Question: In the Bible, when the word "wine" is used does it mean real wine or grape juice? Which is the Biblical meaning? Which is to be served during the Lord's Supper? Answer: Bible words for wine: O.T. Usage: 1) SHEKAR: strong drink. Pro.20:1: Strong drink is raging... 2) YAYIN: rendered "wine 133 times and "banqueting" once. Freely denounced in Prov.23:31f; "look not thou upon the wine when it is red..." a. Context: Destruction of Moab. "And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitfield; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the {vintage} shout to cease" (Isa.16:10). 3) TIROSH: "WINE" 26X; "new wine" 11X and "sweet wine" once. Never associated with drunkenness, and is grape juice. a) Numbers 18:12: "All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first fruits of what they give to the Lord I give to you." Clyde M. Woods: The Hebrew terms used here for these staples all refer to new produce before processing. (p.135). b) Gesenius: Used of the juice of grapes, Is.65:8 (p.863). "Thus saith the LORD, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all." NIV:""As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes..." N.T. Usage: 1) OINOS: "comprehending every sort of wine" (Mc. & Strong, (X:1014). a. Barnes on Jno.2:11: "Pliny, Plutarch, and Horace describe wine as good, or mention that as the best wine, which was harmless, or innocent...The most useful wine was that which had little strength; and the most wholesome wine...was that which had not been adulterated, by the addition of anything to the must or juice. Pliny expressly says that a good wine was one that was destitute of spirit (Lib.iv.c.13). The wine referred to here was doubtless such as was commonly drunk in Palestine. That was the pure juice of the grape. It was not brandied wine; nor drugged wine; nor wine compounded of various substances, such as we drink in this land. The common wine drunk in Palestine was that which was the simple juice of the grape. We use the word wine now to denote the kind of liquid which passes under that name in this country--always fermented, and always containing a considerable portion of alcohol--not only the alcohol produced by fermentation, but added to keep it or make it stronger. But we have no right to take that sense of the word, and go with it to the interpretation of the Scriptures. b) Wine by natural fermentation reaches a maximum of 14% alcohol.