Anyone want to explain? Both wine and strong drink come from the vine. What's the difference? What is the juice that comes from the wine called because it would be forbidden as part of the vow too?
I've spent too many hours researching this topic, but it's been interesting. The Levant nations made low alcohol grape wine by not adding sugars due to rarity of natural sugars. Cane sugar was available in east Asia. A ready source of sugar came from date palm fruit, but that drink (8-12% alcohol by weight), would be an ale (beer), an intoxicating drink not from a vine. Wheat and barley were readily accessible for making strong drink too, like used in modern times.
The difficulty of getting grape wine to a high alcohol content was simply too expensive, typically reserved for the wealthy. Once cane sugar began reaching the Levant (area between Turkey and Egypt, Med Sea and Mesopotamia), the cost and difficulty reduced some to include the "middle class" of people in the Middle Ages.
A beer fit for kings 2000 years ago was made with honey, having up to 5% alcohol. I would think a person should tend to get quite sick to stomach when trying to get drunk on it.
I see lots of verses listed yesterday that prohibit consumption of any of the above, but in context the classes of people that drink applied to were Temple priests and those bound by the Nazarite vow, like Samson and John the Baptist from birth, and those who chose that vow. The general public consumption in moderation was not prohibited by the Law, nor is it condemned in the New Testament as an agent of wickedness.
When red wine is still being created by fermentation, it is sometimes said to "crawl", due to gas bubbles. It's ill advised to consume it at that stage, as noted by king Solomon. Once the sugar content is converted to alcohol, it becomes ready for use. When sugar is added a little at a time, keeping the fermentation in action, alcohol content rises.
