Vinegar

חמצ , Num 6:3; Rth 2:14; Psa 69:21; Pro 10:26; Pro 25:20; οξος, Mat 27:48; Mar 15:36; Joh 19:29-30; an acid produced by a second fermentation of vinous liquors. The law of the Nazarite was that he should “separate himself from wine and strong drink, and should drink no vinegar of wine, nor vinegar of strong drink, nor any liquor of grapes.” This is exactly the same prohibition that was given in the case of John the Baptist, Luk 1:15, οινιν και σικερα ου μη πιη, wine and sikera he shall not drink. Any inebriating liquor, says Jerom, is called sicera, whether made of corn, apples, honey, dates, or other fruits. One of the four prohibited drinks among the Mohammedans in India is called sakar, which signifies inebriating drink in general, but especially date wine. From the original word, probably, we have our term cider or sider, which among us, exclusively means the fermented juice of apples. Vinegar was used by harvesters for their refreshment. Boaz told Ruth that she might come and dip her bread in vinegar with his people. Pliny says, “Aceto summa vis in refrigerando.” [There is the greatest power in vinegar, in cooling.] It made a very cooling beverage. It was generally diluted with water. When very strong it affected the teeth disagreeably, Pro 10:26. In Pro 25:20, the singing of songs to a heavy heart is finely compared to the contrariety or colluctation between vinegar and nitre; untimely mirth to one in anxiety serves only to exasperate, and as it were put into a ferment by the intrusion.

The Emperor Pescennius Niger gave orders that his soldiers should drink nothing but vinegar on their marches. That which the Roman soldiers offered to our Saviour at his crucifixion, was, probably, the vinegar they made use of for their own drinking. Constantine the Great allowed them wine and vinegar alternately, every day. This vinegar was not of that sort which we use for salads and sauces, but it was a tart wine called pesca, or sera. They make great use of it in Spain and Italy, in harvest time. They use it also in Holland and on shipboard, to correct the ill taste of the water.

[WINE]

Poor or sour wine, the produce of the second or acetous fermentation of vinous liquors. The term sometimes designates a thin, sour wine, much used by laborers and by the Roman soldiers, Num 6:3 Rth 2:14 2Ch 2:10 Joh 19:29 . See GALL. In other places it denotes the common sharp vinegar, which furnished the wise man with two significant illustrations, Pro 10:26 25:20.\par

Vinegar. The Hebrew word translated "vinegar" was applied to a beverage consisting generally of wine or strong drink turned sour, but sometimes artificially made by an admixture of barley and wine, and thus liable to fermentation. It was acid even to a proverb, Pro 10:26, and by itself formed an unpleasant draught, Psa 49:21, but was used by laborers. Rth 2:14. Similar was the acetum of the Romans -- a thin, sour wine, consumed by soldiers. This was the beverage of which the Saviour partook in his dying moments. Mat 27:48; Mar 15:36; Joh 19:29-30.

Hebrew chomets, Greek oxos. Wine soured. Acid and unpalatable (Pro 10:26), yet to thirsty labourors the acid relieved thirst (Rth 2:14). So it was used by Roman soldiers, pure, or mixed with water and called posca. Pourer on nitre or potash it causes effervescence (Pro 25:20). Instead of cordials, Christ’s enemies gave Him on the cross first vinegar mixed with gall (Mat 27:34), and myrrh (Mar 15:23); which after tasting He declined, for He would not encounter sufferings in a state of stupefaction by the myrrh; to criminals it would have been a kindness, to the Sinbearer it was meant as an insult (Luk 33:36). Toward the close of His crucifixion, to fulfill Scripture He cried "I thirst," and vinegar was brought which He received (Joh 19:28; Mat 27:48).

This was a thin sour wine, that might be called either wine or vinegar, there being other words for wine of a better quality. It was the drink of the reapers and of the Roman soldiers. It is represented as intoxicating, and as irritating to the teeth. "As vinegar upon nitre [natron, an alkali], so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart." Pro 25:20. Its acidity is referred to in Pro 10:26.

