and teaching would prove whom He was to any honest observer. Similar expressions would be, “The proof is in the pudding,” or, “The truth will out,” or Jesus’ own, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20).

Those who conclude that Jesus really was a drunkard from this text or even that it serves as any kind of honest commentary on his relationship with alcoholic wine ignore the context and Jesus’ simple but powerful defense against the people’s claims. Perhaps instead of searching for proof texts to defend alcohol consumption, we should spend more time with Proverbs 23:29-35 (as we can be sure Jesus did) and let wisdom continue to bear offspring in this alcohol saturated world.  

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org