Quick answer
The wine question should not begin with a modern drink menu. It should begin with how the English word was actually used when the Bible was translated. Older dictionary evidence makes it harder to force wine to mean alcoholic drink in every passage.
The dates matter because a witness from the late 1600s or early 1700s is far more probative for older English Bible usage than a modern desk dictionary. That does not settle every verse by itself, but it clears away one common modern assumption so context can do its work.
How old dictionaries help the question
When translators chose an English word, the historical range of that English word matters. If the translation-era word carried multiple senses, readers should not erase that range before contextual study even begins.
The King James Bible first appeared in 1611, so dictionary witnesses from 1699, 1702/1708, 1721, and 1749 belong much more naturally to this discussion than a modern pocket definition standing alone. That is why older dictionaries are treated here as supporting evidence rather than as the only authority. Scripture still governs the final interpretation.
The dated dictionary trail cited by the study
These witnesses show that the broader English meaning range of wine was not a one-book accident. The four dictionaries listed represent the oldest publicly available English dictionaries that existed closest to the time period of 1611.
The four dictionaries' cumulative definition for the word wine, closest to the time period of the King James Bible, is as follows.
WINE: The juice, fermented or unfermented, of various fruits or plants, used as a beverage, sauce, syrup, etc.
| Dictionary witness | First publication or relevant date | Why the date helps |
|---|---|---|
| Abel Boyer, The Royal Dictionary | 1699 | Shows late-seventeenth-century English/French dictionary usage before the eighteenth-century lexicon stream developed further. |
| John Kersey, A New English Dictionary / Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum | 1702 / 1708 | Shows early-eighteenth-century English dictionary usage close to the KJV period and influential on later works. |
| Nathan Bailey, An Universal Etymological English Dictionary | 1721 | Shows that the broader lexical range continued in a major mainstream English dictionary tradition. |
| Benjamin Martin, Lingua Britannica Reformata | 1749 | Shows that older English dictionary tradition still preserved a broader sense of wine well into the mid eighteenth century. |
Taken together, this trail runs from 1699 to 1749. That does not prove every wine Bible passage by itself contains or does not contain alcohol, but it does show why readers should weigh older English usage before importing one narrow modern alcoholic meaning into every occurrence of the word.
What this means for biblical reading
If older English usage allowed a broader sense for the meaning of wine, readers should let context separate passages rather than importing one narrow modern meaning into blessing texts, offering texts, warning texts, and fruitfulness texts alike.
Once that lexical door is kept open, the next question becomes whether the Bible itself points in more than one direction. That is why many readers go next to Two wines in the Bible.
A reading rule in this discussion
Use older lexical range to keep the door open; then use context and non-contradiction to determine which sense fits a passage.
Read next
Definition page
How is wine defined in the Bible?
Return to the main definition page and see how the historical word trail is used.
Overview
Wine in the Bible
See how blessing language and warning language point in more than one direction.
References
References
Browse the local documents and historical source trail used across these studies.
Frequently asked questions
Does this page say dictionaries outrank the Bible?
No. Dictionaries are supporting witnesses about word range, specifically in our case when it comes to the meaning of the word wine. Context and the full biblical pattern still govern the interpretation.
Why not just use today’s meaning of wine?
Because the study concerns a translation-era English word inside an older text tradition. Modern narrowing can hide distinctions that older dated dictionary witnesses still preserve.