Vinegar was offered to the Lord mingled with myrrh or gall, and He refused it; but He received the vinegar when He had said, ’I thirst,’ according to the prophecy "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Num 6:3; Rth 2:14; Psa 69:21; Mat 27:34; Mat 27:48, etc.

VINEGAR (ὄξος, acetum) was credited with manifold efficacy by the ancient physicians.* [Note: HN xxiii. 27 ff.] Nor was the medicinal its sole use. It served as the drink of the lower orders, especially slaves;^{† [Note: Mil. Glor. iii. 2. 23.]} and it was the only refreshment allowed to soldiers while engaged in active service. ‘The vigilant humanity of Julian,’ says Gibbon,^{‡ [Note: and Fall, ch. xxiv. See Wetstein on Mat 27:34.]} ‘had embarked a very large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine.’

It is twice mentioned in the story of the Crucifixion. The quaternion of soldiers (cf. Joh 19:23) charged with the execution had with them a jar of their posca, as it was termed; and, when they had accomplished their laborious task, they refreshed themselves from it. The bystanders, led by the exultant priests, were meanwhile mocking the meek Sufferer and deriding His Messianic claim. ‘He is King of Israel,’ they cried: ‘let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe on him.’ The soldiers heard the taunt and joined in. (Luk 23:35-43 = Mat 27:39-44 = Mar 15:29-32).

Again, after He had uttered His cry of desolation: Eli, Eli, lama ‘ăzabhtâni (see Dereliction), Jesus moaned, ‘I thirst’; and one of the bystanders, probably a Roman soldier,^{§ [Note: So Jerome, Euth Zig., on the ground that Jews would have understood the Hebrew Eli.]} moved by pity, took a sponge and, dipping it in the posca, put it on the end of a hyssop reed. His comrades interfered. Ignorant of Hebrew, they took Eli for the name Elias, and supposed that Jesus was invoking the help of one of that name. ‘Hold!’^{|| [Note: | Mt.’s ἄφες may be the Hellenistic sign of Imperat. (modern Gr. ἄς): cf. Mat 7:4 = Luk 6:42; but its construction as an independent Imperat. is equally permissible (cf. Epict. iv. i. 79) and yields a better sense, besides being favoured by Mk.’s ἄφετε.]} they cried. ‘Let us see if Elias is coming to save him.’ But the man persisted in his humane purpose, and held up the sponge to the parched lips (Mat 27:45-50 = Mar 15:33-37 = Joh 19:28-30).

St. Mark’s account is much confused. It represents the offering of the vinegar as an act of mockery, in opposition to both St. Matthew and St. John, and the cry, ‘Hold,’ etc., as uttered, without any apparent provocation, by the man with the reed. There is here an example of the style of modification which the Evangelic tradition—in this instance correctly reproduced by St. Matthew—suffered in the process of oral transmission: (1) The interference of the bystanders was omitted; and (2) ἄφες, suitable when addressed to one man, was altered to fit the new conception of the situation into ἄφετε.

It is nothing strange that Jesus accepted the posca after refusing the ‘myrrhed wine’ (Mar 15:23 = Mat 27:34). He refused the narcotic (see Crucifixion), He accepted the refreshment.

David Smith.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Immanuel Löw

In the Biblical period vinegar was prepared either from wine or from cider, the former variety being termed "ḥomeẓ yayin," and the latter "ḥomeẓ shekar." It was used to moisten the flat loaves of the harvesters, and was also drunk when mixed with water, although thirst could not be quenched with it alone.

Since Jewish wine was not allowed to ferment, being intended for the altar, and therefore being necessarily clean Levitically, vinegar, which in Talmudic times was called also "the son of wine," was obtained from the lees or by the addition of barley to the wine or cider. The alteration usually required only three days, and the smell changed before the taste, although some wines were particularly liable to change. Though vinegar could become wine only by a miracle, the price of the former equaled that of the latter, and a fall in the value of the one depressed the rate for the other.

