Sour wine...

[Eschato]

Why was Jesus given sour wine while on the cross and what was the significance? I thought that it was because he was thirsty and they were taunting him by giving him vinegar, but it was mixed with some herb as well. Was the herb a painkiller?

 

[Verbum]

Eschato,

Yes, but Jesus refused it.He wanted to drink the chalice of His Father to the bitter end.

Verbum

 

[lak611]

Why was Jesus given sour wine while on the cross and what was the significance? I thought that it was because he was thirsty and they were taunting him by giving him vinegar, but it was mixed with some herb as well. Was the herb a painkiller?

Eschato,

Yes, but Jesus refused it.He wanted to drink the chalice of His Father to the bitter end.

Verbum

From the Haydock Commentary:

It is also observed that wine, with a mixture of myrrh, was often given to those that were to die a violent death, to comfort them, or stupefy them. Our Saviour tasted it, but would not drink it. He refused not to taste the bitterness, but would not take what might lessen his torments. (Witham)

From Matthew Henry’s Commentary:

He would not drink it, because he would not have the best of it; would have nothing like an opiate to lessen his sense of pain, for he would die so as to feel himself die, because he had so much work to do, as our High Priest, in his suffering work.

 

[Eschato]

Cool. Thank you. I knew that he didn’t drink it, but it is also my own personal understanding that sour wine is actually vinegar. I thought that they were trying to torture him even more by giving him vinegar and not to help him with his pain.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I don’t think sweet wine would be effective in lessening thirst. My father used to put a spoonful or two in water on a hot day.

 

[Mintaka]

Our ancestors used to drink vinegar drinks to refresh them out in the fields. Here in the Midwest they called them "shrubs’. In the Middle East, they call them sekanjabin.

There’s actually an alcoholic drink in South America that’s myrrh-flavored. Which is weird enough, except then they drink it mixed with Coke!

homemade-dessert-recipes.com/raspberry-vinegar-recipes.html

I’m sure Jesus’ drink wasn’t as tasty as all that; but it may not have been all that nasty.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I don’t think sweet wine would be effective in lessening thirst. My father used to put a spoonful or two in water on a hot day.

should read "… put a spoonful or two of vinegar in water… "

Sorry - thought I checked that.

 

[Linda_Marie]

I think that they used sour wine because they had some cheap wine available and it was rather past its ‘use-by date’ so it was more like vinegar than wine. I don’t think they were trying to torture Him more by using sour wine, just that it was cheap. They certainly weren’t going to waste a good vintage on a condemned man being executed on a cross.

 

[jcrichton]

Why was Jesus given sour wine while on the cross and what was the significance? I thought that it was because he was thirsty and they were taunting him by giving him vinegar, but it was mixed with some herb as well. Was the herb a painkiller?

***Hi, Eschato!

…you are referring to two distinct times: there’s the time, right before the Crucifixion, that the mixture which contained myhrr and was some sort of analgesic was offered but Jesus refused it (St. Mark 15:23); He had to experience all of the excrusiating pain of His death on the Cross in order to comply with Scriptures. Then, the second time, right before His death on the Cross, Jesus, complying with Scriptures, said that He was thirsty and a wine-soaked sponge was passed to Him and He drank from it (St. John 19:28-30); there was no analgesic in the wine so Jesus was able to drink from it.

Maran atha!

Angel***

 

[NotWorthy]

Many of you have heard Scott Hahn’s talk on “The Fourth Cup”. Briefly, in the Passover feast, held during the Last Supper, the participants are supposed to drink 4 cups of wine. Jesus and the Apostles only drank three cups. We know this from the Synoptic Gospels that tell us that after drinking of the cup and singing some songs (these would be the Hallel Psalms), Jesus left for the Garden. The Hallel Psalms would be sung before the fourth cup, but Jesus left without drinking the fourth cup.

The fourth cup, that signaled the end of the Passover Feast, was drunk on the Cross (the vinegar on the sponge, in John’s Gospel). Jesus, of course, is the Passover Sacrifice.

I think the vinegar is significant, for it shows how the Old Covenant had turned sour in the mouths of Israel, for it could not lead the Jews to Heaven.