Is mixing water with wine a sign of corruption in Catholicism?

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Hey I had a question regarding the Eucharist, and the Catholic usage of wine.

I was reading a wikipedia article regarding Alcohol and Christianity and it said the following:

Although some abstentionists argue that wine in the Bible was almost always cut with water greatly decreasing its potency for inebriation,[13] there is general agreement that, while Old Testament wine was sometimes mixed with various spices to enhance its flavor and stimulating properties, it was not usually diluted with water,[65][66][67] and wine mixed with water is used as an Old Testament metaphor for corruption.[68] Among the Greeks, however, the cutting of wine with water was a common practice used to reduce potency and improve taste.[69] By the time of the writing of 2 Maccabees (first or 2nd century BC), the Greeks had conquered Palestine under Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic custom had apparently found acceptance with the Jews[66][70] and was carried into Jewish rituals in New Testament times.[71][72]"

Then later in the article, it says this:

“The Apostolic Fathers make very little reference to wine,[75] but the earliest references from the Church Fathers make it clear that the early church used wine in their celebration of the Eucharist, often mixing it with water according to the prevailing custom.[76][77] The Didache, an early Christian treatise which is generally accepted to be from the late 1st century, instructs Christians to give a portion of their wine in support of a true prophet or, if they have no prophet resident with them, to the poor.[78]”

Here is the article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_alcohol#cite_note-67

My question is, if mixing water with wine is a symbol for corruption, does that mean that the use of water and wine in the Eucharist is invalid? I’m referring to a verse like Isaiah 1:22 that uses the water mixing with Wine metaphor.

If anyone can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. 🙂
 
In Isaiah, the mixing of water and wine is not a “sign of corruption” in the way that your are positing: that there is just some spooky Old Testament taboo against doing it. Rather, selling watered-down wine is a form of business fraud. It is just like shaving the edges of coins or falsifying weights and measures. If you are curious how seriously business fraud was taken in the Old Testament, read Leviticus 19:35, Deut. 25:13-16, Proverbs 11:1; 16:11; 20:10, 20:23, Micah 6:10-11, and elsewhere. Wikipedia has a whole section on diluting wine in its article on Wine fraud.

Thus, the fraudulently diluted wine fits into the context of the passage from Isaiah 1: note the repeated references to injustice and thieves. To look at this from another angle, let’s see how the line is given in the Septuagint. Ah, here we have it not in the passive voice (“wine is mixed with water,” as though this were problematic ipso facto) but as the active commission of the offense: “Your merchants mix the wine with water.”
 
Hey I had a question regarding the Eucharist, and the Catholic usage of wine.

I was reading a wikipedia article regarding Alcohol and Christianity and it said the following:

Although some abstentionists argue that wine in the Bible was almost always cut with water greatly decreasing its potency for inebriation,[13] there is general agreement that, while Old Testament wine was sometimes mixed with various spices to enhance its flavor and stimulating properties, it was not usually diluted with water,[65][66][67] and wine mixed with water is used as an Old Testament metaphor for corruption.[68] Among the Greeks, however, the cutting of wine with water was a common practice used to reduce potency and improve taste.[69] By the time of the writing of 2 Maccabees (first or 2nd century BC), the Greeks had conquered Palestine under Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic custom had apparently found acceptance with the Jews[66][70] and was carried into Jewish rituals in New Testament times.[71][72]"

Then later in the article, it says this:

“The Apostolic Fathers make very little reference to wine,[75] but the earliest references from the Church Fathers make it clear that the early church used wine in their celebration of the Eucharist, often mixing it with water according to the prevailing custom.[76][77] The Didache, an early Christian treatise which is generally accepted to be from the late 1st century, instructs Christians to give a portion of their wine in support of a true prophet or, if they have no prophet resident with them, to the poor.[78]”

Here is the article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_alcohol#cite_note-67

My question is, if mixing water with wine is a symbol for corruption, does that mean that the use of water and wine in the Eucharist is invalid? I’m referring to a verse like Isaiah 1:22 that uses the water mixing with Wine metaphor.

If anyone can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. 🙂
“You have united, O Lord, your divinity with our humanity, and our humanity with your divinity, your life with our mortality and our mortality with your life. You have assumed what is ours and you have given us what is yours, for the life and salvation of our souls. To you be glory, forever.”

This is what the mixing of the water and wine symbolizes.
 
Mixing water with wine is not always seen as a negative in the Bible.

Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! (Proverbs 9:5)

I’m not sure if the author of Proverbs is talking about mixing wine with water or mixing wine with Myrrh but the Book of Revelation speaks of God’s wrath as full strength wine.

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, “Anyone who worships the beast or its image, or accepts its mark on forehead or hand, will also drink the wine of God’s fury, poured full strength into the cup of his wrath, and will be tormented in burning sulfur before the holy angels and before the Lamb.* (Revelation 14:910)

Perhaps watering down the wine could be viewed as mercy from God?

I don’t know what the source of that wikepedia article is in the original post but my understanding is not so much that that wine was mixed with water but that water was often mixed with a little wine, usually 4 parts water to 1 part wine, for very practical reasons. In an age where there were no sewage systems and no water purification plants, drinking water from just about ay source was taking a chance that it was contaminated with human or livestock fecal matter - ecoli, etc. Alcohol would have sterilized the bacteria. This is the same reason that many in Euorope in the middle ages drank ales instead of water. Paul even exhorts Timothy to “Stop drinking only water, but have a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” (1 Timothy 5:23)

-Tim-
 
The water is mixed with the wine at Mass because the Gospels say that…
" [34] But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water." (John 19)
 
The water is mixed with the wine at Mass because the Gospels say that…
" [34] But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water." (John 19)
Also: because it’s what Jesus would have done.

My historical understanding is that people of that time who drank wine straight were only trying to get a quick drunk. Diluting the wine with water was what ordinary folk did (as I heard someone put it, “Jesus was not a hic”).
 
From my tour of duty as an altar boy, it would be just a few drops of water mixed with the wine. the rest of the water that remained in the cruet would be used to purify the chalice after use by the priest.
 
The water is mixed with the wine at Mass because the Gospels say that…
" [34] But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water." (John 19)
+1 Good for you. 😃 I was going to post this, but am glad to see it covered. Simply and succintly put.

God bless.
 
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