The chief varieties of vinegar were wine-vinegar and cider-vinegar, vinegar of late grapes, vinegar changed by barley, and soured vinegar. Pickles and meat were preserved in vinegar, and lettuce was dipped into it, while "The bitterer the salad of endives, the stronger must be the vinegar" was a Palestinian proverb. Vinegar was used with asafetida, the favorite condiment of antiquity and of the Middle Ages.

The effect of vinegar was astringent, but it was also used frequently because of its soothing and cooling effects. Medicinally, it might be employed for dandruff, and even for dressing wounds, while it was used as a gargle for toothache. Olives were sprinkled with vinegar to free them from their pits; it was used also in dyeing, and in adulterating oil. In view of the liability of wine to change, barrels containing 10 per cent of vinegar were deemed fit for purchase, but the dealer was responsible for a limited period only, except in the case of wine for the Temple, for which he was liable until the wine was used. The Halakah considered the question whether wine and vinegar were to be considered as one, and forbade the use of the vinegar of Gentiles, since it was prepared from forbidden wine. The question was raised whether wine which had turned to vinegar became subject to the prohibition when touched by a Gentile. On account of its calming effect vinegar was forbidden on the Day of Atonement;and the prohibition of vinegar in the case of Nazarites was fully discussed in the Halakah.

The passage in which Ruth was bidden to dip her bread into vinegar (Ruth ii. 14) was interpreted by the Haggadah as referring to Manasseh, one of her descendants, whose deeds were sharp as vinegar. Among the proverbs concerning vinegar, in addition to Prov. x. 26 and xxv. 20, were the following: "Mayest thou have neither vinegar nor salt in thy house!" and "Much vinegar makes the wine cheap."

VINEGAR.—The light wine of Bible times, in consequence of the primitive methods of manufacture then in vogue (for which see Wine and Strono Drink), turned sour much more rapidly than modern wines. In this condition it was termed chômets (lit. ‘sour [stuff]’), and was used, mixed with water, as a drink by the peasants (Rth 2:14). The Nazirite’s vow of abstinence included also ‘vinegar of wine’ and ‘vinegar of strong drink,’ i.e. of all intoxicating liquor other than grape-wine (Num 6:3). The Jewish chômets corresponded to the Roman posca, the favourite drink of the soldiers, which those charged with our Lord’s crucifixion offered Him on the cross—EV [Note: English Version.] ‘vinegar’ (Joh 19:29 f., but not Mat 27:34, see RV [Note: Revised Version.] ).

A. R. S. Kennedy.

vin´ḗ-gẽr (חמץ, ḥōmec; ὄξος, óxos): Vinegar, whose use as a condiment (Rth 2:14) needs no comment, is formed when a saccharine fluid passes through a fermentation that produces acetic acid. In the ancient world vinegar was usually made of wine, although any fruit juice can be utilized in its manufacture, and “vinegar of strong drink” (palm juice?) is mentioned in Num 6:3. Undiluted vinegar is of course undrinkable, and to offer it to a thirsty man is mockery (Psa 69:21), but a mixture of water and vinegar makes a beverage that was very popular among the poor (Greek oxos, oxúkraton, Latin posca - names applied also to diluted sour wine). It is mentioned in Num 6:3 (forbidden to the Nazirite) and again in the Gospels in the account of the Crucifixion. The executioners had brought it in a vessel (Joh 19:29) for their own use and at first “offered” it to Christ, while keeping it out of reach (Luk 23:36). But at the end the drink was given Him on a sponge (Mar 15:36; Mat 27:48; Joh 19:29, Joh 19:30). In addition, the King James Version, following Textus Receptus of the New Testament, has “vinegar ... mingled with gall” in Mat 27:34, but this rests on a false reading, probably due to Psa 69:21, and the Revised Version (British and American) rightly has “wine.” Vinegar, like all acids, is injurious to the teeth (Pro 10:26); and when it is combined with niter an effervescence is produced (Pro 25:20). The appropriateness of the last figure, however, is obscure, and Septuagint reads “as vinegar on a wound,” causing pain.