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Project — Kept the Good Wine Until Now

Did Jesus drink alcoholic wine, and what does Scripture teach about wine as a substance — distinct from the sin of drunkenness?

  1. What did the biblical vocabulary distinguish — Hebrew yayin / tirosh / shekar, Greek oinos / gleukos / sikera?
  2. Is “new wine” (νέος οἶνος, Matt 9:17; γλεῦκος, Acts 2:13) unfermented grape juice or fermented wine at a certain stage?
  3. Does Scripture distinguish moral verdicts on wine-as-substance from wine-consumption-to-drunkenness?
  4. Where does the 19th-century American “two-wine theory” come from, and how does it hold up as exegesis?

SCAR Quadrilateral — Scripture, Christocentrism, Antiquity, Reality. See Resources/SCAR-Quadrilateral-Research-and-Writing-Methodology.md for methodology, and Vault/Areas/Claude/templates/new-study-agent-instructions.md for the study template.

  1. Substance vs. abuse distinction is the load-bearing analytical move. The study distinguishes wine-as-substance (permitted, given, blessed) from consumption-to-drunkenness (universally condemned).
  2. Neutral stance on the two-wine theory. Present its argument at its strongest, follow the evidence, let the reader see the reasoning. No editorial verdict beyond what the evidence supports.
  3. Denominational latitude. Communion-substance practice (fermented vs. grape juice) is a denomination-defining question. The study presents the historical shape (1st-c wine → 19th-c American temperance → modern denominational split) without advocacy for a particular practice.
  4. Verification discipline. Every quotation goes through npm run verify:study before the manuscript is called done. Modern sources (Nott 1857, Patton 1874, Bacchiocchi 1989) are archive.org-verifiable; ancient sources are ANF/NPNF/CCEL-verifiable.

Tim Uy (methodology default for TL;DR-format publications).

King James Version (methodology default). Comparison translations (ESV, NASB, LSB) noted where they clarify.

StageFileStatus
Working researchWorking-Notes/research-{scripture,antiquity,reality}.mdin flight
Scripture chapter01-Chapter-Scripture.mdpending
Christocentrism chapter02-Chapter-Christocentrism.mdpending
Antiquity chapter03-Chapter-Antiquity.mdpending
Reality chapter04-Chapter-Reality.mdpending
Synthesis chapter05-Chapter-Synthesis.mdpending
Overview (Chapter 0, written last)00-Overview.mdpending
At-a-Glance (landing page)00-At-a-Glance.mdpending
Appendix A — Word StudyAppendix-A-Word-Study.mdpending
Appendix B — Patristic SourcesAppendix-B-Patristic-Sources.mdpending
Draft PDF for reviewWine-and-Jesus-Draft-v1.pdfpending
Verification reportResearch-Findings/YYYY-MM-DD-quote-verification.mdpending